At first, following content is just my experience to install a newer version from source, it may not works as well as you guys used on LINUX. Do following steps: You have to install following packages before you start to compile pidgin! gmake gstreamer gnutls libnss python cyrus-sasl2 tcl/tk farsight Well, a GTK based desktop environment is needed! (I use XFCE4, Gnome is the best!) Download the source from Pidgin's official site Extract the source Run configure with parameters # ./configure --disable-vv --disable-meanwhile --disable-nm --with-gnutls-includes=/usr/local/include --with-gnutls-libs=/usr/local/lib --with-tclconfig=/usr/local/lib/tcl8.5 --with-tkconfig=/usr/local/lib/tk8.4 Compile # gmake Install as root # sudo gmake install If all the procedures are work properly, you can just start pidgin and enjoy it on OpenBSD 4.6 now! :)