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Episode: 1945
Title: HPR1945: The Quassel IRC System
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1945/hpr1945.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 11:38:23
---
This in HPR Episode 1945 entitled The Quasal IRC System, it is hosted by 5150 and in about
23 minutes long, the summary is Quasal IRC client that routes your open chat window into
one connection to the IRC server.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15, that's HPR15.
Get your web hosting that's honest and fair at An Honesthost.com.
Howdy folks, this is 5150 for Hacker Public Radio.
Today I wanted to tell you about Quasal IRC and this is going to be more of an informative
talk to let you know about the software package called Quasal, not so much as a be-all
and end-all of everything you need to know to configure Quasal because it's pretty much
on the client end everything is menu driven and I think pretty much anybody is going to
figure out how to use it.
I discovered Quasal because about the same time that NY Bill posted episode 1869 entitled
A RISSI Connectbot, I was wondering myself how to merge all my simultaneous IRC connections
from multiple hosts to the same channel on the same server using just one connection.
I know a lot of people solve this problem by leaving a RISSI running in a terminal
usually on a server, sometimes on a cloud server and then when they want to move from one
machine to the other they just SSH into that session from whatever client machine they're
using.
I was considering doing that but I have used a RISSI before but I've gotten spoiled by
GUI clients like XChat and so I just searched on GUI front end for a RISSI and I came up
with Quasal instead and like I said I think NY Bill and IRC probably trying to say solve
pretty much the same problem, not saying my solution is better than NY Bill's, I'm just
saying it's the approach that appeals the most to me.
Okay, to reiterate the problem IRC servers like FreeNode do not allow simultaneous connections
from multiple hosts using the same identifier or handle.
In other words if I was logged in on the PC here on my desk via XChat as 5150 if I also
wanted to be an augcast planet on FreeNode at the same time from a computer on my kitchen
counter not have to shut down XChat on one machine and bring up XChat on another machine
every time I switched then I would have to use a different handle when the computer in
the kitchen have to show up as kitchen 5150 and on top of that if I left computer running
at home all the time as I want to do and it was logged in the FreeNode.
If I wanted to connect to FreeNode from an Android client like AnChat I would have to
use another different handle I've used Android 5150 in the past and I can adopt all these
aliases into one account so that if I'm logged in as Android 5150 into a channel where
I'm a moderator I still have moderator status and so that other people couldn't
poach that handle though I don't know why anyone should want but it also always creates
some confusion okay will the real 5150 stand up I've had people ask me that well are
you the 5150 for one of a better way to phrase that and I don't want people thinking
I go around now calling myself the 5150 but for the sake of this discussion I know
that a lot of people are very familiar with the same problem especially people who have
a home machine logged in to FreeNode as well as their work machine Mr. Jackson on a cast
planet would be all too familiar if that problem as well as I'm sure Dan Washcoe all right
now let me reiterate the a RISC solution with people been doing for a long time you connect
to server via ssh then log in to IRC using a RISC inside a terminal and probably inside
a new screen or tmux session and then when you're moving between hosts you have to disconnect
from the current screen or tmux session assets ssh into the server from another host and
then reconnect to the session that's running a RISC and they're like I said the RISC in
cursus interface may not be as pretty or as easy for some users as a GUI but it is quite
functional now the causal solution is similar but I think it works a little better you connect
to the IRC server via single host running Quasal dash core so that's the package you need
to install is Quasal dash core on the server and it wouldn't necessarily have to be quote
server is a bit in big monolithic box it's just that it should be a computer that you're
going to leave running connected to the internet all the time so that could be one of your
home computers if you don't have a home server and then on each of the clients that
you're going to want to access IRC from you install Quasal dash client and all the clients
share the same IRC display at the same time in other words free node only sees the one
log in from machine running Quasal core so you don't have to you don't have to log in
and log out of that session on the server you just run Quasal client it automatically connects
to the server running Quasal core and you know all your computer at work your computer at
home your computer in the kitchen you can have them all at the same time and they all you're
looking at the exact same screen on all of them simultaneously so you don't like I said the
beauty of it is you don't have to log out in one on one machine to log in on another you're
seeing the same screen on all of them and there's also an Android client there's I should
mention well first I'm pretty sure you can have Quasal core and Quasal core and Quasal client on
the same machine you can also install Quasal monolithic which is an all-in-one program like I
said it's a GUI IRC program similar to Xchat if you're going to do that I think I didn't I just
install Xchat because when we get when we get to the end I'll mention some things that Quasal
core doesn't do quite as well as Xchat okay I first set up Quasal core on my my home server which
right now is a Raspberry Pi model to running Arch with no GUI and if you if the instructions if
