We have released Adium 1.5.10. Most importantly, it features an updated version of libpurple, the library which provides network-level connectivity for most services in Adium, fixing many security issues.

Also among the changes is a fix for a problem that could cause high CPU load when a connection is lost. It became a particularly common problem with the lingering Yahoo connection issue we are looking into.

For more details on the changes in Adium 1.5.10, you can read the release notes.

Adium 1.4.2 is now available. It includes, among other improvements, fixes for the following major problems:

• a frequent MSN crash
• an MSN issue adding contacts
• an MSN connection problem involving the error “Signed in from another location”
• ICQ losing connection without showing
• Hang when opening a chat window to a contact with a malformed log

Message style improvements
We have also addressed the complaints about the focus indication we added to the bundled message styles for the 1.4 release. They are now only shown in group chats and the indicators for Mockie have been redone.

For more details on the changes in Adium 1.4.2, you can read the release notes.

Libpurple tradeoff
However, you will find that on MSN the following features do not work in Adium 1.4.2:

• direct file transfers
• user icons
• receiving custom emoticons

We had to decide whether we wanted to update libpurple, the library which provides network-level connectivity for most services in Adium, to fix the major three MSN issues mentioned at the top and we decided that is was worth it despite these feature regressions it brings.

*Clarification: These features are currently broken in 1.4.2. They were not removed. We didn’t decide to throw them out. It’s simply that they are broken in the included version of libpurple. We had to make a decision between updating to fix a large number of other bugs while knowing these 3 would be broken, or leaving them untouched and leaving several services COMPLETELY broken for a number of our users. We chose to do the most good for the most people. It was one or the other.*

Where’s Facebook migration?
We originally intended to offer a migration path from the old to the new implementation of Facebook Chat in Adium 1.4.2. However, the implementation isn’t ready yet and with the many major issues already fixed in 1.4.2 we decided to push Facebook migration to 1.4.3. So for now, if you have problems with Facebook, you’ll have to manually switch as outlined here: http://trac.adium.im/wiki/FacebookChat.

Support and development
As always, if you find a bug or have a question, refer to the Help page.

And if you’d like to help us out in any way, feel free to find out how you can contribute.

What’s next?

• Twitter connection issues (for Adium 1.4.3; see the Help page for details)
• Facebook migration (for Adium 1.4.3)

It’s been 2 weeks since we released version 1.4.  The response has been incredible. Now, hot on its heels, comes 1.4.1 with even more ducky goodness.

While the primary purpose of this update is to fix ICQ authentication[1][2], we stuck a few other goodies in there as well. (Did someone say ‘faster MSN file transfers’? 😉 ) We’ve upgraded from libpurple 2.6.6 to version 2.7.5 which brings with it the usual smörgåsbord of fixes and enhancements. For more details, you can read the release notes.

What’s up with ICQ?

For those that are unaware, ICQ is no longer owned by AOL. The breakage that users may have experienced was due to the change-over to the new authentication servers.

Users of Mac OS X 10.4 using Adium 1.3.10 can change the server setting to “login.icq.com” in the “Options” pane of their ICQ account’s settings.

SSL encryption is currently not supported server-side so we were forced to disable it in Adium 1.4.1.

Support and development

As always, if you find a bug or have a question, refer to the Help page. Please do not post it in the comments.

And if you’d like to help us out in any way, feel free to find out how you can contribute.

What’s next?

The next big issues on our list:

• fixing Facebook Chat support
• finding a solution to complaints about the changes made to the default message styles in 1.4

Yahoo! has made a change on their server that prevents Adium 1.3.4 and the 1.4 betas from connecting. We have released a new beta, beta 7, which contains the fix.

As we’ve noted before, 1.4 will require Leopard. Those of you who are still hanging on to Tiger are currently stuck, as we do not yet have a fixed version for you. We’ll release a 1.3.5 shortly after Libpurple 2.5.7 comes out, as that version will also contain the fix. (Libpurple, for those of you who don’t know, is the library Adium uses to connect to Yahoo! and most other services.) The Adium 1.4 betas use pre-release versions of Libpurple 2.6.

