Introduction
GAIM acts as an interface to the AOL instant messenger service in Linux. It has most of the same features (including away messages) as the official AOL IM version. The latest version has many great features including smiley face support, optional ticker, ability to configure foreground and background colors, and accept files.
One nice feature is the Lag-o-meter that allows you to see your connection speed to the AIM server.
GAIM Installation
RPM Version
rpm -ivh gaim-0.10.3-1.i386.rpm
TAR Version
- tar -xvzf gaim-0.10.3.tar.gz
cd gaim-0.10.3
./configure
make
make install
Post-installation
After installation, run the executable /usr/local/bin/gaim for the TAR version you compile yourself or /usr/bin/gaim for the RPM installation.
Installing GAIM from CVS
If you want to use the very latest version of GAIM from the CVS source, grab the source files from the CVS server, compile it, and install it with the following commands:
- cvs -d ‘:pserver:anonymous@cvs.gaim.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/gaim’ login (press Enter for password)
- cvs -z3 -d ‘:pserver:anonymous@cvs.gaim.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/gaim’ co gaim
- cd gaim
- ./gen
- ./configure or ./configure –enable-panel to compile GAIM as a Gnome Applet
- make
- make install
The executable is located in /usr/local/bin/gaim.
If you used the switch –enable-panel in step 5 and are using Gnome as your desktop, you can go to Gnome Main Menu Button(the foot) => Panel => Add to panel => Applet => Network => Gaim. This will add a GAIM applet to your panel instead of having the GAIM window open all the time. Clicking it once will show you the GAIM window with your Buddy List. Clicking the applet again will make the window disappear, but you will still be online. You can right-click the applet to view more options such as Online/Offline, Away Message, configure plugins, etc.
