Pidgin: Keyboard becomes unresponsive after Status change

In Fedora 17 (i386), after changing status in pidgin 2.10.x, it is not possible to use keyboard in chat window. Keyboard becomes unresponsive. Even, I tried to compile and install newer pidgin 2.10.7, the issue remains same.

Then, after searching, I came across this bug https://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/15220 in Pidgin (actually GTK+), which suggests to

Right Click inside typing input box of Chat window > Input Methods > (Select any input method)

After this, input from keyboard is again possible.

Newer Yahoo! Messenger Protocol on Pidgin on Debian Lenny 5.0

Yahoo! has changed authentication method of Yahoo! messenger protocol, which is not supported in Pidgin (Version <>= 2.5.7) supports newer Yahoo! Messenger Protocol. But Debian 5.0 Lenny repository has older pidgin (2.4.3). We can install newer pidgin, in the following steps:

## download latest pidgin from pidgin.im (at this time 2.6.3 is latest)
$ wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/pidgin/files/Pidgin/pidgin-2.6.3.tar.bz2

## extract files using tar
$ tar -zxvf pidgin-2.6.3.tar.bz2

$ cd pidgin-2.6.3

## Configure, Compile, and make
$ ./configure --disable-screensaver --disable-vv --disable-avahi --disable-tcl --disable-tk --prefix=/usr 
$ make
$ sudo make install

Now you can use newer pidgin with newer Yahoo! Messenger. :)
Enjoy Yahoo!

Pidgin: Buddy List Window Resize is not Working

I am regular user of Pidgin Multiprotocol Instant Messenger (IM)
for Yahoo! and Gtalk IMs.
The buddy list window was getting wider and wider after several
uses. I tried to resize the window. But I was not able to do so.
Then I think to change the configuration file to resize the window.
The configurations are stored in ~/.purple/prefs.xml

I then, opened this file and searched for 'width'
The width in which I was interested is related to 'buddy list window'
i.e. look for section 'blist' and change the width variable according
to your need (I had set it to 300).
<pref name='blist'>
...
...
<pref name='width' type='int' value='300'/>
...
...
</pref>

Save this file and restart pidgin and viola!!
This Works :)

Fortune Status for Pidgin IM

If you want to change status message of Pidgin Message by
fortune message. Just create a file pidgin_status_message.py
And copy the following lines.

#----------------------------

#!/usr/bin/env python
import dbus,subprocess,time

def set_status(message):
  bus = dbus.SessionBus()
  obj = bus.get_object("im.pidgin.purple.PurpleService", "/im/pidgin/purple/PurpleObject")
  purple = dbus.Interface(obj, "im.pidgin.purple.PurpleInterface")
  current = purple.PurpleSavedstatusGetType(purple.PurpleSavedstatusGetCurrent())
  status = purple.PurpleSavedstatusNew("", current)
  purple.PurpleSavedstatusSetMessage(status, message)
  purple.PurpleSavedstatusActivate(status)

while True:
  fortune = subprocess.Popen('fortune', stdout = subprocess.PIPE).stdout.read()
  set_status(fortune)
  time.sleep(120)
#-------------------------------

Start Pidgin and give following command:
$ python pidgin_status_message.py &