[HOW-TO] Pidgin-Rhythmbox 2.0 plug-in

This nifty little plug in will conveniently display your currently played Rhythmbox track in your AIM Profile or Away message, through use of %rb (like %n - name, %t - time, etc)

Dependencies:
pidgin-dev
build-essential
(possibly others, so please report if you have any errors)

If you haven't already, get the tarball of the plug-in here:
http://jon.oberheide.org/projects/pidgin-rhythmbox/

you can Download it to anywhere but for simplicity of instructions,
it is necessary that you drop it on your Desktop (you can delete it afterwards)

Right-click on the file name pidgin-rhythmbox-2.0.tar.gz and select 'Extract Here'

a Folder 'pidgin-rhythmbox-2.0' will be created.

Open up your Terminal and type:

Code:

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cd ~/Desktop
cd pidgin-r*

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verify that you are in:
username@machine:~/Desktop/pidgin-rhythmbox-2.0$

type:

Code:

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./configure

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If you see any errors, the process will stop. This means that there are still some dependencies that you need to install prior to this step

If you see something like:
configure: error: Package requirements (packagename >=

go to Synaptic and search for it with 'packagename-dev', install it and its dependencies.

Or come here with your error and we'll help you idnetify it.

If you do not see any errors, type:

Code:

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sudo make

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Provide your linux password if necessary.

Once completed type:

Code:

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sudo make install

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Record errors if any.

If you dont see any errors, open up Pidgin and do CTRL+P on your keyboard.
In the preferences window click on Plugins and put a checkmark next to Pidgin-Rhythmbox 2.0, and click Close.

Either in your AIM profile or your away message put

Code:

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%rb

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Open up Rhythmbox and play a track. Check your away/profile.
If you see the song information there, youre set.
Feel free to customize the message by adding text anywhere around %rb

Quote:

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Check your away/profile.

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How do you do this? I have %rb entered for amy status message. I have rhythmbox playing. When I mouse over the pidgin icon in my tray I see:

Pidgin - %rb

when you open Pidgin and go into plug ins, do you see Rhythmbox plug in there? If you do, make sure its checked. if you dont, the installation did not complete: exit both rhythmbox and pidgin and rerun the above walk through.

watch the screen for any errors and report back here.

I installed pidgin-rhytmbox from the debian package found here: http://www.last.fm/group/Rhythmbox/forum/8096/_/310325

It shows up in the list of plugins, I have it checked and I have all the configuration options checked.

no idea why its not working. i would only try to use the latest ver packages from the official links.

when you were testing this, did you try to skip through the songs? if the song is already playing when you start pidgin it will only show %rb as you describe.

Yes, I've been listening to music all day and it's always on %rb.

I'll try installing from source.

Thanks for the help.

great guide! thanks

I had to install pidgin-dev, but that wasnt a problem

Great guide, I was having a lot of trouble getting it to work. I thought I had installed all the related packages in synaptic but I didn't.. Installing pidgin-dev did the trick!

Naw. Didn't work for me.
I have Gutsy, pidgin-dev, I installed build-essential as well.
neither ./configure, nor make or make install are giving any Errors. I checked the Plugin in Pidgin and added %rb to Away-Message. I even restarted Pidgin and Rythmbox. I switched through some Songs, but nothing.
Nice Guide. But didn't do it for me. :/

Thanks, installing pidgin-dev made it work for me in Gutsy!