Two thoughts: 1) There's another emacs irc package: ncirc (or perhaps nc-irc, not sure which). You may want to try that one out as well. 2) Emacs22+ should have erc installed already. If you are running that version or higher, and installed a second package, removing your installed package might do the trick. 3) are you adding the port number by hand after M-x erc brings up <a href="http://irc.freenode.net">irc.freenode.net</a> as the host? If so, that's your problem. the port number is the next thing you're asked for (this is a long shot, but I didn't want to leave any stone unturned). Hope this helps. -Patrick <div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 24, 2008 6:21 PM, Marr <<a href="mailto:marr@copper.net">marr@copper.net</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Hey all, I'm trying to coordinate with a fellow Linux kernel module hacker to get a permanent fix for a long-broken kernel module into the next kernel release. He wants to use IRC to coordinate our efforts. Unfortunately, despite many years of computer hacking (the good kind!), I'm a total noob at IRC. Based on a discussion with fellow Emacs enthusiast Patrick (Hawkins, I think) at a GLLUG meeting well over a year ago, I decided to run the Emacs IRC client known as 'erc'. The 'erc' installation is trivial (unlike web-based 'Google Talk', which wanted me to install Adobe Flash 9 -- no thanks). Unfortunately, when I run 'erc' from within Emacs, all I get is this message in my Emacs status line:   <a href="http://irc.freenode.net:6667" target="_blank">irc.freenode.net:6667</a> name or service not known I _can_ successfully 'ping <a href="http://irc.freenode.net" target="_blank">irc.freenode.net</a>', so I know that DNS is resolving it. I played around a bit, and then Googled for that term a bit, but I cannot find anything to help. Of course, I *am* connected to the Internet (via dial-up) when I run 'erc', but it acts just like it does when I'm not connected -- same message. I don't think my 'iptables' firewall is blocking anything. I checked the Emacs 'erc' customization variables and cannot find anything that might help either, so I'm pretty much mystified at this point. Being a total noob at IRC isn't helpful, either. :^) I'll continue to look into solutions, but thought I'd ask for some guidance here too. I don't even have to use 'erc'. I'd gladly run any simple IRC client that won't require me to install a ton of extra junk on top of my nice Slackware 11.0 installation. Simpler (and lower-bandwidth) is better, especially since I'll only be using it once. Thanks in advance to anyone with advice! P.S. Does anyone know when the window for Ubuntu Hardy Heron (8.04 LTS) closes? That is to say, "If we get our kernel module fix in by such-and-such date, it will be guaranteed to be included in Hardy Heron." I'm not a big Ubuntu user, but I just saw that this very old bug was mentioned a while ago on the Ubuntu forums and I'd like to get the fix in before the next release. Regards, Bill Marr _______________________________________________ linux-user mailing list <a href="mailto:linux-user@egr.msu.edu">linux-user@egr.msu.edu</a> <a href="http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user" target="_blank">http://mailman.egr.msu.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-user</a> </blockquote></div>