Classes Begin

MAJOR EDIT: I have decided to follow the format of my transcript for the second Ubuntu Classroom, and combine both days’ classes in one page. This will minimize having to switch from page to page. I also put the “Review” section at the end of the whole transcript, in order not to distract readers from the meat of the subject

Last August 5, 2006, the first Ubuntu Classroom session was held over the IRC (or Internet Relay Chat). Ubuntu is currently one of the most popular and one of the best (in my most humble opinion, of course) Linux-based Operating Systems (or OS) available. The Classroom, sponsored by the NewUsersNetwork, is a project that aims to hold biweekly “classes” over the IRC, covering a wide range of topics about this awesome OS, targeting users of all levels, from beginners to experts. Everyone who has access to IRC is welcomed to sit in and take notes. There are two classes held per topic, the second one being a repeat of the first, for those people who were not able to make it to the first class. For more information about the project, visit their little wiki page over at Ubuntu.

Summary: The fist class was entitled “Introduction to IRC”. However, it did not really go into the most basic IRC concepts and commands. Rather, the class focused on how to use two IRC clients (programs that you use to connect to IRC and chat with people) available in Ubuntu and Kubuntu. The first is a command line client called irssi. This lightweight but powerful program is installed by default in any Ubuntu system. The other client discussed is Konversation. This is a graphical IRC client that’s installed by default in Kubuntu. Ubuntu users can use XChat instead. Unfortunately, there was no one available to discuss about it in class. Questions could be raised during the class by sending a private message to a room moderator. The questions were put into a queue to be asked after the class.

I made a copy of the lessons for both days of the class. I had to edit them so that they would be easily readable by regular people (chat logs are so hard to read…). The “instructors” for the class will publish the chat logs of the class in the wiki page. I will link to it here when it’s already available. The contents of both classes are almost identical, except for a few changes in presentation. The Q&A portion is worth taking note of.

Note: This is the edited and formatted text of my IRC log of the Ubuntu Classroom session held last August 5, 2006 18:00 UTC on the topic “Introduction to IRC”. I have only edited the text in order to present it in an easily readable format. The contents are exactly the same (except in some instances where a small portion had to be relocated in order to place it in the proper context). The contents of the text are not mine but are just the output of the IRC client’s logging feature. Thus the contents belong to the instructor who gave them.

Introduction to IRC (Take 1)
Aug 5, 2006 18:00 UTC
Instructor: hybrid (Irssi)
Instructor: nixternal (Konversation)

Irssi – Command Line IRC Client

Ok, Welcome everyone to the first ever Ubuntu Linux Classroom Session. I am hybrid and i will be instructing today along side nixternal.

Today we are discussing IRC. You all have found you way to Freenode IRC Network, the network Ubuntu calls home. The program you use to connect and talk on IRC is a client and today we will be covering a Command Line client and a Graphical Client. Now I shall begin discussing our Command Line client.

The client I am covering is called ‘irssi‘. It is installed on most Ubuntu machines by default. You can open it by opening Konsole/Terminal/Xterm and typing ‘irssi‘ [Enter]. You will see a new look to the terminal which will include two bars. Now from here we must connect to a network. To connect to freenode you will type ‘/connect chat.freenode.net‘ [Enter]. You will then see information coming from freenode. This information just regards your connection and the server you are on, among a few other details.

You are then connected to Freenode, but not in any channel. From here to join a channel we must type ‘/join #channel‘ [Enter] where ‘#channel’ is the name of the channel you wish to join. You can join multiple channels by typing ‘/join #channel0,#channel1,#channel2‘ [Enter]. irssi will then join those channels in that order. You will notice, unlike its graphical counter parts, irssi does not have separate windows nor tabs. This making changing channels very different. In replace of clicking a tab or window in irssi you will type [Alt]+# Where [Alt] is your alt key and # is the number of the window you wish to go to also you may change between rooms by typing ‘/window #‘[Enter] where # is still the number of the room. So if we joined #channel0 #channel1 and #channel2 in that order, [Alt]+1 is always the server info window, [Alt]+2 would be #channel0 and so on. Now, anytime your name is said, the room number will turn yellow. This indicates someone is wanting your attention.

To private message someone in irssi you will type ‘/msg message‘. For example, if i wished to message nixternal to say ‘hi’ I would type ‘/msg nixternal hi‘ [Enter]. Private messages look just like channels, but there is only two people at all times. Now if you wish to message Nickserv to register your name, you would follow suit with, ‘/msg nickserv register [password]‘ [Enter] where [password] is the password or phrase you have chosen. You should be able to use irssi as a client at any time now.

