msn-pecan on the N900; great address-book integration

/ FelipeC

It took me some time but I’ve finally managed to integrate msn-pecan to my N900 thanks to telepathy-haze and telepathy-extras. I haven’t really been using WLM for a while but I think that’s about to change 😀

Why telepathy-msn-pecan when there’s telepathy-butterfly and telepathy-haze+libpurple? Well, each one of those have some limitations. telepathy-butterfly will depend on pymsn, which will depend on python, plus a bunch of python libraries, I have my doubts as to how stable it is, how efficiently does it use the network, and mainly how long will it take to graduate to extras, not to mention that the installation size will probably be quite big. For telepathy-haze you would need libpurple, which is built using the Pidgin source package and who knows when that’s going graduate to extras.

In any case, I just prefer msn-pecan because I know the code, and I know it’s more stable than libpurple’s stock one (which I wrote many years ago), it’s more efficient, and it has been widely tested on Pidgin (Linux, Windows, and N8x0), and Adium on OS X. Also, it’s more bandwidth efficient, specially at login time, which is important if you are using a cellular data connection 🙂 Moreover, at some point it will be a standalone library with a native telepathy wrapper, so this was a natural step.

First I needed libpurple, but since it’s distributed along with Pidgin and there’s no easy way to build it standalone. I used libpurple-mini which is a redistribution of libpurple that’s easy to build, no extra fuzz, just the bare minimal dependencies, and a minimal build-system.

Then I took telepathy-haze, which didn’t require any modifications, and telepathy-extras which did require quite a bit. I also wrote simple Makefiles just to simplify the build.

Then I modified all the packages so that they don’t conflict with the system ones (libpurple, telepathy-haze, etc.), when they are finally available in extras. The result is a 300KB standalone package 😉

Here are a few screenshots showing how nicely it integrates:

msn-pecan field in the contact entry

msn-pecan field in the contact entry


Some msn-pecan contacts in the all contacts view

Some msn-pecan contacts in the all contacts view

As you can see it’s very transparent. Your contacts could be in Skype, MSN, GTalk, you would barely feel any difference, and the switch to SMS, or voice call is seamless. Kudos to the Maemo rtcomm team and Telpathy for achieving this!

So give it a try and report back any issues you may find:
http://code.google.com/p/msn-pecan/downloads/

Next step would be to submit this to extras devel, I think it would not have much trouble getting accepted in, any volunteers to do that?

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

83 thoughts on “msn-pecan on the N900; great address-book integration”

  1. Now we just need Multiple Points of Presence, and this will be unstoppable! Thank you for all of this!

    Cheers from France 😉

    Like

  2. Thanks for this plugin, is there a way I can get it to work with a network proxy? because there is currently no way i can configure it to connect through our http_proxy at work. Thanks

    Like

  3. @Bigbrovar that’s a good question. There doesn’t seen to be a way to specify the system proxy in the N900, but you can try with GConf (/system/http_proxy) it will probably work.

    Like

  4. Hi. Looks really great.
    Is there any chance of this being back-ported to Maemo4? The standard MSN plugin for the built-in chat is very flakey, and hasn’t connected at all for a while on my tablets.

    Thanks

    Gaz

    Like

  7. @FelipeC the N900 already allows a systemwide proxy settings though your wireless conenction profile. The problem am having is pecan-msn cant seem to detect that settings and tries to connect to the internet directly. perhaps you could embed a proxy settings into it?

    Like

  8. @FelipeC: i have a N900 and i’ve installed msn pecan, but when i try to create a new account the WLM protocol don’t appear on the list! I’ve an europe version of N900.

    Like

  12. @FelipeC it appears as msn without pecan. it’s the same? Msn pecan appear only in my contact fields. (msn contacts don’ appears in my address book)

    Like

  13. @francesco no, “MSN” without pecan is using telepathy-butterfly, do you have accounts-plugin-butterlfy?

    You shouldn’t need to, but maybe rebooting will help.

    Like

  14. Hello Felipe…I downloaded your application but when it asks me where to save it, I’m not sure where to choose. I selected documents, but when I click the saved file, it asks me what program to use to open it and nothing I choose works. Can you provide me with some guidance in this regard. Thank you.

