Matrix-appservice-irc: Bridge libera.chat

[TheEvilSkeleton]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

freenode has been acquired by a company, and the former owner switched to libera.chat.

Describe the solution you'd like

Bridge the new http://libera.chat/ network with appservice.

Additional context

https://www.kline.sh/

[ftyers]

It is underway. See IRC Matrix Bridges.

[Half-Shot]

Hi folks, we're in talks with the libera folks but they are understandably massively busy starting up a brand new network.

[anarcat]

this is also being tracked in #libera-matrix on irc.libera.chat.

[eternaleye]

An update on Twitter: https://twitter.com/liberachat/status/1396920289641091079

Libera Chat

A big thanks to the lovely folk at @ matrixdotorg who we just had a very constructive meeting with, we hope to be able to offer matrix bridging soon. Thank you for your patience

[Half-Shot]

Yup, a lot of progress made on the call. A bit of work for me to do but we have two clear paths forwards and both lead to a fresh and exciting new bridge :)

[AdamWill]

I'm sure everyone's working as hard as they can, but just to note, now freenode is shutting down channels that post links to libera, this has become a bit more urgent :( the freenode incarnations of several channels I follow have been zapped, so I guess I'll have to fire up an IRC client for a bit until the libera bridge is ready.

[Half-Shot]

Yup, I've personally dealt with a few Freenode takeovers myself today. We're hoping to have the bridge ready to go tomorrow.

[sanecito]

We're hoping to have the bridge ready to go tomorrow.

Just so one can have relevant resources lined up for tomorrow, is this something that will require a server update, and/or just an Element client update by whomever manages the room plumbing (to then select Liberachat from the bridges dropdown)?

[Half-Shot]

@sanecito No update required on your side, it will be automatic.

[mcb30]

I'm seeing the dropdown offer liberachat as an option, and the list of channel operators is populated correctly, but adding the bridge is repeatably failing with Bridge returned HTTP 500 Internal Server Error: Room failed validation. You may be attempting to "double bridge" this room. Error: 2. (I have already removed the Freenode bridge, so there are no existing IRC bridges).

Is this expected to work at this time, or is it still a work in progress?

Thanks!

[c-x-berger]

adding the bridge is repeatably failing with Bridge returned HTTP 500 Internal Server Error: Room failed validation. You may be attempting to "double bridge" this room. Error: 2. (I have already removed the Freenode bridge, so there are no existing IRC bridges).

We're noticing something similar in #purduelug:matrix.org. Interestingly, traces of the Freenode bridge are apparently still part of the room state:

Not sure how relevant that is for this particular issue though.

[Half-Shot]

@mcb30 @c-x-berger can you report this in a new issue, we're trying to keep this one explictly about setting up the new bridge. Bugs / issues should go in separate issues.

[c-x-berger]

can you report this in a new issue, we're trying to keep this one explictly about setting up the new bridge. Bugs / issues should go in separate issues.

Done. #1351

[TheEvilSkeleton]

Not exactly sure what is happening here. I read yesterday's blog post on Matrix and it mentioned that we can join libera.chat rooms: https://matrix.org/blog/2021/05/28/this-week-in-matrix-2021-05-28#liberachat-irc-network-news.

Does it mean the bridge is working?

[sanecito]

According to Libera.chat's fediverse account, it has been officially released:

https://fosstodon.org/@liberachat/106320476905973945

[TheEvilSkeleton]

I'll wait for a member of the team to close the issue.

[tohojo]

Hari Rana @.*> writes:

Not exactly sure what is happening here. I read yesterday's blog post on Matrix and it mentioned that we can join libera.chat rooms: https://matrix.org/blog/2021/05/28/this-week-in-matrix-2021-05-28#liberachat-irc-network-news.

Does it mean the bridge is working?

Just tried it, and yeah that does indeed appear to be the case :)

It doesn't seem to work with SASL authentication though, so using
!storepass for automatic nickserv registration doesn't work :(

[alvinhochun]

It doesn't seem to work with SASL authentication though, so using !storepass for automatic nickserv registration doesn't work :(

Just tried, !storepass worked fine for me.

[tohojo]

alvinhochun @.*> writes:

It doesn't seem to work with SASL authentication though, so using !storepass for automatic nickserv registration doesn't work :(

Just tried, !storepass worked fine for me.

Yeah, the command works, but does it auth you when you then subsequently
!reconnect ?

[tohojo]

Toke Høiland-Jørgensen @.*> writes:

alvinhochun @.*> writes:

It doesn't seem to work with SASL authentication though, so using !storepass for automatic nickserv registration doesn't work :(

Just tried, !storepass worked fine for me.

Yeah, the command works, but does it auth you when you then subsequently
!reconnect ?

Ah, nvm, I forgot to also set !username; works now :)

[TheEvilSkeleton]

How did you people manage to create a libera.chat account in Matrix (specifically Element)? Is it documented?

[Rspigler]

in #irc:matrix.org it says that the libera.chat bridge is still in testing?

[tohojo]

Hari Rana @.*> writes:

How did you people manage to create a libera.char account in Matrix
(specifically Element)? Is it documented?