Now nixternal will discuss a graphical client

Konversation – the KDE IRC Client

== Introduction ==
My name is Rich Johnson, aka nixternal. I have been working with Linux since 1996 and have had the privilege to work with my distributions. Kubuntu has since then replaced every distribution in my arsenal. I am an Ubuntu member, and also assist the Doc, Wiki, Marketing, Bug, Laptop, PDA, and various other teams, as well as the current team contact for Ubuntu Chicago LoCo. You can find me online as ‘nixternal’ and email me,

== KDE and IRC ==
You have a couple of options with KDE and IRC. The 3 main options are of course IRSSI, Konversation and KVIRC. For this tutorial, I plan on showing you the basics to get you up and running with Konversation.

== Kubuntu and IRC ==
The same for Kubuntu as KDE and IRC. However, Konversation is installed by default in Kubuntu, hence the reason I am showing you Konversation over KVIRC, and IRSSI was shown as the CLI option.

== Intro to Konversation ==
http://konversation.kde.org/
Konversation is the graphical IRC client maintained by KDE developers. Some of the features available for Konversation are:

Standard IRC features

  • SSL server support
  • Bookmarking support
  • Easy to use graphical user interface
  • Multiple servers and channels in one single window
  • DCC file transfer
  • Multiple identities for different servers
  • Text decorations and colors
  • OnScreen Display for notifications
  • Automatic UTF-8 detection
  • Per channel encoding support
  • Theme support for nick icons
  • Highly configurable

#konversation is the location on Freenode to get more information concerning Konversation and it’s development. The current stable release of Konversation is 0.19. 0.20 will be available for Edgy Eft.

== What we shall cover today ==
This will be a quick and easy tutorial that will show you the basics or connecting to servers, joining channels, as well as configuring Konversation and some tips-and-tricks if possible.

== First things first ==
Kmenu -> Internet -> Konversation if you are using Kubuntu of course ;)
This is how you open up Konversation. Now, we will follow along with some screenshots I made. The images are a default KDE/Kubuntu environment. I am shooting from the hip from this point on, as we will just skim through the images, and I will attempt to explain it to you.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom/Intro2IRC
Everyone, check out that link…and lets start with image 1.

  1. It is the basic “Kmenu -> Internet -> Konversation” menu path it will open up Konversation, and now you should be looking at something similar to image 2. NOTE: My images are default everything. including Kubuntu install and Konversation. The theme is default, and may look different then yours
  2. Image 2: This shows you the main window for Konversation, and it automatically pops up the “Server List” window. The arrow >, if clicked will extend down, and now show you the server(s) used. This takes us to image 3
  3. Image 3: This is showing you by default, that the Freenode Network has the ‘irc.freenode.net’ server setup by default by selecting ‘freenode’ and clicking the “Edit…” button to the right, you will get image 4, the “Edit Network” window
  4. Image 4: This will show you the basic setup of an IRC server in Konversation. In here you can add servers for the Network, add channels for the network, and even edit your identity. The Ubuntu community currently uses ‘Freenode’ as the network for communications. Now within this network, you can join it via different servers. The main servers or choice are, chat.freenode.net (outside of the U.S.) and chat.us.freenode.net (inside the U.S. of course)
  5. Image 5: Here I select ‘irc.freenode.net’ and then press the “Edit…” button to it’s immediate right. This will lead us to Image 6.
  6. Image 6: This is the actual server configuration window. Here you would/could change it to ‘chat.freenode.net’ or ‘chat.us.freenode.net’ if you wanted to also, pay attention to the port.
  7. Image 7: Notice I changed the port to 8001. This is to protect you from malicious DCC attacks that go around and knock you offline. On to image 8…
  8. Image 8: I have selected #kubuntu in the “Auto Join Channels” list. i can edit it to change it, delete it, or add to the list. what this list does, is upon connecting to the ‘Freenode’ network, Konversation will automatically join the channels in that list since I am always at #kubuntu, I will keep it. now, press the add button and take a look at image 10.
  9. [Image 9: highlights which Add button to press]
  10. Image 10: this is where we will add another channel.
  11. Image 11: I added #ubuntu-nun. So now, when I join Freenode, konversation will now automatically join #kubuntu and #ubuntu-nun on Freenode, I believe there is a 20 channel limit, nalioth can comment on that further if I am mistaken.
  12. Image 12: You will notice the 2 channels are now in there and ready to be auto joined! On to image 13.
  13. Image 13: If you were back at the window similar to ‘Image 12′, you would press the ‘Edit…’ button to the right of “Identity: ‘Default Identity’”. That would give us the “Identities” window
    Here is where you would put in your information that will be relayed to the network, Freenode in this instance, upon connection. The network uses this information when you authenticate… So, I type in my Real Name, Rich Johnson the last time I checked. Now, we definitely want to change the nicknames, because everyone who uses Konversation by default and joins the server, you will see Kubuntu, Kubuntu_, Kubuntu__ and so on in the #Kubuntu channel at times you need to be unique! ;) I could just delete the Nicknames listed, but I will just go ahead and edit them. Highlight one of the nicknames, and then press the “Edit…” button to the right. This will give you image 15.
  14. [Image 14: highlights which button to press]
  15. Image 15: Edit Nickname -> Here you can type in the nickname of your choice. I type in nixternal. For instance, elkbuntu would type in ‘elkbuntu’ in this area ;) The name at the top of the list, is the main nickname you prefer. Everyone below it is secondary, and is recommended you pick at least one, if not a couple. Also make sure you register then with Freenode /quote nickserv register . That will register your nickname on freenode!
  16. Image 16: this shows the 2 nicknames I have chosen… nixternal is my main one, and just in case i disconnect and reconnect and nixternal gets ghosted (common occurrence), konversation and freenode with use nixternal_ instead. Image 16 shows the following…

