Hey there I'm a noob to linux right now and i'm having trouble installing/unpacking pidgin and its a .tar.bz2 file.

What would be the code that I put in to get this working. I'm on SuSE 9.3 FYI

Open a terminal, type su, and execute the command tar xvfs name_of_the_tarball. Then owecd into the folder that was just created. Instructions vary per tarball, but most software can be installed by 3 simple commands, ./configure, make, & make install.

However, instead of messing with this (you may end up with failed dependencies because you are running an older version of SuSE) use a package management system instead. SuSE comes with YaST, which allows you to add sources and install software that way. I'd recommend getting the latest version of SuSE (now openSuSE).

That would be a source package, you need to compile it to use it. You would be much better off using the binary SuSE packages of Pidgin, especially if you are a beginner.

I found another Gaim file thats gaim-1.5.0-85...how would i go about installing that because whenever i use the rpm -i command i comes up with :

dbus-1-glib is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libICE.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libORBit-2.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libSM.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libX11.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libXau.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libXdmcp.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libXext.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libXrender.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libXss.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libao.so.2()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libaspell.so.15()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libatk-1.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libaudiofile.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libbonobo-2.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libbonobo-activation.so.4()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libc.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.3.4)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.4)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libcairo.so.2()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libcrypt.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libdbus-1.so.3()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libdbus-glib-1.so.2()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libdl.so.2()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libdl.so.2(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libebook-1.2.so.9()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libedata-book-1.2.so.2()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libedataserver-1.2.so.7()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libexpat.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libfontconfig.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libfreetype.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgconf-2.so.4()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgcrypt.so.11()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgdk_pixbuf-2.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libglib-2.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libglitz.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgmodule-2.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgnome-2.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgnome-keyring.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgnomevfs-2.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgnutls.so.13()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgnutls.so.13(GNUTLS_1_3)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgobject-2.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgthread-2.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libgtkspell.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libm.so.6()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libm.so.6(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libnsl.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libpango-1.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libpangocairo-1.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libpangoft2-1.0.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libperl.so()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libpng12.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libpopt.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libpthread.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libpthread.so.0(GLIBC_2.2.5)(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
librt.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libstartup-notification-1.so.0()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libtcl8.4.so()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libtk8.4.so()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libxml2.so.2()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85
libz.so.1()(64bit) is needed by gaim-1.5.0-85


suggestions???

First, if I were you, I would upgrade to at least SUSE 10.0

Your old version of SUSE doesn't have the right libraries for gaim to run. You can try an older gaim version, or try installing that package with YAST, which might solve that problem automatically. But, if you sttick with 9.3, this problem will keep on popping up because your system is out of date and the new programs run on new libraries.

oh, fyi, all those error messages are dependency errors because rpm can't find the correct libraries.

Thanks a lot

After about 2 hours worth of troubleshooting, I finally managed to compile Pidgin correctly, but you need prerequisites (which is really not documented well).

FYI, the rpms I listed below *may* have dependencies, so I suggest installing these files through YaST, since you might already have Installation Sources that have the dependencies available for download and installation.

Before you begin, rename the ~/.gaim/ to ~/.old_gaim/. (I never had to revert back to these old settings/preferences, but it's just good practice!)

Get the gnutls and gnutls-devel rpms (gnutls should be installed by default when you installed openSuSE). You can probably get them from the opensuse 10.2 DVD, but if not, go here:

http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.2/repo/oss/suse/i586/gnutls-1.4.4-17.i586.rpm

http://download.opensuse.org/distrib....4-17.i586.rpm

Next, install the Meanwhile rpms (if you need support for the Sametime IM protocol). You must install the development package, too!:

http://software.opensuse.org/KDE:/Ba...2-2.1.i586.rpm

http://software.opensuse.org/KDE:/Ba...2-2.1.i586.rpm

(and if you want the doc rpm:

http://software.opensuse.org/KDE:/Ba...2-2.1.i586.rpm )

Now, go and get the Pidgin 2.0.0 tarfile (or the latest version, 2.0.1):

http://sourceforge.net/project/downl...-2.0.0.tar.bz2

or

http://sourceforge.net/project/downl...-2.0.1.tar.bz2

Unzip the file, untar the file, and cd to the new pidgin-2.0.0/ (or pidgin-2.0.1/) directory.