You don't need a libera.chat account; you just join the room from
whatever account you have already :)

[MightyCreak]

Do you know why #gamingonlinux doesn't appear in the room list?

EDIT: nvm, I just needed to wait a little for all the rooms to be listed

[Tachi107]

How did you people manage to create a libera.chat account in Matrix (specifically Element)? Is it documented?

@TheEvilSkeleton nope, I don't think it is documented, but I've actually followed you guide on Fedora Magazine, lol.
Instead of using appservice-irc:matrix.org I used appservice:libera.chat, and instead of freenode_NickServ:matrix.org I used NickServ:libera.chat.

[TheEvilSkeleton]

How did you people manage to create a libera.chat account in Matrix (specifically Element)? Is it documented?

@TheEvilSkeleton nope, I don't think it is documented, but I've actually followed you guide on Fedora Magazine, lol.
Instead of using appservice-irc:matrix.org I used appservice:libera.chat, and instead of freenode_NickServ:matrix.org I used NickServ:libera.chat.

Yup, that's exactly what I did yesterday, and it worked for me.

[grahamperrin]

For reference:

• https://matrix-org.github.io/matrix-appservice-irc/latest/usage.html#customising-your-experience

… set a password to authenticate with services, …

– and part of a legacy page, through which I learnt what to do in response to err_needreggednick

• https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/wiki/End-user-FAQ#user-content-i-am-getting-kicked-out-of-a-bridged-room-with-the--err_needreggednick-error

[tohojo]

Creak @.*> writes:

Do you know why #gamingonlinux doesn't appear in the room list?

Rooms are created dynamically as users join them. So just tell your
Matrix client to join #gamingonlinux:libera.chat that it should
appear...

[cmurf]

From Element, if I start a chat with @appservice-irc:matrix.org and use !storepass I get a response that says "Successfully stored password for chat.freenode.net. You will now be reconnected to IRC." which is pretty confusing.

[grahamperrin]

@appservice-irc:matrix.org

– is not for Libera Chat.

From https://matrix-org.github.io/matrix-appservice-irc/latest/usage.html#customising-your-experience, with added emphasis:

… the matrix.org freenode bridge user is @appservice-irc:matrix.org. …

[grahamperrin]

https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/issues/1324#issuecomment-850922098

in #irc:matrix.org it says that the libera.chat bridge is still in testing?

True.

Some confusion from https://fosstodon.org/@liberachat/106320476905973945, from which some people assumed that the bridge was officially released, ready for the masses:

… IRC gateways: our matrix bridge is now available! You can connect to …

The current topic at ircs://irc.libera.chat/#libera-matrix is:

Official Libera <> Matrix coordination, please be patient while the dust clears | Bridge is up and available for testing, be aware that it may be a bit wobbly while we work on issues | FREENODE BRIDGE UNLINK/DEOP ISSUES: email [email protected], include room ID, problem description, and desired solution. Set a helpful subject line.

Most recently, in the channel:

The bridge with Libera isn't finished or officially released or anything, so issues are to be expected.

[Tachi107]

From Element, if I start a chat with @appservice-irc:matrix.org and use !storepass I get a response that says "Successfully stored password for chat.freenode.net. You will now be reconnected to IRC." which is pretty confusing.

You have to chat with @appservice:libera.chat, see my comment: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/issues/1324#issuecomment-851014890

[CRCinAU]

Is this completely busted at the moment?

I don't see anything coming across in #fedora or ##proxmox - the Matrix side is completely empty of content - but not empty of users.

[ljl-covid]

@CRCinAU while I'm not sure this is the cause of all these unidirectional failures, there is one caveat about the Matrix—Libera bridge that wasn't there with freenode: I understand due to privacy concerns, IRC messages are not relayed to Matrix unless and until all Matrix users in a room have successfully joined as their bridged IRC counterparts.

This recent bug was caused by the new behavior which traces back to this 2016 bug report and which I can see how it may end up losing a lot of messages during and after netsplits and such as hinted here. I've already seen this behavior happening in #microg, but it's obviously too early to say how will this affect bridge stability in the long term. I suspect it was a strong request from Libera staff to the Matrix bridge people, to make sure no one on the Matrix side can ever see a message that their "IRC avatar" wasn't there to witness; however, in the future maybe individual rooms could turn off this behavior if it's undesired because they are public, logged rooms.

In other ways, the Libera bridge is probably "cleaner" than the OFTC bridge, but this may be an important limitation to consider.

[tgr]

I get Bridge returned HTTP 500 Internal Server Error: Room failed validation. You may be attempting to "double bridge" this room. Error: 2 when I try to bridge a Matrix room (#wikipedia-hu-irc:matrix.org) to a libera.chat channel (#wikipedia-hu). Not sure if that's an issue with the libera.chat bridge or something more generic.

[svenstaro]

Every now and then, the bridge appears to forget the channel keys I have for all of my channels that require them. This is quite annoying. Do I have to store them with the bridge somehow in a non-obvious way or is this currently simply broken?