    Service: type in nickserv
    Password: type in your password you created upon registering your nick

    You can “OK” your way out of that now and get back to the main Konversation window, which hasn’t been connected to a server yet

  17. Image 17: Please, for proper IRC etiquette, leave this section blank. We don’t want to see every time you go “Away”, and we definitely don’t want to see the messages.
  18. Image 18: This is advanced stuff here obviously. You can change it around if you know what you are doing. To be unique, feel free to change your “Part reason:” and “Kick reason:”. Just make sure you follow the Ubuntu Code of Conduct ;)
  19. Image 19: Back at the basic server window. If you were to close out of this window, and needed to get back in to edit stuff at a later time, check out image 20
  20. Image 20: “File > Server List…” or F2 will get you back to that window. Alrighty, we have the server setup, we have our identity. Before I go on…for those of you who registered your nickname, you know you need to do /quote nickserv identify every time you join the Freenode network. Konversation can do this automatically for you, however I seemed to have skipped that part really quick, to show you, Press F2. This opens up our server list. Now select “Freenode” and then press the “Edit…” button. Now in the edit network window, you want to press the “Edit…” button for your identity. This will open up a window like Image 13. At the bottom “Auto Identify”.
  21. Image 21: “Settings -> Configure Konversation…” This is where you go to make ALL of your “Look and Feel” configurations for Konversation. I will go over these briefly…
  22. Image 22: “Chat Window” under “Appearance”. Timestamps are the little [13:50] brackets you see on the right. You can show dates as well, but be warned, you will have one long line! Layout shows you some of the minor tweaks you can make to clean up your main views of channels. This is nice if you don’t want to see everything. Show channel topic shows you a bar across the top with the topic ;) Channel mode buttons are displayed in the upper right hand corner and look like T N S I P M K L. these set different modes for the channel, which is a little more advanced. Nick list and quick buttons…the nicklist displays at the right of the screen, and lists everyone who is in that channel, for instance…in #ubuntu-classroom, i can see everyone from “ChanServ” down to “zimmerman_luc”. What you see in image 22 is about all you really want, otherwise it becomes cluttered and messy, and difficult to read.
  23. Image 23: “Fonts”. Pretty basic I would say. You can change the fonts to whatever ones you prefer. I am a “bitstream” guy, so that is all my fonts.
  24. Image 24: “Themes”. Now, this isn’t a theme you are probably used to not like Kopete or aMSN themes. These are the little boxes you see in the “Nicklist” that will show “Voice”, “Op”, “Away” and such. Nothing big really, and useless if you ask me, i prefer the @ for op, and the + for voice, so somebody in here needs to create that theme ;)
  25. Image 25: Colors. I like dark backgrounds and light foregrounds actually…but you can change it to look the way you want. You can click apply while making these changes, and see them right away in the main Konversation window, which makes it easy to see if they will work or not.
  26. Image 26: “Behavior > General”. System Tray, I enable this and use it for notification…leave it default. That way, when some one says your nickname in a channel, the Konversation icon will flash red letting you know. You can edit it however you want to be unique. “Show Server List Dialog”. This is the same as pressing F2. You may not want to see that everytime you start Konversation. Uncheck it if you do NOT want to see it ;)
  27. Image 27: Connection. You can leave it default, no need to really make any changes here, unless you are going to debug of course.
  28. Image 28: Chat Window. Under General, you can clean up what you see and don’t see in channel windows. This is nice for busy channels like #ubuntu or #kubuntu and you don’t want to see all the join/quits and what not. Scrollback is another one i like…i have mine at 2500, that way there I don’t have to cat mylogs | grep what i want all the time. I can press Ctrl + F and do a search ;) Just like Firefox.
  29. Image 29: Tab Bar. This is my biggest pet peeve actually. I am in a lot of channels, so I can’t read all my tabs you can make changes to suit you.
  30. Image 30: Nickname List. This sorts out the nicklist….by user status will put Operators at the top, voiced below them, and then everyone else further down.
  31. Image 31: Command Aliases. My favorite. There are some neat aliases in there, however using them in some channels will get you banned!.. that is your first warning ;)

