I just upgraded from Gaim .80 to the newest version(0.82.1). I'm now getting the message "Missing protocol plugin for <username>" When I go to set my account protocol there are no options just a blank space. If anyone knows how to fix this, or what it means it would be much help to me, thanks.

-Pat

I don't even use GAIM, however, I recently upgraded some apps and they wouldn't come up right until I removed the folder that it keeps it's settings in. Apparently the old config files weren't compatible with the new version.
Hope that helps.

Well I deleted the "accounts" file which made the blank box go away, but now i can choose two profiles gadu-gadu and napster, but those are two that i don't have accounts on, so still not much help.

Did you delete the entire /home/<your username>/.gaimrc folder? Or just files inside? Just rename it or delete it compeltely. If that doesn't work, try an earlier version of GAIM. Or Try another IM client like GnomeICU.

Alternatively, try "apt-get remove --purge gaim && apt-get install gaim" (this will not touch your ~/.gaim directory).

Also (and I know this might sound silly) but have you fsck'd your partitions recently? I have had missing files errors before that turned out to be files inaccessable due to file-system damage. If you are going to fsck do it _before_ you reinstall gaim (that way the missing files can be replaced).

I've found that the easiest way to scan your root partition (providing you use ext2/3 of course) is to do "tune2fs -C 100" (or any number bigger that the number of mounts before a check is forced) and then reboot. This saves you the pain of dismounting the root partition.

HTH

or

apt-get install --reinstall gaim

True, as gaim does not really have system wide config files there is no need to do the extra "--purge" step. But hey, it's a force of habit...