XChat auto-join local language channel outdated and confusing

Binary package hint: xchat-gnome

When starting XChat for the first time after installation, it attempts to auto-connect irc.ubuntu.com on port 8001 and auto-join a Ubuntu channel in the user's language, e.g. #ubuntu-nl .

The connection to irc.ubuntu.com is immediately redirected to chat.freenode.net. This causes the server name displayed by XChat to change to "Freenode" (note the case: not "FreeNode" !).
Changing server settings under "FreeNode" (to add server password, enable SSL connection, etc.), has no effect, because they are made for the wrong server configuration.

I think the reason for all this confusion is that XChat actually attempts to auto-connect to the IRC server defined in "Ubuntu Server", hostname irc.ubuntu.com, port 8001, which is not mentioned anywhere (anymore) in any current documentation I could find (which all clearly mention FreeNode).

As a consequence, enabling SSL connection for "Ubuntu Server" gives an error on connect, because (after redirection from irc.ubuntu.com), the FreeNode servers don't accept SSL connections on port 8001.

After looking around in the source package, I think the problem is with the patch 04_autojoin_ubuntu_chan.patch . (Why hard-code this in the executable anyway?)

I would like to suggest changing the patch to use the server configuration for "FreeNode" instead of "Ubuntu Server", or at least change hostname irc.ubuntu.com to chat.freenode.net .

Kind regards, Alain

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: xchat-gnome 1:0.26.1+git20101206.557c940-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 17 14:45:45 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110427.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=nl_NL:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=nl_NL.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: xchat-gnome
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)