    Random Fortune: Personally, I think my choice in the mostest-superlative-computer wars has to be the HP-48 series of calculators. They’ll run almost anything. And if they can’t, while I’ll just plug a Linux box into the serial port and load up the HP-48 VT-100 emulator. – Jeff Dege, jdege@winternet.com.

    Sysinfo for ‘MasTequila’: Linux 2.6.15-26-k7 running KDE 3.5.4, CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ at 1667 MHz (3338 bogomips), HD: 45/110GB, RAM: 807/1264MB, 107 proc’s, 15.18h up.

    Current weather for Chicago / West Chicago, Dupage Airport : Clear skies, Temperature: 72°F, Pressure: 30.11″ Hg, Wind: 0 MPH.

    There was /fortune, /sysinfo and /weather. For /weather to work, you have to have ‘Kweather’ installed and running as an applet in kicker. /media will show what you are listening to in Amarok or other media players. These aliases all reference scripts so everything after the /exec that you see, is the actual script name.

  32. Image 32: Quick Buttons. These are buttons you can show under the Nicklist. these buttons will allow you to perform special functions.
  33. Image 33: Ignore. Here is where you can ignore certain words, nicknames, and what not. There isn’t a lot of spam around here, so i don’t use this often, unless i have someone going nuts in a message ;)
  34. Image 34: Logging. Setting this up will log the channels you are in…logging is useful to go back and scour at a later time…and will be used to create the “minutes” of this lecture.
  35. Image 35: DCC. This is for sending and receiving files. there isn’t much I DCC anymore, as I quit using Windows a while ago, and most of you who have used windows and mIRC know what DCC is good for ;)
  36. Image 36: Tab Bar. This will setup the tabs of channels. You can change the color notifications to suit you.
  37. Image 37: Highlights. here you would add words that you want to be notified for. So if for instance, you are a developer for Kflickr, and you want to know when someone says it in a channel, you can add it here.
  38. Image 38: Watched Nicknames. Here you can have Konversation tell you when your buddy has joined. So everytime abattoir joins, I want to know. So I had his information here and I will be notified from now on.
  39. Image 39: On Screen Display. Those of you using Amarok know what this is…when someone notifies you, or you have a notification setup, a small translucent popup will display with who it is from and what it says. I like this feature, so when I’m working on something else, and somebody pings me to get my attention, i will know who and what…almost like screening phone calls ;)
  40. Image 40: Warning Dialogs. You can change these to your liking…i know the pasting large portions is nice. That way there, if you accidentally paste something big, you get warned..otherwise it could paste to the channel, and get you banned/kicked let alone booted from the server for a flood.
  41. Image 41: Configure Notifications. This will lead you to image 42
    Image 42: This is the notification window. Here you can set up how you are notified for certain events. The 2 to the right, just before “Events” are probably the most used. The one with the “K and gear” will flash your Konversation taskbar icon. The one with the speaker will make the sound of your choice. That can be annoying, but useful if you are not paying attention, or not at the keyboard.
  42. Image 43: is just clicking the “Advanced…” button and leading you to image 44.
  43. Image 44: Advanced options. And the last of the images.

NOW YOU HAVE KONVERSATION SETUP…READY TO ROCK AND ROLL
press F2
select Freenode
press “Connect…”
ENJOY~!!!!!