[Mikaela]

@svenstaro as far as I am aware, the bridge won't store channel keys at all and you are hitting https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/issues/838 instead.

[LorbusChris]

Here's a small guide describing how to register with Libera.Chat and setup nick(s) through the Matrix bridge:
https://gist.github.com/LorbusChris/d44a5dd4671796cbf8528ca133dd909b

[TheEvilSkeleton]

There's also this one: https://kparal.wordpress.com/2021/06/01/connecting-to-libera-chat-through-matrix/

[TheEvilSkeleton]

Am I the only one experiencing these?

I always identify myself but this message keeps coming up.

[aaronraimist]

@TheEvilSkeleton did you give your password to the bridge with the !storepass command? If not then you have to manually identify yourself every time the bridge restarts.

[TheEvilSkeleton]

@aaronraimist yes I have. I forgot to mention that before.

[Tachi107]

I always identify myself but this message keeps coming up.

I think it appears every time you reconnect (and maybe are safe to ignore). If you type INFO you should get your registered username

[chungy]

I also don't get automatically identified after using !storepass

[ThatGeoGuy]

I also don't get automatically identified after using !storepass

I also had this problem but the solution is to make sure that you set your username since Libera won't auth via SASL without it. Your username can be set with !username <your user name> when chatting with the appservice. User names are usually the same as your nick, and all lowercase characters.

[Half-Shot]

Hi folks, the bridge is effectively live now and we're not going to monitor this thread for bug reports. We'd instead ask you interact via either the #libera-matrix:libera.chat Matrix room or create a new issue on this repo for us to triage.

[benks-io]

Did someone manage to connect a matrix room with a libera.chat room so that members can be connected with one of them, and all messages are synchronized?

[m1cl]

yes, it works as expected.

[MightyCreak]

Did someone manage to connect a matrix room with a libera.chat room so that members can be connected with one of them, and all messages are synchronized?

I did, you can watch the GamingOnLinux room here: https://matrix.to/#/#gamingonlinux-irc:matrix.org

Edit: Also it is an IRC room for registered users only, I tried to build up a documentation on how to register a nickname and authenticate using SASL: https://gist.github.com/MightyCreak/12c75f0ac123608060fb3d97cdaaee0f

[drybjed]

@MightyCreak Your explanation is for joining an existing IRC channel as a Matrix user, correct? Bridging is a bit different - both an IRC channel and Matrix room see the same messages and users. Any idea if that functionality works right now?

[benks-io]

@m1cl @MightyCreak Did you use matrix-appservice-irc to bridge the rooms?

[MightyCreak]

Oops sorry, I've put the wrong room link (I've re-edited my post)

To answer your question, the room has been created by me and is bridged to an IRC chan

[alexxcons]

@TheEvilSkeleton Automatic auth on reconnect to libera working here. Open a private chat with appservice:

!username <your NickServ username>
!storepass irc.libera.chat <your password>

More details here: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Matrix.org#Authenticating_with_LiberaChat

[benks-io]

@m1cl @MightyCreak Can you share your matrix-appservice-irc config file for bridging the room?

[MightyCreak]

@benks-io I don't have a config file, I'm merely using the IRC bridge proposed directly in Element

[benks-io]

I am looking for a way to synchronize the messages of two rooms on two servers with different protocols. Namely a Matrix room with matrix users on the one hand and an IRC Room on an IRC server on the other.
@MightyCreak So, your solution is an IRC room on a server with a matrix bridge, where Matrix Users may join but not the above?

[MightyCreak]

@benks-io That's just it.

Create a room, clic on the "i" to get the information panel:

Then clic on "Add widgets, etc..." And clic on "Add integrations" at the bottom-left:

Select IRC bridge:

And fill the form (someone on the other side need to have the rights to allow the matrix bot).

[benks-io]

@MightyCreak too easy! 🚀 Thanks for that. 🙏

[benks-io]

@MightyCreak That worked out until the step of confirmation. Which IRC Client on libera-chat side did you use to accept the Invite?

[MightyCreak]

I wasn't on that side as I am not the moderator on the IRC chan, but I warned them before starting the process. As they didn't know much about Matrix, I guess it was easy to set up.

[legoktm]

It's been brought up in #libera-matrix:libera.chat that https://status.matrix.org/ has no entry for the Libera Chat bridge. Should it be listed there? Should I file a new ticket or support request for that?

[Xiretza]

It's been brought up in #libera-matrix:libera.chat that https://status.matrix.org/ has no entry for the Libera Chat bridge. Should it be listed there?

I don't think so, because it's hosted and operated by libera, not matrix.org. On the other hand Gimpnet is also there, which runs on gnome.org, so I'm not sure. It should definitely be in https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc/wiki/Bridged-IRC-networks though, so I opened #1415.

[Mikaela]

I don't think so, because it's hosted and operated by libera, not matrix.org.

It is not hosted or operated by Libera.Chat. It's hosted and operated by Element Matrix Services as can be seen e.g. by using the federation tester.

I don't know if EMS has a status page where it could be listed, but the bridge administration definitely has more to do with Matrix.org than Libera.Chat.