Chatting on MSN in Linux
CONVENTIONS USED

This is just a quick tutorial to help you get started with Gaim.

First thing you need to do is download Gaim. The best versions of Gaim for Mandrake are always on ftp.ibiblio.org. Here is a link to the most recent version of Gaim at the time of this revision of this tutorial: gaim-0.59.6-1tex.i586.rpm

Download that file to your home directory.

Open your home directory using Konqueror. Press CTRL + T to open a terminal in this directory.

Type in su to switch to root. Type in your password when it asks for it.

Now type in rpm -Uvh gaim-0.59.6-1tex.i586.rpm and hit Enter to install Gaim. If you have an older version of Gaim already installed, this command will upgrade it.

Now that you have Gaim instaled, you can find it in your K menu.

Go here as shown:
Gaim Location
Click the icon to start it now.


When you start up Gaim for the first time, you will need to set it up so that you can use MSN's protocol.

You should see this screen:
Login Screen
You can explore the Preferences as well, which is highly recommended.


Click on the Plugins button.

You should now see a new window:
Plugin Interface
You can load whatever plugins you want.


Click on the Load button here.

This will open a file manager dialog:
Select Plugin Libraries
We want the MSN plugin.


Click on the file libmsn.so and then click the OK button.

Now we can see the MSN plugin is loaded:
Loaded Plugins
To unload a plugin, select it and click Unload.


Now the MSN plugin is available for use.

Click on the Close button.

Now you should be back at the Gaim login screen. Click on the Accounts button. This will open the Account Editor. Click on the Add button to add your MSN account. This will open up the Modify Account dialog.

You can now select MSN as the protocol from the list:
MSN Protocol Available
Enter your own user information here.


After you select MSN from the Protocol list and enter your information, you may like to check the additional options as shown in the image above. The options are self-explanatory.

Click OK when you have entered all of your information.

Now your account is listed in Account Editor:
Account Listing
You can sign on from here, if you like.


Now click on the Close button.

Close Gaim, and restart it. If you (for some reason) forgot how to start Gaim, go back to the beginning of this tutorial to find out how.

Now, assuming you have checked Auto-Login, Gaim will log you onto MSN and download all of your contact list.

To begin chatting to people, it should be fairly easy to figure out. If not, then I can write another tutorial.

Email me to request it.


© D. Olson 2001-2003 -- Originally found on The Mandrake eXPerience