That concludes the Konversation part

Question and Answer:

  • Q. What is the difference between IRC and Yahoo Chat?
    A1. Yahoo chat is subject to Yahoo’s rules, anyone can create an IRC network. There are many open source IRC options, the Yahoo Chat Protocol is not Open.
    A2. Yahoo Chat is also a spot for many “Script Kiddies” who want to do harm. Same with IRC, however it is usually controlled by great people quite regularly
  • Q. I just want to point out something when using irssi: Changing channels on non-us keyboards sometimes also needs (next to meta and the number) e.g. on my belgium ‘azerty’-keyboard. Meta is most of the time your alt-key ;)
    A. Depending on ones keyboard settings, the ‘meta’ key may be ‘esc’, ‘alt’ or some other combination.
  • Q. If I join more than 9 channels, how do I change to the 10th, 11th, etc? And what is a room? And what are rooms?
    A. In irssi, you can type /window 11 [Enter]. Also meta key + q through o is 11 through 19, respectfully. A ‘room’ and a ‘channel’ are pretty much the same thing
  • Q. about registering a nick… i noticed it registered the nick in relation with an ip range as well…. won’t there be problems if the ip address is dynamically allocated and thus exits the ip range ? (yesterday ip address : 86.120.162.xxx today : 86.120.138.xxx)
    A. Your nick will work whenever you issue the password you registered with. It’s just something services does, i’ve logged in from across the US. As long as you remember your password, your nick will be identified.
  • Q. how do you leave a private message window/room?
    A. In konversation and most other clients …. /part. In irssi, /wc will close the current ‘window’ or /window.
  • Q. I can’t get more than 1000 lines in Scrollback option(Konversation)
    A. The 2000 lines limit in Scrollback option is available on the “nightly build” versions for testing purposes. You will be able to soon with the new version that should be released sometime this month.
  • Q. Will there be the lecture about configuring irssi (not just basics)?
    A. If we can find an irssi expert who wants to teach it, yes.
  • Q. if i have 5 rooms opened in irssi,how do i close the third room,or the fourth room?
    A1. you can /wc the visible ‘window’ to close it
    A2. meta key + 4 for the 3rd room…remember meta key + 1 = server….meta key + 2 is the first room.

Excellent! Thank you everyone for your interest today, and thank you for showing up. I hope everything was informational, and I hope it wasn’t to boring. Everyone has been wonderful! You all are the reason Ubuntu is Great!

Next Weeks Topic is Command Line Introduction

Introduction to IRC (Take 1)
Aug 7, 2006 01:00 UTC
Instructor: hybrid (Irssi)
Instructor: nixternal (Konversation)

Welcome to the second edition of the first Ubuntu Classroom Session. This is another session covering yesterday’s topic, but at a different time. We will be covering Basic IRC usage and launching nuclear weapons with nixternal. Today we will discuss two client, programs used to connect to IRC networks, one graphical and one command line option. I will cover irssi, a text based irc program, installed by default on most *nix boxen.

Irssi – Command Line IRC Client

Apparently you have found your way to freenode and the #ubuntu-classroom channel. To begin with irssi you need to open your chosen terminal emulator, shutdown X, or ssh to a server. From here we will type ‘irssi‘ [Enter]. This will transform your window. From here we will type ‘/connect chat.freenode.net‘ [Enter] or you can type ‘/con[Tab] fr[Tab]‘[Enter] and you will see the [Tab] key will complete the ‘/connect’ and ‘freenode’. Then much information will appear. Most is no use to you, but rather information about the specific network and server you have connected to. From here you need to chose a nickname, done by ‘/nick name‘ where ‘name’ is your chosen nickname.

Once you are connected and have your chosen name, you need to join channels, or rooms. Thus done by ‘/join #channel‘[Enter] or you can join multiple channels/rooms by ‘/join #channel0,#channel1,#channel2‘[Enter]. irssi handles room much different than its GUI counterparts. You will not see any tabs or separate windows. Instead, towards the bottom, will appear a list of numbers, each number representing a room/channel. Number 1 is always your server info window, number 2 is your first room, number 3 is the second room, etc. You chose the number you wish to go to and press [Alt]+# where [Alt] is your alt key and # is the number representing the room. Now you can talk in any room just as you would on your current client.

To Private Message someone, often compared to IMing, you type ‘/msg nick message‘. For instance if i wished to message nixternal ‘hello’ i would type ‘/msg nixternal hello’ [Enter]. This would bring up a new number and begin my private conversation with nixternal. Now anytime you see a channel turn a reddish color, someone has mentioned your handle. If someone was to say ‘hybrid’ in #ubuntu-nun at this moment, my number representing #ubuntu-nun would turn red, as i go to this room, the line containing my nick would turn yellow. If you have been using chat long you will be use to addressing people by, nick: message, in example nixternal: howdy. In irssi this is super easy, you type the first two letters of the person’s nick and hit tab, for example ni[Tab] becomes nixternal. If there are multiple nicks beginning with ni* then you can cycle through them with the tab. So om[Tab] leads to ompaul but om[Tab][Tab] leads to OmniColos.

