A Simple Facebook Addon to Empathy, NOT!
Wow, I am totally blown away by this task of getting the Facebook protocol to work on the instant messenger client, Empathy. I used to have it working on Pidgin, but lately it’s been a crapshoot. I went to IRC to get some help and low-and-behold, someone gave me a RTFM response. Just lovely, how helpful IRC. From the podcast world, I’ve heard that GNOME is shipping with Empathy as default instead of Pidgin. So; I thought I’d start using it… these desktop guys MUST know what they’re talking about.
Well; so far, I’m not impressed with Empathy at all! Pidgin looks a lot better and my SOUND actually works. Damn! I really wish SOUND wasn’t such an issue in Linux. We’re making heads spin with the amount of computing we can do, the available apps in x86_64 architecture, and the overall desktop stability… yet SOUND has ALWAYS been an issue since I started with Fedora 8.
Attempting to Install Facebook Plugin
So; I thought I’d really give it a go and install the Facebook plugin. I downloaded the same file that’s being used for Pidgin (at Google Code) and tried looking for an “Empathy” folder. After running a “locate” command, I noticed that Empathy really didn’t have a lib64 or some other home folder. It has a folder, but it’s only holding xml data nothing really concrete to the actual program. I saw some .so files but that wasn’t helpful to me. After researching some more, I realized that Empathy is really a client to Telepathy. Oh great, down that rabbit hole we go! So; I then did a “locate” for it and saw the same structure. “OK, this doesn’t make any sense to me! Where am I supposed to install this facebook plugin!?”
So; after some more research, I find myself at this really dated bug report. It’s basically saying I need to edit two files and put in the Facebook protocol. “Really!? Are we really in the early 2000s and I need to MANUALLY input protocols in Linux? Damn!” I did it anyway and after restarting Empathy, I got Network error. “OK, I’m done! I don’t need this kind of stress for a stupid IM protocol.”
So; in the end… I’m trying out ugly Empathy and we’ll see if it grows on me… Like a fungus! I posted something to an existing forum topic, let’s hope that gives me the salvation I’m looking for.
November 7th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
did you try installing telepathy-haze? it might show the facebook plugin if you have it installed.
But.. this is all going to be obsolete very shortly as facebook’s xmpp support should be rolled at very soon
November 7th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
TALK TO LENNART. He destroyed Linux audio.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:02 am
Was surprised at the start of the post because I have had nothing but good experiences finding help on that channel.
But judging by your attitude I wouldn’t blame them for telling you to rtfm.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:44 am
@tretle this post is really out of frustration during my trial and error effort to use Empathy/Facebook. I tend to carry myself well on IRC and I’m aware of RTM queries. I don’t believe my query was a required a simple RTM response.
@tom, haha
@johnny I’ve heard of xmpp, but I’m not all that knowledgeable on it. I know GoogleTalk uses xmpp. I’d really like to know what’s so hot about Empathy over Pidgin. Pidgin seems so much more robust, unless I’m missing something.
January 21st, 2010 at 4:05 pm
quick google search turned up this quick process that worked for me http://www.thelinuxpimp.com/main/node/852