I also experienced the bug (13.10, Pidgin 2.10.7 (libpurple 2.10.7), pidgin-otr 4.0.0-1). After doing some research I think I can conclude that the reason must be that Pidgin tries to get the initialization randomness from /dev/random and stalls until /dev/random delivers sufficient data.
For me pidgin unfreezes after typing random data into an arbitrary text field for a few minutes to produce entropy for /dev/random. It would be adviseable to give a hint to the user as to what pidgin is waiting for, and how he can speed up the process (like using mouse/keyboard/whatever devices feed entropy to /dev/random). -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to pidgin in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/303862 Title: Pidgin freezes when generating new OTR private key Status in Off-the-Record Messaging plugin for pidgin: New Status in “pidgin” package in Ubuntu: Invalid Status in “pidgin-otr” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: Binary package hint: pidgin Package: pidgin-otr (Intrepid) 3.2.0-1 Version of Ubuntu: Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) Systems used: AMD XP 3200+, 1 GB DDR, 160 GB HDD running Ubuntu 8.10 HP dv9500t laptop, 2.0 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB DDR, 160 GB HDD running of Ubuntu 8.10 LiveCD When I enable the pidgin-otr plugin and attempt to generate a new private key, Pidgin pops up a dialog box telling me that a new private key is being generated. However, key generation never completes and eventually I receive a notification that Pidgin or "Generating Private Key" is not responding. I have attempted to generate keys for both a XMPP (GMail Account) and an AIM account with the same result, and have repeated the process on both systems multiple times. I have successfully generated keys using the same version of OTR on Windows XP SP3 on the HP dv9500t laptop. ProblemType: Bug Architecture: i386 DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.10 ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/pidgin Package: pidgin 1:2.5.2-0ubuntu1 ProcEnviron: PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games LANG=en_US.UTF-8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: pidgin Uname: Linux 2.6.27-9-generic i686 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/pidgin-otr/+bug/303862/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp