Pidgin user status detection broken on recent sametime servers (meanwhile)

[phil]

As per sf.net defect #1626349:

The meanwhile plugin has stopped reporting correct online status for those on users contact lists since server side upgrades occurred (new version of IBM/Lotus sametime server was installed).

This occurs with the latest gaim 2.0 beta 6.

The problem seems to be that if a user comes online while you are online, it is OK, but if they are already online before you sign in, you don't get their initial status properly. You end up having conversations with people who are marked offline on your contact list.

Reported by multiple users. In my particular case Gaim/Pidgin is unusable and I have had to revert to the official sametime client.

[siege]

This is a bug with the Meanwhile library, as support for newer Sametime servers is lagging a little bit; I don't have any accounts on newer servers.

Meanwhile bug 1626349 https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1626349&group_id=110565&atid=656718

If you could get a packet capture and attach it to that bug it would help a lot towards getting this fixed

[mlr]

Multiple users are seeing this behavior where I am as well. If you could tell me exactly what you need and how to get it, I would be happy to help. I do not want to have to use sametime!

[kentyman]

Myself and a coworker are seeing this immediately after upgrading from 2.0.0 to 2.0.1. We didn't have the problem before the upgrade.

[kentyman]

Replying to kentyman:

It's possible there was a server upgrade over the weekend, and I just didn't notice the problem before installing 2.0.1.

[seanegan]

Milestone 2.0.3 deleted

[pr0gm3r]

Is this a bug from Meanwhile libary? and Which part of libpurple that I need to look at? Maybe I can try to regenerate the error.

[JiveMasterT]

Over the weekend our server was upgraded to sametime 7.5. This has broken user status detection on Pidgin 2.0.2

[lschiere]

Siege tells me this is a bug in meanwhile, the library we use (and he maintains) for our sametime support. I'm going to go ahead and remove the milestone from this one completely, as the release cycle on meanwhile is not directly related to ours.

[JiveMasterT]

Replying to lschiere:

Siege tells me this is a bug in meanwhile, the library we use (and he maintains) for our sametime support. I'm going to go ahead and remove the milestone from this one completely, as the release cycle on meanwhile is not directly related to ours.

Is there any update on this particular issue? Basically if you use Pidgin for Sametime and your company is up to date on the Sametime server, the buddy list is useless. I thought for sure that it would have been fixed by tomorrow given the milestone deadline but then I see that this was removed from the milestone. Kinda a shame.

I am willing to test any meanwhile dll files that may need testing. I can also provide help where needed. I'd really just like to see this fixed.

[kentyman]

I'll gladly test potential fixes as well.

[Keeper]

I'm having the same problem with 2.1.1 including if I move a user who is online but showing offline to another group, the user will refresh to online.

[bornmw]

This is definitely not a Meanwhile bug. I'm using Meanwhile for several years with MirandaIM, and it works fine. Something is wrong with Gaim/Pidgin.

[chotchki]

Just to let everyone know. This IS a meanwhile bug, as seen here https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1626349&group_id=110565&atid=656718 I do not however know who with Meanwhile to get in contact with.

[bornmw]

Replying to chotchki:

Just to let everyone know. This IS a meanwhile bug, as seen here https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1626349&group_id=110565&atid=656718

Ok, maybe it's a bug in Meanwhile - future will show. My point was that MirandaIM works fine with Meanwhile library. Either by working around the bug in Meanwhile lib, or by using it in a correct manner.

[kentyman]

Replying to bornmw:

Ok, maybe it's a bug in Meanwhile - future will show. My point was that MirandaIM works fine with Meanwhile library. Either by working around the bug in Meanwhile lib, or by using it in a correct manner.

Or your Sametime server is old enough to not trigger the bug.

[bornmw]

Replying to kentyman:

Or your Sametime server is old enough to not trigger the bug.

My Sametime server is not old enough. I have latest Pidgin not working with my Sametime server, and MirandaIM working with exactly the same Sametime server. Both utilize Meanwhile lib, which proves that the issue we are discussing can be worked around.

[absolute2x]

So, what's the status on this then? I have been heavily pushing pidgin in my organization for quite some time now and this issue we are discussing is most definitely a show-stopper. The ST server I use is slated for upgrade early Q1 next year. Any idea as to when this will be resolved? I would really like to continue using Pidgin. Thanks

[kennova]

People have attached dumps to the sourceforge ticket, and there is certainly A LOT of need for this to be fixed, what's the hang up, can we get it re-assigned to someone/group with more resources? Do the Pidgin people even care that a core functionality doesn't function?

[siege]

Replying to kennova:

People have attached dumps to the sourceforge ticket, and there is certainly A LOT of need for this to be fixed, what's the hang up, can we get it re-assigned to someone/group with more resources?

Sure, find someone else who wants to work on the Meanwhile project and have them submit a patch. It's lonely being the only person working on that protocol, I'd love some company.