Now you should be able to use irssi well enough anytime you wish or must.

Now to the GUI client.

Konversation – KDE IRC Client

== Introduction ==
My name is Rich Johnson, aka nixternal. I have been working with Linux since 1996 and have had the privilege to work with my distributions. Kubuntu has since then replaced every distribution in my arsenal. I am an Ubuntu member, and also assist the Doc, Wiki, Marketing, Bug, Laptop, PDA, and various other teams, as well as the current team contact for Ubuntu Chicago LoCo. You can find me online as ‘nixternal’ or you are free to email me, nixternal@ubuntu.com. Just so everyone knows, one of my favorite things is to help out others, because Ubuntu is and will always be free for me, this is the way I help pay back my gratitude. With that in hand, feel free to contact me anytime, with any issue!

== KDE and IRC ==
You have a couple of options with KDE and IRC. The 3 main options are of course IRSSI, Konversation and KVIRC. For this tutorial, I plan on showing you the basics to get you up and running with Konversation.

== Kubuntu and IRC ==
The same for Kubuntu as KDE and IRC. However, Konversation is installed by default in Kubuntu, hence the reason I am showing you Konversation over KVIRC, and IRSSI was shown as the CLI option.

== Intro to Konversation ==
http://konversation.kde.org/
Konversation is the graphical IRC client maintained by KDE developers. Some of the features available for Konversation are:

Standard IRC features

  • SSL server support
  • Bookmarking support
  • Easy to use graphical user interface
  • Multiple servers and channels in one single window
  • DCC file transfer
  • Multiple identities for different servers
  • Text decorations and colors
  • OnScreen Display for notifications
  • Automatic UTF-8 detection
  • Per channel encoding support
  • Theme support for nick icons
  • Highly configurable

#konversation is the location on Freenode to get more information concerning Konversation and it’s development. The current stable release of Konversation is 0.19. 0.20 will be available for Edgy Eft.

== What we shall cover today ==
This will be a quick and easy tutorial that will show you the basics for connecting to servers, joining channels, as well as configuring Konversation and some tips-and-tricks if possible.

== First things first ==
Kmenu -> Internet -> Konversation
This is how you open up Konversation. Now, we will follow along with some screenshots I made. The images are a default KDE/Kubuntu environment. I am shooting from the hip from this point on, as we will just skim through the images, and I will attempt to explain it to you. OK, I will be showing you all some images, be warned that your desktop/display may look different then the images I will be showing you. I am using the DEFAULT Kubuntu theme and colors. Here we go.

Images are located at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Classroom/Intro2IRC