Enter the following command:

./configure --prefix=/usr --with-gnutls-includes=/usr/include/gnutls/ --with-gnutls-libs=/usr/lib/

[Note: This last command is crucial. For openSuSE 10.2, this is what was used to have MSN, Google Talk, and Sametime IM protocol support. It might be similar for other SuSE distros, too, but this has not been tested, so I cannot confirm.)

Finally, execute the last steps below as root: user:

make

and then:

make install

Enjoy!

hi, im on gentoo linux. im also a noob. thanks for the post. it helped me install pidgin. however, i get this error when i try to run the program..

pidgin: error while loading shared libraries: libpurple.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

what is the cause of this error message? thanks

From yast make sure you have these libraries installed.

meawhile packages (include the dev package)

One installation did require the that I install the gnutls dev libraries also from yast so heads up if you still have problems.


Then here is the configure options that need to be run for 64 bit SLED 10.

./configure --prefix=/usr/local --with-gnutls-includes=/usr/include/gnutls/ --with-gnutls-libs=/usr/lib64/

The difference from suse was the /usr/local instead of /usr. And to make it work on 64 bit I had to use /usr/lib64 instead of /usr/lib. So technically it should work with /usr/lib and 32 bit.

Then everything else worked like a dream. Good Luck.

I tried installation on an old Suse 9.3
the problem was(as usual) MSN:
SSL Library/Libraries......... : None. MSN, Novell Groupwise and Google Talk will not work without GnuTLS or NSS. OpenSSL is NOT usable!
(SSL is installed)

Not sure what I need:
from what I read, it looks like I need libgcrypt and libgpg-error
....
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking for gpg-error-config... no
checking for GPG Error - version >= 0.5... no
configure: error: libgpg-error is needed.
See ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/libgpg-error/ .
linux:/usr/libgcrypt-1.2.0 #