Do the Pidgin people even care that a core functionality doesn't function?

Do Not attempt to pin this on anyone but my work on the Meanwhile project. I would even go so far as to say that nobody should bother commenting on this bug past this point. Bothering Pidgin developers won't help you. There is jack that Pidgin could do to fix this. When there's a release of the Meanwhile library with this problem fixed, Pidgin should just work again.

[kennova]

Replying to siege:

Sure, find someone else who wants to work on the Meanwhile project and have them submit a patch. It's lonely being the only person working on that protocol, I'd love some company.

Isn't that why we are all here providing our names and ability to run things, test, and possibly code. I would imagine most of us know how to code, it's getting the environment setup to do so. I work at a company that uses the server, is that enough? Do we need access to our own network with it setup so we can try things? What can we do, many people have already asked and when we provided things nothing happened and we received no feedback. Maybe there is feedback going on offline, but that doesn't help the rest of us.

Do Not attempt to pin this on anyone but my work on the Meanwhile project. I would even go so far as to say that nobody should bother commenting on this bug past this point. Bothering Pidgin developers won't help you. There is jack that Pidgin could do to fix this. When there's a release of the Meanwhile library with this problem fixed, Pidgin should just work again.

You're right I don't want to pin it on anyone, I realize it's open source and that you are working on it on your spare time, but again, no updates, no feedback start to make people look elsewhere for solutions to their problems. That only makes sense, you've left us no other choice.

[siege]

Replying to kennova:

Replying to siege:

Sure, find someone else who wants to work on the Meanwhile project and have them submit a patch. It's lonely being the only person working on that protocol, I'd love some company.

Isn't that why we are all here providing our names and ability to run things, test, and possibly code. I would imagine most of us know how to code, it's getting the environment setup to do so. I work at a company that uses the server, is that enough? Do we need access to our own network with it setup so we can try things? What can we do, many people have already asked and when we provided things nothing happened and we received no feedback. Maybe there is feedback going on offline, but that doesn't help the rest of us.

I would not normally single someone out and assign work to them, but as you've volunteered I'll happily use your resources. The Meanwhile code is in CVS on sourceforge. Look at the Meanwhile code and trace through it until you find a message being unpacked incorrectly (specifically, attempting to unpack a string from something that's likely only a uint16). Should you find anything, don't post about it in the Pidgin trac, post about it in the Meanwhile bug listed earlier, or submit the patch through the Meanwhile patch tracker.

Do Not attempt to pin this on anyone but my work on the Meanwhile project. I would even go so far as to say that nobody should bother commenting on this bug past this point. Bothering Pidgin developers won't help you. There is jack that Pidgin could do to fix this. When there's a release of the Meanwhile library with this problem fixed, Pidgin should just work again.

You're right I don't want to pin it on anyone, I realize it's open source and that you are working on it on your spare time, but again, no updates, no feedback start to make people look elsewhere for solutions to their problems. That only makes sense, you've left us no other choice.

Yes, you've incorrectly assumed that Pidgin will fix it for you in the absence of positive feedback from a separate project. I hope I have helped you to realize that this is incorrect, so that you do not bother them any more with something they cannot fix. I also hope that this discussion will make it clear that it is inappropriate to further discuss this bug in the Pidgin tracker, as it is a Meanwhile bug.

[JiveMasterT]

I can test too. Tell me how to setup the dev environment for meanwhile and I'll see what I can do.

[bornmw]

Replying to siege:

Yes, you've incorrectly assumed that Pidgin will fix it for you in the absence of positive feedback from a separate project. I hope I have helped you to realize that this is incorrect, so that you do not bother them any more with something they cannot fix. I also hope that this discussion will make it clear that it is inappropriate to further discuss this bug in the Pidgin tracker, as it is a Meanwhile bug.

Some of your statements are wrong. This issue CAN be fixed w/o any feedback from the Meanwhile project. I assume that's what Miranda developers did to make it work with Meanwhile. I'm in the process of getting more information on how did they do it, will keep you informed.

[bornmw]

Here's what the person who developed Miranda Sametime plugin says. I think this means that he used Meanwhile lib as it was and it just worked.

I had to do a lot of messing around with the library to get it working for windows - the whole 'glib cross-platform' thing is a bit of a myth :) I don't remember changing the way anything works in the library tho. I have often recomended that people change their client-id in the miranda options when these sorts of issues occur - it seems that sometimes the servers change their behaviour based on the client id. AFAIK, the pidgin plugin doesn't offer that option. Perhaps that has something to do with it?

[JiveMasterT]

Ok... odd... I upgraded to 2.2.1 and now it's working all of the sudden. Did something else change that would have affected this? I'm still kinda testing to verify but I signed on and everyone in my list just showed up instead of a few here and there.

Anyone else working with the recent upgrade?

[JiveMasterT]

...and just like that it stopped working again. Never mind.

