Corey's LICQ Newbie Installation Guide
Created on April 28th, 2000.
Last updated on September 20th, 2003.

Introduction

Licq is an extreamly great clone of the super-popular Internet application for Windows called ICQ. It has grown tremendously in the past couple of years, and finding one that best emulates the Windows GUI was hard to find. There are several that try to copy the ICQ for windows program, and there are others that take it to a different level. Throughout the many that I tried, I found the Licq was the best. Licq uses the QT development library for it's GUI, which a lot of people tend to have the most problem with when they try to install it, I know it took me a while before I could actually get it working properly. So, here goes.

Distribution Specific

Redhat/Mandrake/Suse

If you are running Redhat 9.0, then all the files you needed are located right on your Redhat 9 cd. To install him, issue the following commands as root:

rpm -Uvh licq-1.2.3-5.i386.rpm  (the main Licq program)
rpm -Uvh licq-qt-1.2.3-5.i386.rpm (the QT plugin)
rpm -Uvh licq-gnome-1.2.3-5.i386.rpm (the gnome compatible plugin)
rpm -Uvh licq-kde-1.2.3-5.i386.rpm (the kde compatible plugin)

Debian GNU/Linux

Licq in binary format is currently only available in the unstable (sid) version of Debian. This is one reason why you will probably have to install licq from source. You can install QT with in Debian 3.0 with:

apt-get install libqt3-mt-dev

Gentoo

You can install Licq easily on Gentoo with the following command as root:

emerge licq

Installation from Source

While the majority of distributions come with a copy of Licq as well as the QT library, you may wish to still compile your copy from source. First we need to download the sources:

QT X11 Free:
ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/source/qt-x11-free-3.2.1.tar.gz

Licq
http://twtelecom.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/licq/licq-1.2.7.tar.gz

Installing the QT Libraries

This is, by far, the most confusing step for most people, after getting by this, the rest is much easier. First log in as user, and untar the archive using the command:

tar -zxvf qt-x11-free-3.2.1.tar.bz

Then cd into the directory it makes (cd qt-2.2.0-beta2). The first, and most important thing you should do before installing any program is to check the README and INSTALL files for important information. Many people forget this, and then wonder why they experience problems.

After reading the INSTALL and README files you will pretty much know what to do from here, but I will run through it anyways. First, you must move the archive to /usr/local :

su root
cd ..  (if you were  inside the archive directory)
mv qt-3.2.1 /usr/local/qt

Now, I'm using a bash shell, if you are using anything else, please consult the README file for what you should do for the following.

Edit your .bash_profile (found in your home directory)

pico /home/(username)/.bash_profile

Or if you're doing this from X it's probably easier to use a file editor, I use gedit for most of my purposes, so open that up and open up your .bash_profile add the following to the end of the file:

QTDIR=/usr/local/qt
PATH=$QTDIR/bin:$PATH
if [ $MANPATH ]
then
	MANPATH=$QTDIR/man:$MANPATH
else
	MANPATH=$QTDIR/man:
fi
if [ $LD_LIBRARY_PATH ]
then
	LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$QTDIR/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
else
	LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$QTDIR/lib
fi
LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
if [ $CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH ]
then
	CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=$QTDIR/include:$CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH
else
	CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH=$QTDIR/include
fi
export QTDIR PATH MANPATH LD_LIBRARY_PATH LIBRARY_PATH
export CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH

Now save the file and logout and log back in (this sets the environment variables). Now you will need to su as root again (su root) and start building the archive. Change into the qt directory and run configure:

cd /usr/local/qt
./configure

When configure finishes compile the archive by executing the command:

make

This may take a long time, it took me a good 30 minutes or more. When it finally compiles you are done with qt! No need to make install, it's fine the way it is.

Installing Licq

It's probably a good thing to run ldconfig before attempting to install the archive, to do this type:

ldconfig
(or /sbin/ldconfig)

Once again untar the archive, configure, and make:

tar -zxvf licq-1.27.tar.gz
cd licq-1.27
./configure
make
su root
make install

After you install you will need to make the make the qt plugin for Licq, to do this you have to go into the plugins directory, configure the plugin, make, and install:

cd plugins
cd qt-gui
./configure
make
su root
make install

And that's it, Licq should be ready to go. In previous versions of licq there was a Licq-data file to download with extra skins and sounds, etc. But recent versions of Licq have included this in with the official release.

That should do it, now go into X as your user and run "licq", it should popup and be ready to go. I use Windowmaker, and I love the dock applet for it, try it if you are running WM, it's sweet.

Additional Plugins:
There are additional plugins that you can build along with licq, my favorite is the Console plugin. Recently this plugin has become very valuable for me because i'm going to college, and at my college campus they have ICQ blocked out of the system therefore i cannot get on ICQ (or IRC), so what i do, i installed the console plugin for licq, and when i get in school, i telnet to my computer at home and run licq with the console plugin, and i have full icq usage from in school, and for all they know i'm just working on some programming, etc. It is quite useful.

To build the Console plugin, do the following:

cd licq-1.27/plugins/console
./configure
make
make install

To run the console plugin, go into console (or telnet remotely) and type the following:

licq -p console

For more help on commands, etc, in the console plugin, type "/help" and it'll display everything you need to know. Enjoy!

Installing CVS Snapshot

If you are feeling bold or you are one of those people (like myself) who just HAVE to have the latest version of software, you can download the CVS Snapshot of Licq. The CVS snapshot is an up-to-date version of Licq which is updated daily, most software that support CVS make you log into their CVS server to download it, but luckily licq provides a snapshot Bzip'd and Tar'd and ready to go. To install the latest release do the following:

Download the Licq-daily CVS snapshot here. Then follow these directions:

bzip2 -d licq-daily.tar.bz2
tar xvf licq-daily.tar

The result directory will be in the format of "licq00XXXX" where the X's represent the date. After untaring the archive, cd into it, and continue on with the instructions listed above for the regular install. You can update this daily, or weekly, or whever you want. Have fun!

Resources

Licq Homepage: http://www.licq.org
QT Homepage: http://www.troll.no

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