libgpg-error

linux:/usr/pidgin-2.3.1 # ./configure --enable-gnutls=yes
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking target system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for sed... /bin/sed
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for /usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for BSD-compatible nm... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking how to recognise dependent libraries... pass_all
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking dlfcn.h usability... yes
checking dlfcn.h presence... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for g++... g++
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ accepts -g... yes
checking dependency style of g++... gcc3
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -E
checking for g77... g77
checking whether we are using the GNU Fortran 77 compiler... yes
checking whether g77 accepts -g... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 32768
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for objdir... .libs
checking for ar... ar
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for strip... strip
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
configure: creating libtool
appending configuration tag "CXX" to libtool
checking for ld used by g++... /usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking for g++ option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if g++ PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if g++ static flag -static works... yes
checking if g++ supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the g++ linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
appending configuration tag "F77" to libtool
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... no
checking for g77 option to produce PIC... -fPIC
checking if g77 PIC flag -fPIC works... yes
checking if g77 static flag -static works... yes
checking if g77 supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking whether the g77 linker (/usr/i586-suse-linux/bin/ld) supports shared libraries... yes
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
checking for XML::Parser... ok
checking for iconv... /usr/bin/iconv
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for msgmerge... /usr/bin/msgmerge
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking locale.h usability... yes
checking locale.h presence... yes
checking for locale.h... yes
checking for LC_MESSAGES... yes
checking libintl.h usability... yes
checking libintl.h presence... yes
checking for libintl.h... yes
checking for ngettext in libc... yes
checking for dgettext in libc... yes
checking for bind_textdomain_codeset... yes
checking for msgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for dcgettext... yes
checking if msgfmt accepts -c... yes
checking for gmsgfmt... /usr/bin/msgfmt
checking for xgettext... /usr/bin/xgettext
checking for catalogs to be installed... af am ar az be@latin bg bn bs ca ca@valencia cs da de dz el en_AU en_CA en_GB eo es et eu fa fi fr gl gu he hi hu id it ja ka kn ko ku lo lt mk my_MM nb ne nl nn pa pl pt_BR pt ps ro ru sk sl sq sr sr@latin sv ta te th tr uk ur vi xh zh_CN zh_HK zh_TW
checking for ANSI C header files... (cached) yes
checking for sys/wait.h that is POSIX.1 compatible... yes
checking arpa/nameser_compat.h usability... yes
checking arpa/nameser_compat.h presence... yes
checking for arpa/nameser_compat.h... yes
checking fcntl.h usability... yes
checking fcntl.h presence... yes
checking for fcntl.h... yes
checking sys/time.h usability... yes
checking sys/time.h presence... yes
checking for sys/time.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for locale.h... (cached) yes
checking signal.h usability... yes
checking signal.h presence... yes
checking for signal.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... (cached) yes
checking regex.h usability... yes
checking regex.h presence... yes
checking for regex.h... yes
checking for an ANSI C-conforming const... yes
checking whether struct tm is in sys/time.h or time.h... time.h
checking for time_t... yes
checking size of time_t... 4
checking whether byte ordering is bigendian... no
checking return type of signal handlers... void
checking for strftime... yes
checking for strdup... yes
checking for strstr... yes
checking for atexit... yes
checking for setlocale... yes
checking for getopt_long... yes
checking for inet_aton... yes
checking for __res_query in -lresolv... yes
checking for gethostent in -lnsl... yes
checking for socket... yes
checking for getaddrinfo... yes
checking for socklen_t... yes
checking for special C compiler options needed for large files... no
checking for _FILE_OFFSET_BITS value needed for large files... 64
checking for dlopen... no
checking for dlopen in -ldl... yes
checking for fileno()... yes
checking for the %z format string in strftime()... yes
checking for GLIB... yes
checking for X... libraries /usr/X11R6/lib, headers /usr/X11R6/include
checking whether -R must be followed by a space... neither works
checking for gethostbyname... yes
checking for connect... yes
checking for remove... yes
checking for shmat... yes
checking for IceConnectionNumber in -lICE... yes
checking for GTK... yes
checking for PANGO... yes
checking for X11... Package x11 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `x11.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'x11' found
no
no
checking for XScreenSaverRegister in -lXext... no
checking for XScreenSaverRegister in -lXss... yes
checking for SmcSaveYourselfDone in -lSM... yes
checking X11/SM/SMlib.h usability... yes
checking X11/SM/SMlib.h presence... yes
checking for X11/SM/SMlib.h... yes
checking for STARTUP_NOTIFICATION... Package libstartup-notification-1.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libstartup-notification-1.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'libstartup-notification-1.0' found
no
no
checking for GTKSPELL... Package gtkspell-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gtkspell-2.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'gtkspell-2.0' found
no
no
checking for EVOLUTION_ADDRESSBOOK... Package libebook-1.2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libebook-1.2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'libebook-1.2' found
no
yes
checking for EVOLUTION_ADDRESSBOOK... Package libebook-1.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libebook-1.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'libebook-1.0' found
no
yes
checking for SQLITE3... Package sqlite3 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `sqlite3.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'sqlite3' found
no
no
checking for initscr in -lncursesw... yes
checking for update_panels in -lpanelw... yes
checking /usr/include/ncursesw/ncurses.h usability... no
checking /usr/include/ncursesw/ncurses.h presence... no
checking for /usr/include/ncursesw/ncurses.h... no
checking /usr/include/ncurses.h usability... yes
checking /usr/include/ncurses.h presence... yes
checking for /usr/include/ncurses.h... yes
checking if /usr/include/ncurses.h supports wide characters... yes
checking for LIBXML... yes
checking for gconftool-2... no
./configure: line 28870: gconftool-2: command not found
Using config source for schema installation
Using $(sysconfdir)/gconf/schemas as install directory for schema files
checking for GSTREAMER... Package gstreamer-0.10 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `gstreamer-0.10.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'gstreamer-0.10' found
no
no
checking for MEANWHILE... Package meanwhile was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `meanwhile.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'meanwhile' found
no
no
checking for AVAHI... Package avahi-client was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `avahi-client.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'avahi-client' found
no
no
checking avahi-client/client.h usability... no
checking avahi-client/client.h presence... no
checking for avahi-client/client.h... no
checking avahi-glib/glib-malloc.h usability... no
checking avahi-glib/glib-malloc.h presence... no
checking for avahi-glib/glib-malloc.h... no
checking for avahi_client_new in -lavahi-client... no
checking for HOWL... Package avahi-compat-howl was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `avahi-compat-howl.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'avahi-compat-howl' found
no
no
checking for HOWL... Package howl was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `howl.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'howl' found
no
no
checking howl.h usability... no
checking howl.h presence... no
checking for howl.h... no
checking for sw_discovery_init in -lhowl... no
checking for SILC... Package silcclient was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `silcclient.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'silcclient' found
no
no
checking for SILC... Package silcclient was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `silcclient.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'silcclient' found