    Like

  15. AFAIK the ability to double click and install a deb package file in maemo5 was disabled from the filemanager. the best bet is to install the file via the X Terminal. ( but you would need to have rootsh package installed from the app-mamnager which would give you ability to install as a root user. once you have installed rootsh, you then need to open the X-Terminal and type root, press enter. The terminal sign would change from $ to #. you then need to move to the location where you saved the file

    cd /home/user/MyDocs/.documents

    then do a

    ls

    which would show your the content of the document folder.

    then last thing you will do is

    dpkg -i telepathy-msn-pecan_0.1.0~rc2-0maemo2_armel.deb

    the last command should install the package.

    Like

  16. thanks a million…took a little while trying to replicate the commands cuz im using my phone but i got it to work…thanks again

    Like

  18. ok it appears i jumped the gun a bit…the commands worked and it appears in my options for new accounts…however it cannot sign in. i entered my email address and password and pressed sign in, after which the sign-in button grays out and that’s it…that’s all that happens. i never actually sign in. does this happen to any1 else?

    Like

  24. it is 0maemo2…i checked it using the command and it was the latest downloadable version i clicked.
    same thing is happening though…sign-in grays out and then nothing.

    Like

  26. Same thing with mine, i tried installing it via red pill and using terminal restarted between and after but still th same thing. Press sign-in, button grays out and nothing happens.

    Like

  27. I installed the N900 package 0maemo2 and Cannot sign in after entering account details. After clicking “Sign in” it just waits eternally. No progress or error indication. How can I go about debugging this ?

    Like

  28. There are two possible problems:
    1) telepathy-pecan is actually trying to sign in: a dialog appears with the message “signing in”
    2) telepathy-pecan is not even exercised: no message appears, the button just stays gray

    If the problem is 1) you need to remove/disable all the pecan accounts (make sure telepathy-pecan is not running with ps -A), and then:
    HAZE_PERSIST=1 /usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-pecan # make sure it doesn’t exit and stays running

    Then enable/create an account, and watch the log.

    If the problem is 2), try killing mission-control, rtcom-messaging-ui, or even better, rebooting the device.

    Like

  29. Pingback: Integrando MSN en los contactos de Maemo | Todo Maemo

  30. Ran pecan from the CLI as directed and it logged in right away after account creation. Disconnected and killed the daemon on cli and then tried to start normally which failed. Status bar and notifications noted account connection problem/retries. Pecan process was running.

    Then I removed “Extra protocol plugins for Maemo 5”
    and telepathy-haze plugins and rebooted. This time
    pecan logged in normally. Reinstalled what I removed earlier and everything is working normally. Not sure what did the trick. I also noticed when pecan was not working the butterfly icon was missing next to “MSN (Pecan)” in Accounts. It is now present.

    -Jonan

    Like

  31. @Jonan that smells like you are using the old release (0maemo1), if you get more problems checks the advanced tab to see if the settings are correct; I’m seeing them being reset for no reason =/

    Like

  32. Hi!

    I’m a total noob to linux, but I still love my n900.

    I would like to test you app out, but I have no idea where to begin.

    I have read and understood (I think) the install part, but when your all new to this I don’t even know what to download :S

    Like

  35. Installed from maemo extras and it isn’t working
    when i add new account there is MSN icon missing next to MSN (Pecan) and once i create the account and hit signin button it just sits there for ages and nothing happens? any ideas what is the problem?

    Like

  36. just reflashed my n900 to make it nice and clean (both, firmware and emmc)
    installed msn (pecan) from repositories and icon next to it is missing when i go to add new account and when i create account and hit singin it just sits there and nothing happens.

    Like

  37. I’m using the MSN plug-in and not the pecan one.
    However I get the same issue as Tom, when I try and sign into a new account nothing happens it just sits there 😦

    Like

  39. must be something different in new firmware because as i said it doesn’t work on 100% clean n900, msn pecan was the only thing i installed after reflash and issues is still there

    Like

  40. @Tom Is the clock setup properly? There are SSL certificate problems if not.

    Anyway, somebody with problems needs to debug this. I will also try to improve telepathy-haze so msn-pecan error messages are properly reported. I think they are just dropped right now.

    Like

  41. Hi there, any updates on the issues running MSN-Pecan on N900, like Tom and Chris, i also cant log in, it just sits there….!

    Thank you

    Like

  43. I had the same problem (clicking sign in > nothing happens). I then opened xterm and ran:

    HAZE_PERSIST=1 /usr/lib/telepathy/telepathy-pecan

    as mentioned above, left terminal running in the background and went back to conversations / accounts setup. This time sign in was fine. I then rebooted the device and now I can login normally without issuing that command beforehand.

