Here are the final steps for installing Gaim with ssl support. I did this on Slackware 9.0
Check if you have gnutls, nss and nspr libraries installed. If yes, then you don't need to install them again. I did it the following way and it worked for me. Some of the packages might be already installed on your box. in that case you can skip that step.

1.Download nss libraries from http://www.slacky.it/download/librer...8-noarch-1.tgz
Install it "installpkg nss-3.8-noarch-1.tgz" as a root.

2.Download nspr libraries http://www.slacky.it/download/librer...3-noarch-1.tgz
Install as root, "installpkg nspr-4.3-noarch-1.tgz"

3.Download and install libgpg-error (needed by libgcrypt)./configure make and make install)
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/alpha/lib...ror-0.5.tar.gz

4.libgcrypt (needed by gnutls)./configure make and make install)
ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/alpha/lib...-1.1.44.tar.gz

5.Download and install libtasn1 (needed by gnutls)./configure make and make install)
ftp://ftp.gnutls.org/pub/gnutls/libt...1-0.2.6.tar.gz

6.Download and install gnutls (needed by gaim)./configure make and make install)
ftp://ftp.gnutls.org/pub/gnutls/gnutls-0.9.91.tar.gz

7.Download the latest gaim source from gaim website. Extract it "tar -xvzf gaim-072.tar.gz"

8.Descend into the directory gaim-072 and configure it as below. (I don't have mozilla installed, so I gave the path of netscape)
If you are not sure of the path find nspr.h and that should be the path for the includes and look for libnss3.so to see the path
for nss-libs and nspr-libs. Look for messages when you configure it. It should include gnutls, nss and nspr.
./configure --with-nss-includes=/usr/include/ \
--with-nspr-includes=/usr/include/ \
--with-nss-libs=/usr/lib/netscape \
--with-nspr-libs=/usr/lib/netscape
9.Type make
10.Be a super user("su") and Type "make install" or "checkinstall" if you have checkinstall installed. checkinstall is a program that
keeps a track of all the pakages installed from source so that you can remove or upgrade later and reinstall without having to compile again.

I have build the package "gaim-072-i386.1.tgz" Let me know if anybody needs it. Any comments are welcome.

or you could go into the slackware current directory and grab the latest gaim version 0.71 with SSL linked to the Mozilla packages

thanks! i couldn't get nss/nspr to comple from source(crappy makefiles in it). this helped me a lot, now i can actually use msn!

how do i get ssl working after i've installed gaim?

As far as I know, you need to compile gaim with enable ssl option. Just follow the steps and it should work

what do you mean by get ssl working. SSL in gaim is automatically used by the MSN protocol. There's nothing else needed

it just says that it can't use the msn protocol because it needs ssl. perhaps i need to load it somehow.

Did you compile it or did you download the latest gaim package from a slackware server?

If you did the first one then grab the gaim package but if you have done so already you will have to install the latest Mozilla because gaim uses Mozilla's SSL libraries.

Just wondering...
Why are you installing both NSS/NSPR AND GNUTLS?

If you want use msn with gaim, you only one of those, not both.

Gaim doesn't have to use mozilla's SSL libraries. GNUTLS works with gaim also...

i don't think i'm installing nss/nspr. however, i did try to install gnutls, but it needed another package called libgcrypt, which gives me the following error when i run "make":

make[2]: *** [mpi-add.lo] Error 1
make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/fideli/stuff/downloads/gaimstuff/libgcrypt-1.1.42/mpi'
make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/fideli/stuff/downloads/gaimstuff/libgcrypt-1.1.42'
make: *** [all] Error 2

so i'm stuck there

ftp://<insert_the_slackware_mirror_of_your_choice_here>/slackware-current/slackware/xap/gaim-0.72-i486-1.tgz

i'm trying to log into yahoo and msn. i get 'Protocol not supported' when trying to sign in to msn and i get 'unable to read' when trying to sign into yahoo. I am using rh9, and so i did not have to install gaim myself. do i need to dl a newer msn and yahoo package?

Simple fix for getting gaim to work with Slack.
Open your /etc/ld.so.conf file.
Add this line:
/usr/lib/mozilla-1.4
If you use a different version of Mozilla, put your version number there.
Recompile gaim...
./configure
make
make install (as root)

OH! after you add that line to /etc/ld.so.conf and save it,
you must run ldconfig as root