no
no
checking for SILC... Package silc was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `silc.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'silc' found
no
no
checking for GADU... Package libgadu was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libgadu.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'libgadu' found
no
no
checking sys/utsname.h usability... yes
checking sys/utsname.h presence... yes
checking for sys/utsname.h... yes
checking for uname... yes
checking for -Waggregate-return option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wcast-align option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wdeclaration-after-statement option to gcc... no
checking for -Wendif-labels option to gcc... yes
checking for -Werror-implicit-function-declaration option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wextra -Wno-sign-compare -Wno-unused-parameter option to gcc... no
checking for -Winit-self option to gcc... no
checking for -Wmissing-declarations option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wmissing-noreturn option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wmissing-prototypes option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wnested-externs option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wpointer-arith option to gcc... yes
checking for -Wundef option to gcc... yes
checking for FORTIFY_SOURCE support... no
checking for pidgin... no
checking for dbus-binding-tool... yes
checking for DBUS... Package dbus-1 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `dbus-1.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'dbus-1' found
no
no
Building without D-Bus support
checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
checking for Perl compile flags... ok
checking for libperl... checking for perl_run... yes
checking EXTERN.h usability... yes
checking EXTERN.h presence... yes
checking for EXTERN.h... yes
checking for perl.h... yes
checking for perl... perl
checking for perl module ExtUtils::MakeMaker... ok
checking for Perl_eval_pv... no
checking for old perl... no
checking for DynaLoader.a... no
checking for GnuTLS includes... ""
checking gnutls/gnutls.h usability... no
checking gnutls/gnutls.h presence... no
checking for gnutls/gnutls.h... no
checking for GnuTLS libraries... no
checking for Mozilla nspr4 includes in ... ""
checking nspr.h usability... no
checking nspr.h presence... no
checking for nspr.h... no
checking prio.h usability... no
checking prio.h presence... no
checking for prio.h... no
checking for Mozilla nspr4 libraries... no
checking for Mozilla nss3 includes... no
checking for Mozilla nss libraries... no
checking for tclConfig.sh... yes (/usr/lib/tclConfig.sh)
checking Tcl version compatability... ok, 8.4
checking for Tcl linkability... yes
checking for tkConfig.sh... yes (/usr/lib/tkConfig.sh)
checking for Tk linkability... yes
checking for snprintf... yes
checking for connect... (cached) yes
checking for me pot o' gold... no
checking for gethostid... yes
checking for lrand48... yes
checking for memcpy... yes
checking for memmove... yes
checking for random... yes
checking for strchr... yes
checking for strerror... yes
checking for vprintf... yes
checking malloc.h usability... yes
checking malloc.h presence... yes
checking for malloc.h... yes
checking paths.h usability... yes
checking paths.h presence... yes
checking for paths.h... yes
checking sgtty.h usability... yes
checking sgtty.h presence... yes
checking for sgtty.h... yes
checking stdarg.h usability... yes
checking stdarg.h presence... yes
checking for stdarg.h... yes
checking sys/cdefs.h usability... yes
checking sys/cdefs.h presence... yes
checking for sys/cdefs.h... yes
checking sys/file.h usability... yes
checking sys/file.h presence... yes
checking for sys/file.h... yes
checking sys/filio.h usability... no
checking sys/filio.h presence... no
checking for sys/filio.h... no
checking sys/ioctl.h usability... yes
checking sys/ioctl.h presence... yes
checking for sys/ioctl.h... yes
checking sys/msgbuf.h usability... no
checking sys/msgbuf.h presence... no
checking for sys/msgbuf.h... no
checking sys/select.h usability... yes
checking sys/select.h presence... yes
checking for sys/select.h... yes
checking sys/uio.h usability... yes
checking sys/uio.h presence... yes
checking for sys/uio.h... yes
checking for sys/utsname.h... (cached) yes
checking for sys/wait.h... (cached) yes
checking termios.h usability... yes
checking termios.h presence... yes
checking for termios.h... yes
checking sys/sysctl.h usability... yes
checking sys/sysctl.h presence... yes
checking for sys/sysctl.h... yes
checking sys/socket.h usability... yes
checking sys/socket.h presence... yes
checking for sys/socket.h... yes
checking for struct tm.tm_zone... yes
checking for timezone external... yes
checking for altzone external... no
checking for daylight external... yes
checking for tm_gmtoff in struct tm... yes
checking for CHECK... Package check was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `check.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'check' found
no
checking for check - version >= 0.8.2... no
*** Could not run check test program, checking why...
*** The test program failed to compile or link. See the file config.log for
*** the exact error that occured.
checking for doxygen... false
configure: WARNING: *** Doxygen not found, docs will not be available
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating Doxyfile
config.status: creating doc/Makefile
config.status: creating doc/pidgin.1
config.status: creating doc/finch.1
config.status: creating m4macros/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin.apspec
config.status: creating pidgin/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/pidgin.pc
config.status: creating pidgin/pidgin-uninstalled.pc
config.status: creating pidgin/pixmaps/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/pixmaps/buddy_icons/qq/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/pixmaps/emotes/default/24/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/pixmaps/emotes/none/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/cap/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/gestures/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/gevolution/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/musicmessaging/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/perl/Makefile
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/perl/common/Makefile.PL
config.status: creating pidgin/plugins/ticker/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/example/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/gconf/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/purple.pc
config.status: creating libpurple/purple-uninstalled.pc
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/mono/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/mono/api/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/mono/loader/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/perl/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/perl/common/Makefile.PL
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/ssl/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/plugins/tcl/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/bonjour/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/gg/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/irc/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/jabber/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/msn/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/msnp9/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/myspace/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/novell/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/null/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/oscar/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/qq/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/sametime/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/silc/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/silc10/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/simple/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/toc/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/yahoo/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/protocols/zephyr/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/tests/Makefile
config.status: creating libpurple/purple.h
config.status: creating libpurple/version.h
config.status: creating share/sounds/Makefile
config.status: creating share/ca-certs/Makefile
config.status: creating finch/finch.pc
config.status: creating finch/Makefile
config.status: creating finch/libgnt/Makefile
config.status: creating finch/libgnt/gnt.pc
config.status: creating finch/libgnt/wms/Makefile
config.status: creating finch/plugins/Makefile
config.status: creating po/Makefile.in
config.status: creating pidgin.spec
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
config.status: executing depfiles commands
config.status: executing intltool commands
config.status: executing default-1 commands
config.status: executing po/stamp-it commands

