[SOLVED] Pidgin problem on Ubuntu

[regsim]

i have a partition, with windows 2000 on one side and ubuntu 8.10 on the other. I installed the ubuntu a year ago but only started using a few days ago.

I am currently busy transfering all of my activities from Windows to Ubuntu.
This transfer involved, among other things, an attempt to add the skype plugin to my pidgin software on ubuntu.

Here are the instructions I followed (from the site Ubuntu Geek) :

<< First you need to download the plugin using the following command

<< wget .... [and the url]

<< Now you should have skype4pidgin.deb package.Install this .deb package using the

<< following command

<< sudo dpkg -i skype4pidgin.deb


After installing the plugin I opened pidgin but was unable to do anything with it.

I later understood the reason -- namely, that a condition for this plugin to work was that skype had to be installed and running on my system. So i installed skype (but only after having added the plugin).

In any case, now my pidgin will not start. When I try to start the program, the little pidgin window flashes briefly on the screen and then disappears. Having absolutely no experience with linux systems I don't even know where to start looking for the problem.

I thought of uninstalling and reinstalling pidgin, but I get a warning that this program shares vital components with other programs, so I dare not...

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[devils casper]

Have you tried to remove Skype plugin only?

sudo dpkg -r skype4pidgin.deb

[regsim]

Have you tried to remove Skype plugin only?

sudo dpkg -r skype4pidgin.deb

Thank you for your suggestion.
I tried now, but got the following reply:
" dpkg: you must specify packages by their own names, not by quoting the names of the files they come in"
How does one proceed from here?

[devils casper]

Remove Skype before removing plugin. Use Synaptic Package Manager to remove Skype.

[regsim]

The problem seems to have been solved - after i removed, first skype, and then the plugin using the Synaptic Package Manager, Pidgin stopped disappearing. It now opens on a screen called Buddy List.
I will now try to reinstall skype.
Thank you again very very much!

[devils casper]

Glad to help you.
Do start a new thread if you have any other question.