On 27/05/2021 14.23, Per Jessen wrote:

Carlos E. R. wrote:

...

Thanks, guys. But we really need an easy guide somewhere.

If you google it, I'm sure you'll find something. "how to connect to an IRC server". libera is the same as any other.

How about this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IRC/Tutorial

Wow, this one must be new, it uses Libera. It doesn't cover the basics, it points to external sites. None of them talks the very basic starting. The key point that got me started is that despite pidgin asking for a password, you have to leave it blank the first time. Then, after connection, you have to open a channel to issue commands. This is a problem: what channel? I got refused on #suse, but got in on #opensuse. Maybe it has to be done on some other channel, no idea. Once in a channel, register a nickname with password (the web site starts explaining at this point, the previous steps are not mentioned): /nick somename /msg NickServ REGISTER yourpassword your-email then: identify /msg NickServ IDENTIFY somename yourpassword then test that you can post. Somewhere (at some system channel that I was not reading) the system answers that you have to reply to an email you get issuing a command /msg NickServ VERIFY REGISTER somename some_given_pin one problem I had is that when pasting commands, I got instead: p, li { white-space: pre-wrap; } /msg NickServ IDENTIFY somename password which was displayed to the entire group with my password and I had to change it, creating some laughs :-) Someone (fridrich) tried to help me starting a private conversation, but the system would not allow me to answer (I have lost the exact error). So I'll say thanks from here instead. Then disconnect, and add the nick/password to the account configuration (in pidgin, tick "remember password"), and setup SSL. Port for SSL is not standard, it is 6697 (and I know this because I had to ask in the past, and had it saved). And try connecting again. SSL is a requirement for me. The Freenode folks had a robot that scanned the ports in my router, and found one they did not like because it was "vulnerable". My ISP refused to patch it. In the past, I had to ask on some freenode help channel where they told my that I had to use SSL so that they would not scan me (I do not know if Libera is doing the same, but being the same people, they probably do). As I said, it took me weeks to get IRC going the first time. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)

On 27/05/2021 19.55, Scott Bradnick wrote:

I'm certainly not an IRC pro, I've really only used it in/on 2 main instances - Twitch (where it still works, *happy face) & Slack (before they closed the irc side down, *sad face*). I've also setup glowingbear/shoutirc/thelounge (to connect to my own weechat instance w/ an SSL listener), which I'm sure my installs are all outdated since I haven't used them in over a year (maybe 2) as those things have dropped off my radar.

IRC seems like one of those funny "old" technologies that hangs on/around because while it's not fancy, it continues to work and offer up the main thing it originated to accomplish - allow people to talk. I won't pretend I've had many IRC convos over 10+ years on "X" number of IRC servers, most I ever did was teammates via Slack (and that's not really the true spirit of IRC) - but I will say there's NO shortage of information on how to connect, granted I bet 90%+ of them are for CLI clients.

IMO, the biggest disservice to yourself was starting off with Pidgin (I'm not anti-Pidgin or anti-GUI by any means) ; especially since the server will walk you through a few things after your initial un-authenticated connection. Might have been better to use something like weechat and have set yourself up via CLI, then switched to GUI once you grabbed a nick, set a password and verified via email.

Huh, no, I did not start with Pidgin. Pidgin was the final one after testing them all few years ago :-D The setting up is done on the pseudo CLI, and then written in the configuration to ease up the connection next time. I probably started with Thunderbird.

I guess what I'm saying is I wouldn't clamour for 'great documentation from start to finish' on a protocol that's existed for at least a decade and has more guides than you can probably shake a stick at, because you'll probably have people throwing you links time and again :P - none of which will be 100% suited for your (or any of us) specific use case.

I think what might have hurt you the most was notions you have around what happened to you regarding freenode (connectivity) and that you were expecting libera to be the same way. I still don't really understand how freenode would be scanning your router and deciding to let you in or not. I could see how technology would/could facilitate that, but that seems beyond weird. Libera let me connect initially, register 'sbradnick' and has worked pretty much how all the documentation I saw today described - even with Weechat, a secure passphrase and connecting w/ SASL. Even this cloaking thing I wasn't really aware of until today worked as advertised.

I do see you in irc.libera.chat#opensuse - so it must all be sorted, that's great! :)

Yes, I got it sorted, and I posted what got me going on another post in this mail list (<https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/users@lists.opensuse.org/message/HIQY5FIXE64ZPW3BAHOI7A367ANWQPRY/>). Both servers are handled by the same people, so there should be no differences. Yes, the router issue was curious. I suspect that Libera is not doing it /yet/. -- Cheers / Saludos, Carlos E. R. (from 15.2 x86_64 at Telcontar)