    Like

  46. @FelipeC

    ran that command as you suggested and got my icon now, thanks FelipeC.

    btw, is there anyway to recreate contacts groups just like in msn messenger or there is such option on msn with n900?

    p.s. do you plan to add multilogin or whatever it is called (where we can signin to msn from multiple locations)?

    Like

  47. I have ran the command and it works fine! Thank you.

    It would be great if we could add our MMSN contact detail from the IM drop down straight onto our general contact cards, rather then add their email contacts manually per contact.

    Also multiple locations with definately be a plus! Anywho, thank you guys for your great work

    Like

  48. I found the problem on PR1.0 and I’ll make a fix in the next msn-pecan release, as well as the icon problem, and a few more changes for safety.

    Like

  53. yes it is but you have to add extras-devel reposistory, please note that this repository is for very new software still not fully tested so install it at your own risk

    Like

  54. Tom.. do you know when this will be released officially? I don’t want to take the risk and download it from extras-devel.

    Thanks,

    Like

  55. Dear all, is it possible at all to have Blackberry BBM (or alike application) on the N900? Has anyone tried this before?

    Thanks

    Like

  58. 0.1.0~rc2-0maemo5
    * Fix problems on PR1.0
    * Don’t rely on mission-control extra settings

    0.1.0~rc2-0maemo6
    * maemo-optify
    * Fixes for personal messages and display name

    Like

  59. cant’ remember if i asked before (hope not)
    is there any hope for login from multiple locations like normal msn messenger?

    Like

  61. there is 4 links on website…
    and exe files is not for n900 and the bz something don’t work too..

    can you help me installing this????

    Like

  62. @kevin

    you have to add extra testing and extra devel repositories (can’t remember which one had the pecan so add both) here is all the info and even links to add them, simply open in n900 browser and click on testing and devel links (normal extras repo is now enabled automatically since 1.1 firmware)
    http://my-maemo.com/faq/showquestion.php?faq=4&fldAuto=16

    just note of warning, anything in testing and devel repos is considered alpha and beta so unless you sure you know how to recover your phone if you install something problematic don’t do it, in short “do it at your own risk”

    Like

  63. FTR maemo integration has some problems with the SDK 1.1 update that’s why I’ve been unable to promote msn-pecan to extras-testing, but once the issues are solved I’ll do that.

    Then we’ll need some votes to get it promoted to extras.

    Like

  64. Dear all, not sure if you can assist.

    Can you please guide me on how to customize conversations on the N900? I am looking to have the layout of the conversations changed, by this i mean, having the buddy avatar to the right, while adding an avatar to my conversation line and to the left, this would easy on the foloowing of the conversations.

    I have seen a post of such in Maemo.org, however not explaining how to do it per se. If anyone can help and guide me step by step, i would forever be greatful.

    Thank you all in advance,

    Aka

    Like

  66. is it normal that msn-pecan doesn’t integrate with pidgin on my N900? I was using it with pidgin on my old N810…

    Like

  69. @bigbrovar shouldn’t be difficult at all. I forgot about that, will make sure it’s on the next release.

    You might want to fill a feature request for that in the issue tracker; to make sure it’s not lost 🙂

    Like

  74. @bigbrovar your issue is now fixed in 0.1.0~rc3-0maemo2.

    I’ve pushed this to extras-testing, please try and vote up 🙂

    here

    The changelog item is:
    * Fix crash related to offline messages
    * Fix nickname reset
    * Fix for emtpy offline messages
    * Initialize proxy properly
    * Install TLS certs for offline messages servers

    Like

  76. i have a nokia n900 met msn pecan
    but i have now one problem
    everybody can chat with me
    but i cant find my msn contacts it say no contacts
    but iam online

    Like

  77. hi there,
    ive been testing pecan properly.. its works great for me..
    the only problem that ive got is that i cant receive offline messages..
    ive tested also with haze.. and it works well with haze..
    so what could be the problem?

    greetz

    Like

  79. Hey, this plugin is sweet, i was using it on PR1.1 since ive got my n900.

    yesterday i flashed pr1.2 on to it, and used backup manager to reinstall all my apps. now im noticing although, it shows up, along skype as being logged in, when i go to New IM only one of my skype contacts. they still appear in regular contacts although. is there any way i can fix this, or is it just a bug of newer firmware?

    ~mc_teo

    Like

  81. Hi all I want is msn on my phone it’s to difficult to get… I have just downloaded your msn app and I can’t get any of my contacts please give me a step guide on how to get all my contacts into my IM list so I can chat and also is it possible to use a one of the cameras as a webcam for msn chatting? Thank You

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.