How to Compile Pidgin with Plugins from Source in Intrepid Ibex

[adamlau]

Here are my minimal, working options for 2.5.3 under Xubuntu:

--disable-consoleui --disable-avahi --disable-nls --disable-doxygen --disable-gestures --disable-screensaver --disable-startup-notification --disable-gtkspell --disable-meanwhile --disable-gnutls --enable-nss --disable-perl --disable-tcl --disable-dependency-tracking --disable-schemas-install --disable-nm --with-dynamic-prpls=irc,jabber,msn,oscar,yahoo CFLAGS="-march=native -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CXXFLAGS="${CFLAGS}"

Breaks when going with:

--disable-shared --enable-static --with-static-prpls=irc,jabber,msn,oscar,yahoo

Anyone get 2.5.3 going with a strictly static build?

[kevdog]

Regarding the static build -- I didn't install the compilation, but was able to compile using your exact same flags without a problem:

./configure --enable-shared=no --enable-static --with-static-prpls=irc,jabber,msn,oscar,yahoo && make

Did you get an error in the compilation process?

[darkrain42]

kevdog,

It would be good to recommend the following options by default. They are taken from Ubuntu's package and help Ubuntu interoperate with the OS better:

--enable-cyrus-sasl
--with-system-ssl-certs=/etc/ssl/certs
--enable-nss=yes

• Cyrus SASL is the recommended authentication library for the XMPP protocol plugin and is not just used to connect to servers using jabberd.
• Letting Pidgin use the system's store of trusted CA roots alleviates problems with some networks when they change certificates to ones not in the limited set Pidgin provides.
• The NSS plugin is the one that Ubuntu's package uses (and forcing at least one to be enabled will ensure that Pidgin builds with SSL support, needed for MSN, Google Talk, and possibly others)

Also, I'm not quite sure why you recommend installing the linux-headers; those should /not/ be necessary for building pidgin or any of the plugins listed (unless I'm missing something).

If you have any questions, I can be found in irc://irc.freenode.net/#pidgin

[sunny_nwho]

cool thanks mate!

[brandon88tube]

Is there a way to just update pidgin without having to always compile from source? This tends to get annoying.

[kevdog]

Is there a way to just update pidgin without having to always compile from source? This tends to get annoying.

What other method do you propose? Usually upgrading any compiled software version, is either a new compile, or downloading and installing a new package someone else compiled, ie a .deb package. Its possible to make a script that would automate the download/compilation process. I haven't got any requests for that method.

[brandon88tube]

I guess, but it would be nice if it could update through your update manager/synaptic or something similar.

[kevdog]

The whole point of this thread is for those that want to compile from source. If you want to update through synaptic, then use the pidgin version (which is usually quite old) in the Ubuntu repositories. There is a price of inconvenience to be paid for cutting-edge releases.

[brandon88tube]

kevdog,

It would be good to recommend the following options by default. They are taken from Ubuntu's package and help Ubuntu interoperate with the OS better:

--enable-cyrus-sasl
--with-system-ssl-certs=/etc/ssl/certs
--enable-nss=yes

• Cyrus SASL is the recommended authentication library for the XMPP protocol plugin and is not just used to connect to servers using jabberd.
• Letting Pidgin use the system's store of trusted CA roots alleviates problems with some networks when they change certificates to ones not in the limited set Pidgin provides.
• The NSS plugin is the one that Ubuntu's package uses (and forcing at least one to be enabled will ensure that Pidgin builds with SSL support, needed for MSN, Google Talk, and possibly others)

Also, I'm not quite sure why you recommend installing the linux-headers; those should /not/ be necessary for building pidgin or any of the plugins listed (unless I'm missing something).

If you have any questions, I can be found in irc://irc.freenode.net/#pidgin

I'm curious, would it be better to use the Debugging info provided with the pidgin that came installed with ubuntu for all of your future installs? Example of pidgin 2.5.2

Debugging Information
  Arguments to ./configure:   '--build=x86_64-linux-gnu' '--prefix=/usr' '--includedir=${prefix}/include' '--mandir=${prefix}/share/man' '--infodir=${prefix}/share/info' '--sysconfdir=/etc' '--localstatedir=/var' '--libexecdir=${prefix}/lib/pidgin' '--disable-maintainer-mode' '--disable-dependency-tracking' '--enable-gevolution' '--enable-cap' '--with-system-ssl-certs=/etc/ssl/certs' '--enable-perl' '--with-zephyr=/usr' '--enable-dbus' '--enable-gnutls=no' '--enable-nss=yes' '--enable-cyrus-sasl' 'build_alias=x86_64-linux-gnu' 'CC=cc' 'CFLAGS=-fstack-protector' 'LDFLAGS=-Wl,--as-needed' 'CPPFLAGS=' 'CXX=g++' 'CXXFLAGS=-g -O2 -g -Wall -O2' 'FFLAGS=-g -O2'

Also, my main question here is even if you do not use those configuration options would you suggest having Zephyr library (libzephyr): External or Internal?

[kevdog]

I'm going to be honest with you -- I dont know anything about libzephyr.

Are far as the configure flags, many of them I obtained from talking to the developers on the #pidgin IRC. I usually prefer /usr/local as the default tree, since its then possible to keep two versions of pidgin installed on the system (the .deb install within /usr and the compiled version within /usr/local). Ive never ran into any problems needing to alter the compiler or linker flags.