Starting at about 20:00 PST tonight (January 11), Microsoft’s servers have stopped accepting logins from clients that use version 15 of the protocol, including Adium 1.3.2. The Debug Window in debug and beta versions of Adium reveals that their server is failing to find a certificate that it needs when Libpurple attempts to retrieve your MSN Address Book.

In case you’re wondering, this also affects Pidgin, which means it’s definitely not an Adium problem.

There are two ways to connect:

• Use , the official client.
• Use Adium 1.3.1, the previous version of Adium.

We’re not sure whether this is a temporary server problem or a permanent change that will break P15-using Libpurple-based clients (including Adium 1.3.2) until a future Libpurple release. If it turns out to be the latter, we’ll almost certainly include that Libpurple update in our next 1.3.3 beta.

Four days ago, many of our users started getting disconnected from Yahoo! after several hours. The disconnection comes in the form of an authorization error, so Adium responds by presenting a password prompt:

This is not new in 1.3.1: We released 1.3.1 on September 7th, so it was working fine for nearly two weeks before the problems started. It’s not specific to Adium: Pidgin users are reporting the same problems. Our users are reporting that the official Yahoo! Messenger client does not get disconnected, so it seems to be a fault in Libpurple, the library that Pidgin and Adium both use.

Furthermore, we stress that Adium has not forgotten your password. As shown above, Adium fills in your old password. This is so that, if the error is spurious (as in this case), you can just hit OK. This is not a security risk, as you can’t cut or copy from the password field:

What can you do? Just hit OK. The periodic disconnections are a hassle, but you should still be able to chat.

Meanwhile, we and the Libpurple developers are still investigating the specific cause of the problem, so we know who needs to fix what.

What we need from you is information. Here are the things we already know:

• You’ll get disconnected after about six to eight hours (sometimes more, sometimes less).
• If you use the official Yahoo! Messenger, you won’t get disconnected.
• If you use Pidgin, you will get disconnected.
• If you use Finch, you will get disconnected.
• It will ask for your password, even if you have it saved in the Keychain.
• It does not forget your password. (You can tell because it’s filled in in the password prompt. If Adium had forgotten your password, it wouldn’t be filled in.)

We know that a lot of you are experiencing problems. Please don’t leave a comment just to say “me too”. We already know about the problem; its existence is not in question, so we don’t need more evidence that it exists.

Here are the things we do need to know:

• Debug Window output. We have some, but more is always better.
• Whether any other clients have the same problem. If you use a client that isn’t based on Libpurple, and either have or don’t have the problem in that client, we could really use that information. The Pidgin developers have a list of clients that use Libpurple.

Please do not post this information as a comment on this post—we will ignore it. Please post it on our ticket instead.

With your help, we hope to have this problem resolved soon.

(Co-written with Project Manager Eric Richie.)

Check out pidgin.im, the new home of the instant-messenger-formerly-known-as-Gaim. The Pidgin team explains there the reason a name change was needed.

Gaim is henceforth “Pidgin” — a really awesome name for an instant messaging client. (If you aren’t familiar with the term ‘pidgin’ from linguistics, ). Note also that our ideological ties to the project (already significant, given that the core library is the foundation of our messaging connectivity and that we share open source philosophy) have strengthened as a result of name change… Adium’s a duck, Gaim’s a Pigeon (logo still pending, but it’ll be iconic, I promise), and the text-based client based on libgaim, formerly “Gaim-Text,” is now “Finch”. I for one welcome our avian overlords 🙂

Through the name change, ‘libgaim’ has also gained life of its own. The library which previously we were hacking together out of parts of the Gaim source is now an independent, recognized entity (as of Gaim 2.0.0b6, actually). Accordingly, it has its own name now: libpurple. (This is a play off ‘prpl’, which is what a libpurple instant messaging service, or protocol, plugin is called).