you want to know how just how to install it it's right there in Arch wiki so I think I'd look at
Arch look up Arch wiki in Quasal if the instructions are I mean the the page link is wiki dot Arch
link dot org slash index dot PHP slash Quasal and the Q is capitalized and of course it's in the
show note okay steps to installing Quasal core on Arch so you install Quasal core on the server in
my case sudo pack sudo space pack man space dash capital S space Quasal dash core and generate
the certificate now I'm assuming you're going to go look at the Arch wiki so I'm not explaining
these as much detail actual commands put on the command line there's there's no reason in my notes
duplicate the Arch wiki so then you have to start the core up once you've got installed
sudo system sudo from sorry left out the space sudo space system CTL space start space Quasal
and normally to to you know I don't have to start Quasal in the current session you need to
enable it to start up every time you reboot the server this is this is how system D works
so that command would be sudo space system CTL space enable space Quasal now in the wiki there's
something about that's supposed to work but it doesn't so they give you a CP command to use
instead I'm sorry that's just saying okay now you need to set up port forwarding on your router
assuming you're going to be using Quasal when you're away from your network I would suggest
mapping an external port under other than a default 4242 and that's called security through
obscurity and for details you should see my previous port forwarding episode okay this 5150
here this part's been added in post because I don't think I think you guys bail figured out but
I don't think I was clear enough here if you're setting up Quasal on a home server inside your
network then of course all the devices on your network are going to be looking for the Quasal
Core on the local IP address of the system that you set it up on and you might as well use the
default port 4242 however if you're going to be away from home then you need look at my port
forwarding article if you don't know how to do that because you're going to have to set up a port
through your firewall so that when you're away from home you can reach that Quasal server on your
home network from the internet and devices that move back and forth like a phone or laptop
computer on those devices you're going to have to set up two cores they're both pointing to
the same computer but from inside and outside your network of the words one core is going to be
set up for the computer on its local IP and then the other core is going to be set up to point to
the external IP of your network and whatever port that you assigned externally to Quasal via
port forwarding if you're not lucky enough to have a naturally static IP from your provider then
you're going to have to get set up with some sort of virtual static IP service now you notice
we haven't configured anything yet on on the Quasal server and we don't from here all the
configuration is done by the client see you install Quasal-client on at least one client computer
to start and then all you need to connect to the server is the IP address and whatever external
port number you use like I said again the default is 4242 and the first account you create
and you will create a lot in the words you give the Quasal client an IP address and a port number
then you'll be prompted to create an account create a login so user name and a password and then
you will be mastered over that Quasal server and from then on you're the only one who can
create Quasal logins so you could have multiple people using that same Quasal server
all hitting different IRC servers but you should you probably are figured out the first thing you
need to do right after setting up a server is to set up a client and log in that first time and
create the master password and user name otherwise somebody else knew there was a Quasal core was
running on that server they could beat you to it because there's nothing there's nothing
in security on the original setup to keep somebody else from logging in first and using it
okay part of the setup process is to enter your default IRC server and the channels
it's just like pretty much every other GUI IRC setup there's a window where you type in
hash hogcast planet hash Linux lugcast etc all the channels that you want to see on that server
now I did I one thing I was not successful at was setting up multiple IRC servers there was
you know well the two only two I ever monitor is a free node and the tilts.org server so
but I could only enter free node on the original setup and then once everything was set up
and running then I could add in the the tilt server but I maybe I'm just not wasn't seeing it
but I had I had trouble finding place to put in a second IRC server in the in the initial setup
process like I said once once you're in there then you can do what you will with your configuration
as many servers of course as you want also these if you use the slash join command on the on
command line that'll become persistent as well so if you do a slash join unless you unless you
use the opposite of that command to quit monitoring that channel it's it's going to add that
channel to your list of default channels on that server okay now this is the part where I tell you
some some of the things that didn't work quite as well as xchat but certainly nothing in there is
a deal breaker you know pop up notification when someone uses your handle in the chat which which
is nice you but when you scroll back to find it usually I think an xchat you would whatever it is
is highlighting blue it in a Quasalt shows up in reverse text which I think is kind of ugly it may
be easier to spot not quite as elegant as xchat there's no way to search the chat window which I
always find useful when I'm thinking thinking about well what what did somebody say about that
earlier today I'd like to be able to search for it so if I do get a mess you know if I do get an
indication that somebody's used my handle tried to talk to me and it's several hours old then
