[hardy] Failing to connect to MSN with 'protocol is not supported' error

[Paul Elliott]

Binary package hint: pidgin

Pidgin 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.7 in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is failing to connect to MSN chat. Pidgin reports the following error:

Our protocol is not supported by the server.

Upstream has also had a report for the same error on 8.04:

http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/10933

[Adam Niedling (krychek)]

I have the same issue.

[Javier VALLI (izatasun)]

What am I to do now? Are you going to mail me the solution? or just is a bug-collecting service to achieve the perfection?Just asking...thank you.

[TEN (launchpad-20-ten)]

No connections to MSN for a week or so, confirmed by http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/10933 recommending the move to a more recent version of Pidgin.
If Long-Term Stability is to make sense, this application will probably have to be upgraded in the 8.04 repository (even more so as Yahoo has been having issues in 2.4.1 for the past few months either) to stay usable as a multi-protocal messenger for the remainder of the LTS's lifetime.

[marco.pallotta (marco-pallotta)]

As we all know Ubuntu developers don't update major version of packages on LTS versions nor they don't fix any functionality bugs discovered on LTS software (both because the risk should be the unstability and becuase the lack of time to work on this) unless the problem is the security or the possibility of data loss.
Even if this issue is not related to this two aspects I think we should add a third exception, that is a package, above all if it's a default supported package, should be updated or fixed when one of its major functionalities are unusable because of a bug. In this case, for msn users, pidgin become unusable.

[Ceriak (ceriak)]

Same here. Should be fixed, hence it became unusable long after release. LTS anyway, isn’t it?

[Robby (mail-otr-exchange)]

Now I'm getting really angry. This bug exists nearly 2 months.
Instant Messaging is a keyfeature of an os. For me ubuntu is unusable without msn and icq.

If you aren't able to update only the msn protocoll update the hole application. Otherwise you break the LTS promise and ubuntu is dead for me.

[ru1th2hodge (ru1th2hodge)]

*Robby:*
*I ended up just getting my laptop programed with the new windows last week.
It made me made also . Linux system crashed on me! Thank-you for ur time
though! Sorry that I have been driving U crazy with this BUG! LOL! Have a
Happy New Year*
Thank-You once again!
Sincerely
Ruth
On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 6:21 AM, Robby <email address hidden> wrote:

> Now I'm getting really angry. This bug exists nearly 2 months.
> Instant Messaging is a keyfeature of an os. For me ubuntu is unusable
> without msn and icq.
>
> If you aren't able to update only the msn protocoll update the hole
> application. Otherwise you break the LTS promise and ubuntu is dead for
> me.
>
> --
> [hardy] Failing to connect to MSN with 'protocol is not supported' error
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/494002
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Pidgin: Unknown
> Status in “pidgin” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: pidgin
>
> Pidgin 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.7 in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is failing to connect to MSN
> chat. Pidgin reports the following error:
>
> Our protocol is not supported by the server.
>
> Upstream has also had a report for the same error on 8.04:
>
> http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/10933
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/pidgin/+bug/494002/+subscribe
>

[Adam Niedling (krychek)]

Robby: You're right, but I think it's better for you if you don't wait for them to fix it, just upgrade pidgin yourself...
http://pidgin.im/download/ubuntu/

This is what I've done and it's working. (I know that we shouldn't be the ones who do this.)

[Celina (celinasam)]

Thanks for comments. The information I have found in http://pidgin.im/download/ubuntu/ was sufficient to install new version and to fix my problems. Cheers.

[Robby (mail-otr-exchange)]

ru1th2hodge: haaha, very funny... there are other distributions in this world... I have been using Ubuntu for 4 years, I'm an active part in the ubuntu community but this makes me rethinking my decision for Ubuntu. (And it's not the first time an important update takes a long time)

Adam: Thx, I know... But this isn't satisfying. In the future I'd to check for security fixes myself. At the moment I'm running OpenOffice, VirtualBox and the kernel out of apt. This sould only be an exception.
At the moment I'm running msn in a 9.10 VirtualBox. With a great overhead of 200 MB RAM.

[Robby (mail-otr-exchange)]

Grrrrr... Who the fuck is responsible for this?

[Robby (mail-otr-exchange)]

oO

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package pidgin - 1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.8

---------------
pidgin (1:2.4.1-1ubuntu2.8) hardy-security; urgency=low

  * SECURITY UPDATE: denial of service via TOPIC message
    - debian/patches/87_security_CVE-2009-2703.patch: validate args in
      libpurple/protocols/irc/msgs.c.
    - CVE-2009-2703
  * SECURITY UPDATE: information disclosure via incorrect jabber TLS
    handling
    - debian/patches/88_security_CVE-2009-3026.patch: bail out if
      encryption is not available in libpurple/protocols/jabber/auth.c.
    - CVE-2009-3026
  * SECURITY UPDATE: denial of service via malformed SLP invite message
    - debian/patches/89_security_CVE-2009-3083.patch: validate branch,
      content_type and content in libpurple/protocols/msn/slp.c and
      libpurple/protocols/msnp9/slp.c.
    - CVE-2009-3083
  * SECURITY UPDATE: denial of service via crafted contact list data
    - debian/patches/90_security_CVE-2009-3615.patch: validate contact
      list structure in libpurple/protocols/oscar/oscar.c.
    - CVE-2009-3615
  * SECURITY UPDATE: denial of service via specially formulated long
    filename (LP: #245769)
    - previous 72_SECURITY_CVE-2008-2955.patch patch was incomplete
    - debian/patches/91_security_CVE-2008-2955-2.patch: change
      src/protocols/msnp9/[slplink.c,slpcall.*] to make sure xfer structure
      still exists before putting dest_fp in it.
    - CVE-2008-2955
  * SECURITY UPDATE: arbitrary code execution via crafted MSN message
    - previous 83_security_CVE-2009-1376.patch patch was incomplete
    - debian/patches/92_security_CVE-2009-1376-2.patch: switch offset
      variable to guint64 in libpurple/protocols/msnp9/slplink.c.
    - CVE-2009-1376
  * Fix connection issue with MSN (LP: #494002)
    - debian/patches/93_msn_protocol8.patch: use protocol v8 in
      libpurple/protocols/msnp9/session.c, as it seems v9 isn't supported
      by msn anymore.
 -- Marc Deslauriers <email address hidden> Fri, 15 Jan 2010 12:56:44 -0500