  1. Image 1: This is how you get to Konversation using KMenu
  2. Image 2: This is the initial window/screen you will see upon opening Konversation. You will notice the “Server List”. This is the main point for configuring Networks (i.e., Freenode), Servers (i.e., chat.freenode.net), channels (i.e., #ubuntu, #kubuntu, #ubuntu-classroom), as well as your identity.
  3. Image 3: This just shows you the server under the network Freenode. You will notice in the image that irc.freenode.net is used as the server. There are many servers you can use to connect to the Freenode network. http://www.freenode.net for more information on that!
  4. Image 4: “Edit Network” this is what you get if you highlight “Freenode” in the Server List, and then click the “Edit…” button. Here you will see the “Identity”, “Servers”, and “Auto Join Channels” sections. These are the 3 main sections of interest for us right now.
  5. Image 5: I have highlighted irc.freenode.net in this image
  6. Image 6: Pressing “Edit…” to the right of the ‘irc.freenode.net’ will open up this window
  7. Image 7: Notice I changed the port to 8001. This is to prevent DCC attacks to routers that are vulnerable to the attack
  8. Image 8: I have pressed OK, and I am now back to the Edit Network window, notice I have selected #kubuntu. I am pressing Add, which will give you…
  9. [Image 9: Shows which Add button to press]
  10. Image 10: The window to add a new channel
  11. Image 11: I have added #ubuntu-nun. You can add #any_channel_you_want and then press ok
  12. Image 12: Back to the Edit Network window, notice the highlighted “Edit…” button next to “Identity:”
  13. Image 13: Click the edit button. Identities window appears. Here you can add your personal information. I have added my real name, not worrying about some hacker getting it, since I don’t use Windows, I don’t fear them ;) Now, I could either delete the current nicknames, edit them, or add more. I go by ‘nixternal’ everywhere so I want nixternal in there. Now, you see there is kubuntu and kubuntu_. This is used in the case that you disconnect unexpectedely *excuse spelling ;) If you reconnect, and kubuntu was still on the server, but frozen, you can’t connect with the same nick. That is also located on the FAQ section and what not on the Freenode website.
  14. skip 14, and [shows which button to press]
  15. 15, as it is just editing the nicknames to suit me
  16. Image 16: You will see I have my basic identify setup completed. “Auto Identify”. Notice the ‘nickserv’ in the “Service” are and the ‘********’ in the “Password” area. This will automatically “Identify” my nickname as long as it is registered on Freenode everytime I log into the network. /quote nickserv register [password] This will register your current nickname. Freenode’s site has all the info you need for this! Moving on.
  17. Image 17: Please, whatever you do, leave this section alone. We do not like our windows being filled up with “Away” messages and this is pretty annoying. This could lead to kick/bans in some channels on IRC as well
  18. Image 18: Advanced section. The only thing I have ever changed was the “Part Reason” and the “Kick Reason”, just to be different and not “Stock”. as far as I know, with Freenode, there is no reason for me to send any “Pre-shell commands”.
  19. Image 19: Press OK, and you will be back at the main Server List window. Now you have the option to either “Connect” or “Close”. Connect will log you onto the Freenode server. Close will do exactly that and close the Server List window.
  20. Image 20 shows you how to open up the Server List window if you need it.
  21. Image 21: This is where the “Meat and Potatoes” for Konversation configuration lies. “Configure Konversation”. This will bring us to…
  22. Image 22: “Chat Window”. This is basic setting for the actual window you see when chatting in a channel. The following images are going to be brief, so feel free to ask questions at the end of this lecture. Here we go.
  23. Image 23: “Fonts”. Just that, the fonts that Konversation will use
  24. Image 24: “Themes”. Don’t confuse this with visual layouts. This is the icon theme you will see next to nicknames in the “NIckList”
  25. Image 25: “Colors”. Here is where you can change all the colors you need. Tip: By clicking apply, you can see changes in real time. This makes it easy to test your colors and see if they will work for you
  26. Image 26: “Behavior > General”. This has some nice features to play with…System Tray for notifications…Nick Completion, App Startup..and Misc
  27. Image 27: Connection. This just controls the timeout you will experience during a netsplit, or disconnect through your ISP. Pretty self explanatory actually.
  28. Image 28: Chat Window. This will allow you to make the layout of the window cleaner if you need it to. Scrollback window for Dapper and Konversation is 1000. Edgy is 2000 as it is using new SVN Nightly Builds
  29. Image 29: Tab Bar. My biggest pet peeve actually is the Konversation Tab Bar, but is currently being restructured for Edgy!
  30. Image 30: Nick Name List. This is the list you will see in Konversation over -> (to the right). It has everyone in the channel listed. Here you can sort by status, which will put OPs up top, Voice and everyone else under them, maintaining an alphabetical order as well.
  31. Image 31: Command Aliases. These are the “Scripts” in Konversation. Everything after the /exec under replacement is the actual script name. For instance /fortune does…

    Random Fortune: This is a logical analogy too… anyone who’s been around, knows the world is run by penguins. Always a penguin behind the curtain, really getting things done. And penguins in politics–who can deny it? — Kevin M. Bealer, commenting on the penguin Linux logo

    and /sysinfo does…

    Sysinfo for ‘MasTequila’: Linux 2.6.15-26-k7 running KDE 3.5.4, CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ at 1667 MHz (3338 bogomips), HD: 46/110GB, RAM: 1129/1264MB, 117 proc’s, 5.27h up

    and if you have music playing… /media does…

    nixternal is listening to “Tonight, Not Again” by Jason Mraz on Waiting For My Rocket To Come [Amarok]

    these are also annoying in many channels, but fun in “offtopic”

