IRC Setup

=Internet Relay Chat (IRC)= Pidgin, ChatZilla, xchat, ircII are a few IRC applications available for windows or Linux OS's. The sections below will only describe the steps for installing and setting up Pidgin on both Windows and Ubuntu machines.

Native Client Download
Pidgin native client has support for IRC. It's available for download at: http://www.pidgin.im If you would like to have GTK+ included in the installer, the offline installer that bundles everything except spell-checking dictionaries is available at http://pidgin.im/download/windows/. Pidgin is preloaded on most Ubuntu systems. If it is not loaded by default then run the following command.

Registering your IRC User Name
Though this step is not required. By registering your username you can get a handle/username that you can use to identify yourself on IRC. Simple steps to register are available on WikiHow

=Linux= sudo apt-get install pidgin

Getting to #linux-omap
Once installation is complete follow the steps below
 * Open Pidgin
 * In the Buddy List Window
 * Select Accounts
 * Select +add
 * Protocol = IRC
 * Create username
 * password is optional but is required if you wish to register a new nickname
 * Server = irc.freenode.net

Once an account has been added
 * In the Buddy List Window
 * Open Buddies menu
 * Select + add chat
 * Select account created above
 * Enter #linux-omap in the Channel

Ubuntu users should configure the network proxy settings in the system. See Ubuntu's Firewall settings for more information.

Alternate option: irssi
Irssi is a command-line IRC client, supported on Ubuntu.

If you are behind a corporate firewall, you may want to go through an http proxy.

Add to your ~/.irssi/startup:

/SET use_proxy ON /SET proxy_address /SET proxy_port /SET -clear proxy_password /EVAL SET proxy_string CONNECT %s:%d HTTP/1.0\n\n

Additional commands worth adding to the startup script:

/NETWORK ADD Freenode /SERVER ADD -auto -network Freenode irc.freenode.net /CHANNEL ADD -auto #linux-omap Freenode

Some other useful irssi commands to set or run:

To suppress notifications in the #linux-omap channel issue the command:

/IGNORE -channels #linux-omap * JOINS PARTS QUITS NICKS

Alternatively, use the crapbuster.pl script. See the top of scripts.irssi.org for script usage instructions.

More info on irssi site: http://irssi.org/documentation/

=Windows= Download Pidgin at: pidgin windows download and install in on your windows machine.

Once installation is complete follow the steps below
 * Open Pidgin
 * In the Buddy List Window
 * Select Accounts
 * Select +add
 * Protocol = IRC
 * Create username
 * password is optional but is required if you wish to register a new nickname
 * Server = irc.freenode.net

Proxy Setup (Optional)
Setting Pidgin up the network: Open Pidgin and navigate to the network's tab

In the Buddy List Window select Tools-->Preference-->"network tab"
 * Address: select autodetect IP address
 * Ports: select automatic router port forwarding

In the Buddy List Window Tools-->Preference-->"Proxy tab"
 * Proxy Server:
 * Proxy type:
 * Host:
 * Port:

If you are inside Texas Instruments please visit: TI's internal wikifor additional settings.

IRC Tutorial
If you are new to IRC a tutorial is found at IRC Help