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date: 2022-10-21
title: Using iChat on Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) to connect to bitlbee

Overview

I'm using bitlbee for the majority of my online communications - I have all the usual networks added like Facebook, Discord, etc. and it allows me to access them through a standard IRC client.

The other day I dusted off my old PowerMac G5 and figured I'd put Tiger on it, to see what it's like to live in 2022 with a MacOS version that I loved.

Of course I could put any old IRC client on it, or even just ssh into a machine with weechat, but my personal 2007 chat memory on a Mac was connecting iChat directly to Facebook, Google chat, etc. and using it like a regular XMPP client, so I wanted something similar - I wanted iChat!

Of course those networks no longer expose an XMPP-compatible interface (and Discord I guess never has), so I figured the easiest way will be to run my own XMPP server and install an IRC gateway on it to connect to my existing bitlbee instance.

I ended up using Openfire as XMPP server and biboumi as IRC gateway.

The way this works is that iChat connects to Openfire, which has Biboumi registered on it as an External Component, which connects to bitlbee, which connects to the usual chat networks:

                                       Discord
                                     /
iChat - Openfire - Biboumi - Bitlbee  
                                     \
                                       Facebook

Assumptions

You're trying this on Arch Linux
Bitlbee is already set up
Docker is already set up
Your iChat version is 3.1.8 (v445), however I'm sure that all others will work as well. This is the default version that ships with Tiger.

Setting up Openfire on a linux box

Create a folder where openfire will store its config (like ~/openfire)
Run an openfire instance in docker: docker run --rm --name openfire --publish 9090:9090 --publish 5222:5222 --publish 5275:5275 --publish 7777:7777 --volume ~/openfire:/var/lib/openfire nasqueron/openfire:4.7.1
Open the Openfire console in a browser
In Plugins, install Non-SASL Authentication. This enables old XMPP clients (like iChat) to connect to your Openfire instance
In Server -> Server Settings -> Client Connections, make sure the following settings are enabled:
Plain-text (with STARTTLS) connections
- Enabled
- Port is 5222
- STARTTLS policy is Optional
- Mutual Authentication is Disabled
Encrypted (legacy-mode) connections
- Enabled
- Port is 5223
- Mutual Authentication is Disabled
In Server -> Server Settings -> External Components, make sure the following settings are enabled:
Plain-text (with STARTTLS) connections
- Enabled
- Port is 5275
- STARTTLS policy is Optional
- Mutual Authentication is Disabled
Encrypted (legacy-mode) connections
- Enabled
- Port is 5276
- Mutual Authentication is Disabled
Allowed to Connect: Anyone
Create a subdomain here with the name irc, and Shared secret biboumipwd

Setting up Biboumi on a linux box

Install biboumi: yay -S biboumi
Create biboumi.cfg like below

~/.config/biboumi/biboumi.cfg¶

hostname=irc.localfire
password=biboumipwd
xmpp_server_ip=192.168.1.203 # point to where your openfire instance is running
port=5275
admin=admin@localfire
realname_customization=true
realname_from_jid=false

Connecting in iChat

In Preferences -> Accounts create a new account with the following details:
Description: localfire
Jabber ID: admin@localfire
Password: openfireAdminPassword
Server: 192.168.1.203 (Openfire IP)
Port: 5222
Connect using SSL: Disabled
Allow self-signed certificates: Enabled
Log into the server
In File -> Go to chat... open the following chat name: \26bitlbee%localhost@irc.localfire (change localhost to whereever bitlbee is running if not on the same host as biboumi)
You should now have a chat window pop-up, localhost@irc.localfire. This is the IRC server window which works similarly as in regular IRC clients. You can issue the usual IRC commands without prefixing them with / like nick <yournick>
You should also have another chat window pop-up here with a title starting with Chatting with... - this is the familiar &bitlbee channel window. Identify yourself as usual here with identify <your bitlbee pwd>. You can issue bitlbee commands here like normal.
You can start a chat with anyone on your bitlbee instance by either opening the participant list in the bitlbee chat window and double clicking them, or by going to Buddies -> Add buddy..., clicking New person and filling out the Account Name in this format: bitlbeeuser%localhost@irc.localfire (bitlbeeuser is the username your friend normally has on bitlbee)