it's a lot easier if I can use a search to scroll back and come right to it so that's something
really could be added I think if there's a link posted in the chat I really like the function
xchat that could right click on it and you have the option of just opening it in the default
browser Quasalt just has copy this link so that that's quibbling I know because all I have to do
is then open the browser then then open a new window and paste in the text it made more sense when
I was down to a single monitor and I had to use virtual desktops because that was nice I could
open it in the browser and and keep reading and then when I switch desktops it would be there
waiting also they don't seem to have any kind of spell checking enabled in the client and I
discovered I talking podcast a year or so back my podcast on arch the first time I installed it
it would be 1356 hpr episode 1356 one of the one of the things that I discovered was that unlike
windows spell checking seems to be centrally located in Linux through the Hunspel package and arch
was the first it never occurred to me because arch was the first distro that ever installed that
didn't have the spell checking installed already by default so suddenly I got in a browser and I
didn't have spell check I got in open office and there wasn't any spell check so I had to do some
digging around find out where do I go to get spell check so I said if you and I'm wondering I'm
betting probably spell check is handled through the machine running Quasalt core so I haven't tried
it yet but I'm going to be very interested if I install Hunspel on my server if suddenly I'm going
to have spell check in the Quasalt client probably if I was properly prepared for this podcast I
would have already tried that and been able to answer that question but when I do try to I'll
I'll mention it in a in a future podcast if that works okay I yeah I think that's all I can
really tell you about Quasalt today but if if you run in the same problem that I do you don't
that you have your IRC client running on multiple computers and that forces you to use a
different login on each each computer and you'd rather not do that then Quasalt may be the
solution to your problem I've been 5150 for hacker public radio you can contact me at 5150
at Linux basement dot com or lever lever reply in the comments section for this podcast or as the
message you're about to hear says if you think I've taken a totally wrong approach feel free to
record a podcast of your own thanks for listening okay wait wait a minute hold it don't play the
outro music yet I realized I have a whole paragraph in my script that I'd forgotten plus I've
done a little more research on spell check versus Quasalt first I there must be some other core
spell checking packages in Linux there was some mention of a spell rather than the hun spell
but generally I found out that there are some bug reports out there complaining that Quasalt hasn't
spell check hasn't worked since they've moved from building against Qt4 to Qt5 so I'm assuming
the devs know about that and eventually it will get fixed in an update the other thing
that I forgot to mention about a week after setting up Quasalt on my local server I had the
opportunity a friend had had bought some inexpensive cloud services and had opened it up to the
people he knew for things that would not be high bandwidth so this is perfect for Quasalt so I
jumped on that opportunity and really what I had to do now I don't have route privileges
on the cloud server so I asked somebody to do who did to install Quasalt and they
if the the cloud server is running Ubuntu and you remember there was four or five steps involved
in getting Quasalt installed in arch apparently on Ubuntu it's not much more complicated than
Sudo apt-get install Quasalt dash core once it was up and running then really all I had to do
was have the IP address of the server in the port number that Quasalt was running and go into
the Quasalt core tell it I had I'm sorry Quasalt client tell I wanted to connect to a new core give it
that IP address to the port number and then of course at that point all the configuration is
stored on the core so you're starting over again so I had once I gave it the IP in the port number
then of course I was prompted to create a new set of credentials in other words a new user name
and password and once that was done I had to set up all my IRC servers and my channels
from scratch again of course once I did that did that for one client then all I had to do is move
over to another client and point it towards the new core and of course it inherited all the new
settings a nice thing about not having or not serving the core home first I was I was already
concerned but the last time I left home for a number of days I shut that all computers I shut
down in that work so everything was dead on this and I didn't have to worry about it because I
didn't anticipate needing SSH into my system or anything like that remotely but I knew that if I
if I was going to depend on the Quasal for my IRC in the future I'd have to leave at least a
network and the server so now I don't have to worry about that because all of that's up in the cloud
also I came home one day last month at noon and found out my internet had been offline from about
the time I left the house when I came in at noon about a four hour period so all I did was cycle
power on my uplink and my router and the internet came back but when it did instead of if if I'd
been hosting locally you know since the cloud server was up during all that time it was completely
transparent to it so I could see everything that had been going on on IRC in that interview
in four hours while I was offline it's not a big difference but it's it's something okay well
that's everything that I forgot to tell you before and this I've been your host 5150 and if I
don't get to say it to you in person this year happy new year
you've been listening to hecka public radio at hecka public radio dot org
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