[mstam1616]

I hate having to have 2 clients up and running to support Sametime and "the rest". Is there anything at all someone who cannot code can do to help solve this problem?

[mstam1616]

Today Pidgin is communicating with Sametime for me. I know we just upgraded to Sametime 7.5 - perhaps tomorrow it will be broken again.

[absolute2x]

What is the status on this issue? I am about to go to sametime server 7.5 cf1 and would like to continue to use Pidgin. Can someone outline what would need to be done to fix this issue?

[JiveMasterT]

Thought that some of the developers here would like to take a look at this: https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=656718&aid=1626349&group_id=110565

Can we build a Windows DLL with that change and see if it still works for Sametime 6 servers? That may just be the ticket to the solution here.

[alixyz]

Fix for this problem, just place it in the Pidgin applicaiton path e.g. C:\Program Files\Pidgin

[alixyz]

Attached the file to correct this issue to this ticket page or download from To install download the zip file below and extract there is only one file in there called libmeanwhile-1.dll place it in the directory of the application your using such as the folder where Pidgin is installed C:\Program Files\Pidgin and your all set. http://www.momoshare.com/file.php?file=fdab7d1db78adb4a19bfd42e360c4e19

[kentyman]

Works perfectly for me.

[aiyagari]

Tested the fix and it works for me, too.

[absolute2x]

Could you post source for the fix? I use Pidgin in ubuntu and would like to patch it there also. Thanks

[jroks]

My sametime server here at work just upgraded to 7.5.1, I tried the patch dll and did not work. I can login for a short period but will kick me out soon after saying I have an invalid client. The hide client identity is not functioning from what I can see. I am using Pidgin 2.3.1 release, if there is anything I can do to give information please let me know.

[siege]

jroks, your problem is separate and referenced (with a workaround) in the following bug: http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4418

[JiveMasterT]

According to the most recent update for this issue on the Meanwhile bug tracker, the patch has been accepted into the repository. Does this mean that in the next release of pidgin the problem will be resolved?

[datallah]

Replying to JiveMasterT:

According to the most recent update for this issue on the Meanwhile bug tracker, the patch has been accepted into the repository. Does this mean that in the next release of pidgin the problem will be resolved?

No, there has not been an updated libmeanwhile release. Also, for all platforms except win32, Pidgin has no control over the version of libmeanwhile in use, it is up to the packager to update the meanwhile package.

[khaytsus]

Thank you everyone! They upgraded our servers to 7.x last week and it's been driving me and a lot of other people batty. In fact many have changed to the new client and hate it because Pidgin wasn't behaving, but the meanwhile dll above fixes the problems. I hope the next Pidgin release incorporates it, even if it's not in the official upstream yet, or to work to get it into the upstream with the Meanwhile folks!

[datallah]

The Windows build of Pidgin 2.4.0 includes a patched meanwhile 1.0.2 to resolve this issue.

[siege]

Hrm, there's a 1.1.0 tagged in Meanwhile CVS that would have done it too, for future reference

[econan]

Replying to siege:

Hrm, there's a 1.1.0 tagged in Meanwhile CVS that would have done it too, for future reference

Yeah, The 1.1.0 version in Meanwhile CVS actually displays the user status correctly at the first login.

Here is what I did. I downloaded the 1.0.2 version of libmeanwhile. Also downloaded the new versions of the files: cipher.c, mw_cipher.h, mw_st_list.h, common.c, mw_common.h, srvc_conf.c from the 1.1.0 CVS branch:

Replaced the same files under src/ Next step is: ./configure; make

The library ends up in the directory src/.libs/ all you have to do is to copy that library to the original location. (/usr/lib under ubuntu) (libmeanwhile.so.1.0.2)

Not the most elegant solution, but until an "official" version is out, that's the best I can do ;)

[bornmw]

God bless econan and all the holy programmers - it finally works for me!

[rlaager]

Is this still a problem with Pidgin 2.4.2?

[Keeper]

No, the problem is resolved in 2.4.2.

[rstent]

I think this bug is not completely fixed as I am having the same issue with Pidgin 2.5.2

[cluk]

I can still reproduce this issue running Pidgin 2.5.5 and 2.6.5 on Ubuntu Jaunty.

* the status of all users is displayed correctly after account creation and initial login * the status of the first user in my contact list is displayed correctly on subsequent logins * the online status of any other user in my list is shown correctly if they become online after I logged in * the status of any other user is show correctly if I move them to another group

Please reopen this ticket. :)

[datallah]

To be clear here, the problem is with the meanwhile library (i.e. http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/libmeanwhile1 for the Ubuntu Jaunty users), not in Pidgin.

[cluk]

Thanks for the hint.

The corresponding bug in the meanwhile library seems to be this one:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=1626349&group_id=110565&atid=656718

I have made available a patched version for Ubuntu Jaunty:

https://launchpad.net/~christoph-lukas/+archive/other/+packages