  32. Image 32: Quick Buttons. These are the buttons that are under the nick list to the right. As you can see, they are used for basic Channel Management.
  33. Image 33: Ignore. Here you can ignore certain types of messages by word. Say you don’t want to see conversation concerning “Microsoft”, you would add that to the ignore list, and everytime somebody said Microsoft, you would never be annoyed by such a bad word ever again ;) This also works for ignoring usernames. So you could ignore hybrid…especially when he is shooting down GUI clients ;)
  34. Image 34: Logging. This is my favorite…it basically allows you to log “ALL” conversation in every channel that “YOU ARE IN”. You can make basic changes to how it is saved and laid out
  35. Image 35: DCC. many of you have probably gotten your fair share of Movies, Apps, and what not when you were Windows junkies, by using DCC and mIRC. DCC is Peer-2-Peer, and provides a direct connection to transfer files, or even to converse.
  36. Image 36: Tab Bar. This is just for notification purposes, as it falls under the “Notifications” section. Here you can change the look and feel of tab notifications.
  37. Image 37: Highlight. Say you are a Konversation developer and want to know when someone mentions ‘Konversation’, or any other word you want to know about. You can set it up here and be notified every time it is mentioned in conversations.
  38. Image 38: Watched Nicknames. Everytime jsgotangco joins IRC/Freenode I want to know. So I set his information up here, and when he comes online, I am notified about it!
  39. Image 39: On Screen Display “OSD” to us Geex. This is just a “Pretty” pop up window for notifications
  40. Image 40: Warning Dialogs. Most are annoying with the “Are you sure” business. However, the one I definitely recommend keeping is the “Warning on pasting large portions of text”. This will save you from paste flooding which could lead to kicks, bans, and k-lines
  41. Image 41: On our way to configuring “Notifications”
  42. Image 42: Notification Settings. Here you can change the different types of notifications you will receive. I only use the “Message” version, unless I am afk but still near by, then I will add some sound. Hovering your mouse above the images to the left of “Events” will explain what each column does
  43. Image 43: Click advanced for more…
  44. Image 44: This just displays the advanced options.

That is it for all of the images….

Thank you everyone! As this concludes Konversation 101

Question and Answer:

  • Q. In Irssi – what does it mean when i get ‘couldn’t look up your hostname’?
    A. That is a router issue i believe…i get it on every IRC client I use..it is harmless I’m sure. It means you aren’t broadcasting the name of your computer for one ;)
  • Q. Where can i find a list of irc commands?
    A. www.irchelp.org. Best bet is ‘/help’
  • Q. Will you be archiving these lessons?
    A. Yes!!! Log will be published soon on the Wiki for review
  • Q. Where does irssi get its list of default and alternate nicknames?
    A. In ~/.irssi/config. You can /set nickname, /set realname, and such. That is just an interface to ~/.irssi/config though.
  • Q. I just noticed that “/connect chat.freenode.net 8001″ connects me to that server using the 8001 port, right?
    A. Yes. you are safe from people booting you via DCC exploits. ~/.irssi/config can also make 8001 the default port. Or /server add -network Freenode chat.freenode.net 8001

Review: This is a first, I believe, in Ubuntu history. A class that specifically targets regular Ubuntu users, both old and new (There are other “classes” in Ubuntu, but targets developers and programmers). Like many “first” projects, there were probably a lot of expectations. I wouldn’t know if the expectations of others were met, since I have not seen much discussion of the class in the forums or in IRC. My expectations were mostly met, and I think that the team behind The Classroom has done exceptionally well. I probably shouldn’t have expected much “detailed” content regarding IRC, since knowledge of IRC basics is an implied requirement to be able to attend the class in the first place. Perhaps the title “Introduction to IRC” was a bit misleading.

Another issue that I had was the announcement of the time for both classes. Although the dates for the classes have already been decided and posted, the times are still TBD (To Be Discussed). But it’s okay. The real problem that I had was that the time for the two classes was not announced at the same time. The time for the first class (6 PM GMT) was announced I think a day or two before the class. The time for the second class (1 AM GMT), on the other hand, was announced after the first class. If I had known before hand that the second class would be held at that time, I would have not forced myself to stay up late for the first class (6 PM GMT is 2 AM in my place, while 1 AM GMT is 9 AM). The result was that I didn’t appreciate the lessons of the first class, as my mind wasn’t in its best condition. I thought I learned more in Take Two of the class, but as I reviewed the logs, it seems that there were actually more details in Take One.

Anyway, the organizers of the class mentioned that they will be announcing the times for the next 2 classes at the same time. I’m still undecided, though, whether I’ll just attend the class that’s scheduled to more convenient time, or still try to sit in both classes.

All in all, I think they really did a great job! Specially considering that this is all volunteer (a.k.a. not paid) work. One of the great things about Free/Open Source Software is that it brings about the best in people. To the NewUserNetwork team and instructors/moderators of The Classroom (nixternal, hybrid, nalioth, et al.), thanks for this awesome experience and gift to the community! I’m looking forward to the classes ahead!

Until then… RECESS!!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 9th, 2006 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Linux, Ubuntu. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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