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When trying to connect to an IRC server in Irssi, I get the following error:

root Erroneous Nickname: Reserved for services

I don't know how to change the nickname before the connection is established. I'm currently connected to one server, where I have my proper nick, but when trying to connect to another server with connect irc.foo.com, which should open another connection, it's trying with the nickname root.

How do I change this nickname?

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1
  • 3
    I don't think it's a good idea to run IRSSI from root.
    – kzh
    Jun 15 '11 at 22:08
31

You can use Irssi's -n option to specify your nick:

irssi -n test123

Or you can go to the bottom of your $HOME/.irssi/config file and in the settings section, change the entry "nick".

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2
  • An alternative to changing the configuration file directly (entry "nick") is from within an Irssi session: /set nick SomePreferredNickname and /save (documentation, near "User information" (though it is somewhat broken and incomplete)). Similar for entry "user_name": /set user_name SomePreferredNickname and /save.
    – Peter Mortensen
    Jun 2 at 12:04
  • Though changing the global nick name permanently may not be a good answer to the question here(?).
    – Peter Mortensen
    Jun 2 at 12:05
11

You can use the command:

irssi -n nickname1234

and to change the default nickname after you are connected

/SET default_nick = <nick>, defaults to user_name

/SET alternate_nick = <nick>, defaults to <default_nick>

/SET user_name = <user>, defaults to your login name

/SET real_name = <name>, taken from /etc/passwd by default

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3
  • Can you back it up with a reference to documentation?
    – Peter Mortensen
    Jun 2 at 12:02
  • default_nick is way out of date. It is just nick now. It changed in October 2000 (not a typo - more than 20 years ago). Version 0.7.96 (2000-10-19): "Changes ... /SET default_nick -> /SET nick"
    – Peter Mortensen
    Jun 2 at 12:09
  • After some consideration (e.g., based on some actual testing), someone might want to update this answer. And specify which version of Irssi was used for testing.
    – Peter Mortensen
    Jun 2 at 12:11
0

In a terminal, go to the user home directory and cd into the .irssi directory.

Then

touch config

Paste in the following:

servers = (
  {
    address = "irc.freenode.net";
    chatnet = "freenode";
    port = "6667";
    use_ssl = "no";
    ssl_verify = "no";
    autoconnect = "yes";
  }
);

chatnets = {
  Freenode = {
    type = "IRC";
    autosendcmd = "/msg nickserv identify yourname yourpass";
  };
};

channels = (
  { name = "#test-channel"; chatnet = "Freenode"; autojoin = "Yes"; }
  { name = "#private-test-channel"; chatnet = "Freenode"; password = "yourpass"; autojoin = "Yes"; }
);

settings = {
  core = { real_name = "real name"; user_name = "user name"; nick = "yourusername"; };
  "fe-text" = { actlist_sort = "refnum"; term_force_colors = "yes"; scrollback_time = "7day "; };
  "fe-common/core" = { theme = "default"; };
};
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  • 1
    There is no reason to not use TLS, copy pasting settings without understanding them is a generally bad idea. I'll edit the answer
    – Yarek T
    Dec 6 '19 at 10:14
  • Some of those settings may already exist in the ~/.irssi/config file. What is the consequence of duplicate entries?
    – Peter Mortensen
    Jun 2 at 10:28
  • What is the purpose of touch config? Is it really necessary? Doesn't the ~/.irssi/config file already exist if Irssi has been run and Irssi doesn't care about the modification date? (Not rhetorical questions.)
    – Peter Mortensen
    Jun 2 at 10:31

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