[Pidgin] #4795: Buddy Icon cannot be seen by others (YM protocol)

[Pidgin]

#4795: Buddy Icon cannot be seen by others (YM protocol)
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  Reporter:  cristianhaulica  |       Owner:  marv      
      Type:  defect           |      Status:  new       
  Priority:  minor            |   Milestone:            
 Component:  Yahoo!           |     Version:  2.3.1     
Resolution:                   |    Keywords:  Buddy Icon
   Pending:  0                |  
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Comment (by llrnr):

 Hello,

 I use Pidgin 2.4.1 and this problem is still present. However, I tried to
 'debug' this issue and see why the avatar on the Yahoo protocol 'works' on
 other IM clients such as Kopete.

 As marv noticed earlier, it's a problem in the way Pidgin calculates the
 checksum for the chosen avatar. This is why it won't get 'submitted' to
 the Yahoo avatar location
 http://img.msg.yahoo.com/avatar.php?yids=the_yahoo_id

 Using Kopete, everything is OK. In order to make the Yahoo avatar be
 displayed by Pidgin in http://web.im and the Windows Yahoo Messenger (as
 well as any Linux IM clients), I needed to do the following:

 - log into the Yahoo account via Kopete;

 - set the avatar (buddy icon) via Kopete;

 - get the following variables from /home/user/.kde/share/config/kopeterc:
   * iconRemoteUrl
   * iconCheckSum

 - be sure Pidgin isn't running, then edit /home/user/.purple/accounts.xml:
   * replace setting 'picture_url' with what I got from Kopete for
 iconRemoteUrl
   * replace setting 'picture_checksum' with what I got from Kopete for
 iconCheckSum
 - start Pidgin and got sure the avatar is displayed:

   * for Linux IM clients such as Kopete and Pidgin
   * in the Yahoo browser based interface at http://web.im
   * in Yahoo Messenger version 8.1.0 (for Windows)

 So this is not a way to fix this bug, but it's a workaround for an end-
 user such as myself. As I see it, the locally set avatar is not 'sent' to
 the Yahoo servers due to a wrong hash calculation which, in turn,
 determines the 'picture_url' into an invalid one. (This is why the chosen
 buddy icon will not update on
 http://img.msg.yahoo.com/avatar.php?yids=the_yahoo_id). I don't know if
 Yahoo didn't use to care and now does about the way the checksum is
 calculated, but one thing is certain: the algorithm/function/whatever used
 by Kopete to compute it is the right one.

 I hope this can shed some light on the issue.

 Good luck!

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Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/4795#comment:6>
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