pidgin 2.3.1

Build GTK+ 2.x UI............. : yes
Build console UI.............. : yes
Build for X11................. : yes

Enable Gestures............... : yes
Protocols to build dynamically : gg irc jabber msnp9 myspace novell oscar qq simple yahoo zephyr
Protocols to link statically.. :

Build with GStreamer support.. : no
Build with D-Bus support...... : no
Build with NetworkManager..... : no
SSL Library/Libraries......... : None. MSN, Novell Groupwise and Google Talk will not work without GnuTLS or NSS. OpenSSL is NOT usable!
Build with Cyrus SASL support. : no
Use kerberos 4 with zephyr.... : no
Use external libzephyr........ : no
Has you....................... : yes

Use XScreenSaver Extension.... : yes
Use X Session Management...... : yes
Use startup notification...... : no
Build with GtkSpell support... : no

Build with plugin support..... : yes
Build with Mono support....... : no
Build with Perl support....... : yes
Build with Tcl support........ : yes
Build with Tk support......... : yes

Print debugging messages...... : no

Pidgin will be installed in /usr/local/bin.

configure complete, now type 'make'

I experienced exact same error message right after installation of Pidgin-2.4.0 on Vector LInux-5.8 Standard. Just restart the machine. It helped in my case.
Program runs but I will have to struggle with it to tweak it
For example, I can't make it to display my buddies on yahoo

edit--------------------
Just noticed it's quite an old topic. I hope you have already solved the problem