Can't get DBUS data for automatic statuschange of pidgin

Question

I'm using a script based on the work posted here: Update pidgin status using cron

I'm trying to make a wicd script that automaticly disconnects before Wifi-disconnect and reconnects on Wifi-reconnect.

But somehow dbus/pidgin can't seem to find the dbus session, eventhough the environment variable is set.

My setup:

• Arch linux
• Pidgin 2.9.0
• Libpurple 2.9.0-2

Autoload script (runs on Xfce start):

#!/bin/bash
touch /tmp/dbus_session_data
env | grep DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS > /tmp/dbus_session_data
echo 'export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS' >> /tmp/dbus_session_data

The tmp-file after runnign script:

[skaverat@eeepthought ~]$ cat /tmp/dbus_session_data 
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-gZMqzhdS2S,guid=9b8b3169f14346902127832000000043
export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS

Okay, let's get into another environment:

[root@eeepthought ~]# env | grep DBUSD
[root@eeepthought ~]# source /tmp/dbus_session_data 
[root@eeepthought ~]# env | grep DBUS
DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-gZMqzhdS2S,guid=9b8b3169f14346902127832000000043
[root@eeepthought ~]# purple-remote getstatus
No existing libpurple instance detected.

purple-remote call in normal environment:

[skaverat@eeepthought ~]$ purple-remote getstatus
available

Any idea what could be wrong?

Answer 1

DBus session can't be shared for different users, that's how it was designed.

I might not get your current solution, why're you trying to do it with root?

If so, use su - USERNAME -c /path/to/this/script.sh to launch a script like this,

#!/bin/bash
. ~/.dbus/session-bus/*
purple-remote getstatus

This will work for the root user.

P.S: why wouldn't you set up the cron as the user who loggined through pidgin??

Answer 2

You can't, as far as I am aware connect to another users D-Bus session. So root@eeepthought, being a different user, was refused permission to connect to the D-Bus session of skaverat@eeepthought. That is all that is wrong with what you've done.