[Tutorial] Linux IRC client installation (Ubuntu)

[Elchzard]

Guide for IRC client installation on linux, mainly focused on Ubuntu - But you should be able to apply these methods to other distros fairly easily.

You can access IRC using Xertion's webclient if you're having trouble or want help installing to a different linux flavour - But please try for yourself first. 

Before you start installing a client: I recommend you register your IRC nick using the webchat before starting to install. There are nice little popup boxes that walk you through the process when using the Xertion webchat, which are fairly self explanatory, but you could also read this for an explanation.
 

XChat

 

1) Open the Ubuntu software center

If you're running Ubuntu 11.04 or later, you'll have Unity installed - So the software center is fairly easily accessed from the sidebar, either as its own icon or by searching from the Dash Home. Wherever you manage to find it, open it up.

 

 

 

2) Search for and install XChat

Once you have the Software Center open, just search for "xchat" in the search bar. The first very first entry is the one we're looking for, as shown in the spoiler below.

Hit install, and enter your Ubuntu admin password in the popup that appears. XChat will then begin to download and install.

 

 

 

 

 

3) Configure XChat

Once the installing is done, an XChat icon should jump into your Unity launcher, in the sidebar. If this isn't the case, head into Dash Home and search for "xchat" - You should be able to find it quite easily.

Once you've found out where it is, you'll see a dialogue very similar to this, called "XChat: Network List"

 

 

 

 

First of all you'll want to change your user information. "Nick name" is the name everyone will see you by in IRC. "Second choice" should be the same as "Nick name", with an underscore at the end - And "Third choice" the same as "Second choice", with a second underscore. These 2 nicknames are used if you ever disconnect from IRC unexpectedly - Due to a network failure on your end, such as your router dying or something. Just fill them out as I've described, so you can still connect to IRC using XChat if this happens to you.


Next is setting up the network that #Kametsu is hosted on - Xertion. 

First off, click "Add" in the small menu at the left of "Network List."
"New Network" will appear in the main list - Type "Xertion" here.

Next, press "Edit," again in the small left-hand menu. You should currently be seeing something like this:

 

Now, we'll enter the details you need to connect. When you're done, the "XChat: Edit Xertion" window should look like the screenshot below.

Important: When entering info into the "Edit Xertion" window, make sure you press enter after you're done with a specific text entry field. For instance: After you've entered the server name in the topmost box, PRESS ENTER, otherwise what you've entered won't stay there.

Protip: When you're done entering the text displayed in this screenshot, tick (or untick and then tick) the "Auto connect to this network at startup" box, check all the details are right, and then press enter. This will ensure you that everything you think is going to happen, will happen.
 

Make sure you fill out the "Nickserv password" field with the password you used to register your nickname (as I recommended you did before you started installing a client   )


Once you're done with that, and you've followed through on my protip, you should be back to this:

Xertion should be highlighted, so just hit connect. You'll see something similar to this, once you've done that:

Just untick the box reading "Always show this dialogue after connecting" and you're good to chat with the good people of the Kametsu IRC channel
 

4) Optimize XChat to download anime from XDCC bots and fserves

XChat is generally okay to receive file downloads as soon as you set it up. If you want to spend some time messing around though, Check out Settings (in the taskbar at the top) > Preferences > Network > File transfers.
My own settings look like this - I use Windows 7, but the options are the same.

The way I have this set up means that downloads automatically start, without me having to accept them, and they go straight into the folder [incoming] on my H: drive. This means I can organize stuff nicely.

You don't really need to mess around with the middle section of settings - should be fine as-is, but the bottom can be played around with if you want to set your downloads so they don't put too much strain on your connection.


As I say, though, XChat works nicely for file transfers without changing anything. By default, you browse for the folder to save a file in every time one is sent to you, and that's fine. This is an example of how it would look when receiving a file from an XDCC bot - The method of which is detailed here.

Starting the transfer (You get to see a slight fail too) :

While the transfer's going:

 

5) Make XChat look sexy! (And further optimization)

You may not be enjoying the slightly windows-commandline-ish look of XChat right now, so I'm just going to post up the way one of my good friends Kaishiro - One of Xertion's owners - chose to configure his client. This'll give it a nice black feel, with comfortable, bright colours. To edit these, go to Settings (in the taskbar at the top) and then Preferences.

The Text Box tab:




The Input Box tab:




The User List tab:




The Channel Switcher tab:




The Colors tab:




The Logging tab:

One of my favourite features of XChat's is its really nice method of customization - You should definitely play around with all the settings in Preferences, to get XChat to feel how you want it to. I'm happy to help you out with doing this, too, if there's a setting you'd like which you haven't got. 


Last of all, some settings you may want to use. Just type these directly into the text box, where you type messages. Make sure the slash is directly at the beginning.
 

• Reconnect to the network if your own connection drops out - /set net_auto_reconnect 1
• Reconnect to the network if the attempt fails the first time - /set net_auto_reconnectonfail 1
• Make links clickable with the left mouse button - /set gui_url_mod 0

If you've got any issues or questions, please contact either myself or An-IP-BreAKDoWN either on the forums or via IRC, I'm sure we'll both be more than happy to help.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Emotional Outlet

[Elchzard]

Small tutorial for Arch.

Thought this might be of some use to someone.

You could add to the linux walkthrough,

Arch Linux -- Hexchat and xchat packages 64bit and 32bit can be found here,

https://www.archlinu...ckages/?q=xchat

An they can be installed with,

pacman -S hexchat pacman -S xchat or yaourt -S hexchat yaourt -S xchat

Might help someone out. Though most Arch users are a bit smarter than me

Edited April 10, 2013 by An IP BreAKDoWN
Added from abarbarian

[Elchzard]

--- Reserved for Weechat

[† Emotional Outlet]

Do you need any other posts after that one?

I also added it to the tutorial index.

[Elchzard]

Nope, that's that. Thanks!

[† An IP BreAKDoWN]

Do you need any other posts after that one?

I also added it to the tutorial index.

I would like to add other tuts in the reserved spaces.

And thanks for adding it to the index.

[† Emotional Outlet]

Haha, IP, you can do what you like! You're the mod of this section. If you rather all the posts to stick together, you can delete mine or edit it. It makes no difference to me.

[† An IP BreAKDoWN]

If you rather all the posts to stick together, you can delete mine or edit it. It makes no difference to me.

LOL. There is no need for that.

[† SakuraChan]

need some fedora action or stuff other then ubuntu,

id just say open up a terminal and based on your distro it will be something like 'sudo apt-get install xchat (or) irssi -y', for redhat based replace 'apt-get' with 'yum'.

for OpenSUSE users have fun open up your GUI based installers and search.

-Sakura Xertion Owner (IRC Network)

[zx0]

I would think if you are tech savvy enough to be using Fedora or any linux flavour apart from Ubuntu, you should know how to get an IRC client up and running without a tutorial!

[Elchzard]

need some fedora action or stuff other then ubuntu,

id just say open up a terminal and based on your distro it will be something like 'sudo apt-get install xchat (or) irssi -y', for redhat based replace 'apt-get' with 'yum'.

for OpenSUSE users have fun open up your GUI based installers and search.

-Sakura Xertion Owner (IRC Network)

I'll mention that in the next 2 sections, and maybe get the thread renamed.

[† Emotional Outlet]

You should be able to rename your own threads. Let me know if you can't.

[abarbarian]

Thought this might be of some use to someone.

 

You could add to the linux walkthrough,

 

 

Arch Linux -- Hexchat and xchat packages 64bit and 32bit can be found here,

 

https://www.archlinu...ckages/?q=xchat

 

An they can be installed with,

 

 

pacman  -S  hexchat pacman -S  xchat or yaourt  -S  hexchat yaourt  -S  xchat

 

Might help someone out. Though most Arch users are a bit smarter than me

[† An IP BreAKDoWN]

Thought this might be of some use to someone.

 

You could add to the linux walkthrough,

 

 

 

Arch Linux -- Hexchat and xchat packages 64bit and 32bit can be found here,

 

https://www.archlinu...ckages/?q=xchat

 

An they can be installed with,

 

 

pacman  -S  hexchat pacman -S  xchat or yaourt  -S  hexchat yaourt  -S  xchat

 

Might help someone out. Though most Arch users are a bit smarter than me

 

If one is using the Arch distro I'm pretty sure they'd know how to install an IRC client lol. I'll add it though, thanks for the time you took to make this.

[abarbarian]

Thought this might be of some use to someone.

 

You could add to the linux walkthrough,

 

 

 

Arch Linux -- Hexchat and xchat packages 64bit and 32bit can be found here,

 

https://www.archlinu...ckages/?q=xchat

 

An they can be installed with,

 

 

pacman  -S  hexchat pacman -S  xchat or yaourt  -S  hexchat yaourt  -S  xchat

 

Might help someone out. Though most Arch users are a bit smarter than me

 

If one is using the Arch distro I'm pretty sure they'd know how to install an IRC client lol. I'll add it though, thanks for the time you took to make this.

 Yeah 99.999999999999999999999999999999999% of Arch users would have the knowledge, I'm the exeption