tmsnc error at start

Forum: Apps
Topic: tmsnc error at start
started by: curaga

Posted by curaga on Mar. 11 2007,12:40

When starting it I get this:
iconv: Character encoding translation not possible
and then it exits. Tried also sudo tmsnc, same result.
Any suggestions?

I have a hd-install and locale is set to the default ( C )

Posted by curaga on Mar. 11 2007,12:44

Here's the code where it happens: (I don't understand C that well....)

#ifdef HAVE_ICONV
if (iconv_init(cf->codeset) != 0) {
fprintf(stderr, "iconv: Character encoding translation not possible\n");
return -1;
}
#endif

Posted by curaga on Mar. 12 2007,16:56

Anyone? I'd like to get MSN working..

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Mar. 12 2007,23:54

My guess is that the locale/charset/font cannot be found ... so it exits. Perhaps compiling without iconv (if possible) or installing those charsets might help.

Posted by curaga on Mar. 13 2007,15:03

I didn't compile it in the first place, but I just tried putting all finnish locale-stuff to my comp:
fi-latin9 keymap, UTF8 and ISO-8859-15 charmaps to /usr/share/i18n/charmaps, and a locale database with only finnish in it to /usr/lib/locale
And it recognizes those in locale -a and locale -m.

Also set LANG=fi_FI@euro, but the same error happened after all that.. What else could it need?

Posted by curaga on Mar. 13 2007,15:32

From the web site: "The MSN protocol uses UTF-8 encoding for encoding international characters. TMSNC handles encoding translations between the encoding of your terminal and UTF-8 automatically. This is done using locales and iconv."

Could you tell me what else do I need?

Posted by curaga on Mar. 14 2007,06:19

I've dug into it's sources (a first time experience, very weird) and even though I don't get C at all, I found this out:
Tmsnc autoprobes the terminal's encoding. Then it recodes it to UTF-8 with iconv. The problem is DSL iconv!

The iconv in my LFS sys uses the charmaps in /usr/share/i18n/charmaps (the standard), if I add some there it will use them. But the DSL iconv seems to use only builtin encodings, without any possibility to add them (or the folder is in a non-standard place)

DSL iconv does support UTF-8, but has no ISO-8859* support. I don't think I can copy the LFS iconv there, 'cause it was compiled with --with-kernel=2.6.0.....

So a request: Could someone recompile tmsnc with libiconv? It then uses it, not the DSL iconv... I can't do it, my DSL sys doesn't have net access and it's also quite old, and the LFS sys has way too new libs for DSL compatibility..

Posted by stupid_idiot on Mar. 16 2007,17:55

Hello: The problem is not with libiconv, but because libc6's gconv modules are missing. I missed this because I had the gcc1-with-libs.unc packages loaded at that time which contains those modules.
Here is where it fails. strace output:

open("/usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
open("/usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules", O_RDONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
write(2, "iconv: Character encoding transl"..., 51iconv: Character encoding translation not possible
) = 51
write(1, "Starting TMSNC\nVersion: 0.3.2\nPr"..., 72Starting TMSNC
Version: 0.3.2
Process ID: 1037
Terminal emulation: rxvt
) = 72
munmap(0x40016000, 4096) = 0
_exit(-1) = ?
Process 1037 detached

p.s. I am very sorry to make you go to all the trouble. I've followed your instruction and linked it to newest libiconv 1.11. Unfortunately, it now becomes very big and has to be made into a .uci. Hopefully gconv modules will be added into DSL soon.

Posted by curaga on Mar. 17 2007,12:35

Sorry, I was wrong about the directory, it's really /usr/lib/gconv..
How about making a .dsl extension with only ISO-8859-1, ISO-8859-15 and UTF-8 gconv modules and gconv.modules having only entries for translation between those three?

Would it be smaller than linking with libiconv?

Last night I was thinking about grabbing those three from a Knoppix 3.4 iso, but if someone else will do it, I won't bother... stupid_idiot, could you try this approach too?

Posted by stupid_idiot on Mar. 17 2007,13:13

I have tried such an approach before when I tried to compile Japanese input method (UIM + Anthy) package. Of course, it works. And in DSL, we use only ISO locales, so it should be safe.
But still, the thought of duplicating important system files like that. It felt offensive to me. You should know that I am highly obsessed with neatness.
Yes, I have spent nights obsessing over this issue, among other issues. I believe if you want a unicode distro then the foundation should be there. If not, I would rather have my apps ascii-only.
I hope this kind of attitude does not offend anybody.