This problem has been dogging me ever since I dumped Windows. I have never been able to log into AIM, using OSCAR, with an unofficial client. I have no trouble with AOL's Linux AIM client or with Apple's iChat client (which is effectively an official client), but I cannot log in to AIM with Kopete, Gaim, caim, or any other open-source IM client.
* When I try to login with Kopete, I get "Sign on failed because the password supplied for this screen name is invalid. Please check your password and try again."
* When I try to login with caim, I get "Received unknown packet: 0x 0 0x 1 0x 0 0x 1 0x 0 0x 0 0x 0 0x 0 0x 0 0x 4 0x 0 0x 8"
* When I try to login with naim, it works! However, naim uses TOC, not OSCAR, to connect to AIM.
* And of course, if I try to login with AOL's client or Apple's client, it just works.
The only thing I can think of that could be getting in the way is that my IM name was once an AOL subscriber name, but I left AOL and just kept my AIM name. I suppose that may be a rare scenario, but I don't see how it would affect the login process.
Does anyone have any ideas? I'm currently using Kopete 0.8 RC1 but I had these problems with older versions too.