Amsn can't load the library tcl_farsight.so on 64 bits systems. It complains of the ELF class being ELFCLASS32

it seems a 32 bit library packaged in a 64 bit distro

Yes, it seems so. But why ubuntu karmik 64bits installs a 32bits library? That sounds like a bug to me...

This is because the amsn-data package, marqued for all arch, had the following file in it instead of symlink to the ones installed by amsn package:

dg@pc-david:~/Sources$ dpkg --contents amsn-data_0.98.1~debian-0ubuntu1_all.deb |grep 'so$'
-rw-r--r-- root/root 224072 2009-11-04 12:48 ./usr/share/amsn/utils/tclISF/tclISF.so
-rw-r--r-- root/root 10336 2009-11-04 12:48 ./usr/share/amsn/utils/asyncresolver/libasyncresolver.so
-rw-r--r-- root/root 14440 2009-11-04 12:48 ./usr/share/amsn/utils/gupnp/gupnp.so
-rw-r--r-- root/root 72848 2009-11-04 12:48 ./usr/share/amsn/utils/farsight/tcl_farsight.so
lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 2009-11-04 12:48 ./usr/share/amsn/utils/tcl_siren/tcl_siren.so -> ../../../../lib/amsn/utils/tcl_siren/tcl_siren.so
......

All those file must be part of the amsn package instead. Rebuilding the amsn and amsn-data package from source and installing them resolve this issue. But this is a temporary trick.

The rules and amsn-data.links files in amsn source package move and links some shared libs from amsn-data to amsn temporary directory, but the fourth first in the previous list are missing.

I just made and test a quick patch for the debian/rules and debian/amsn-data.links file attached below.

When I re-compile after patching the amsn-data.links file aMSN now produces this error:
Farsight : Preparing
Farsight Prepare error : can't find package Farsight

This doesn't seems to be related to the amsn-data.links.patch.
Does all the build dependencies were installed?
Build process (I use the following command: "sudo dpkg-buildpackage") should run without any problem (nothing was change in the build, just the way the files are installed).
Regards,
David

It seems like building the sourcepackage and installing the resulting packages fixes the error.
How can this be?
Shouldnt all packages have been built from the source packages?
Or has this been fixed inbetween?
What i did was sudo apt-get remove --purge amsn amsn-data
sudo apt-get build-dep amsn amsn-data
apt-get source amsn
cd amsn-0.98.1~debian
sudo dpkt-buildpackage
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
and it works.

This bug exist because some .so libraries are put in amsn_data*.deb file. And since this debian package doesn't depends on an architecture, only one was put in ubuntu servers. So, you get the one that was build for 32bits ubuntu, not the one you got when you build the package yourself (on a 64bit system).

So, the patched files attached will resolv this issue by moving all .so library in the plateform dependent package.

Ps: Someone in the staff can do something for this bug? Comments? Build new official version? Thanks

Bug's still there in Lucid Alpha 3. The package in debian testing, instead, works just fine.

This bug was fixed in the package amsn - 0.98.3-0ubuntu1

---------------
amsn (0.98.3-0ubuntu1) lucid; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable (LP: #449072), remaining Ubuntu changes:
    - add 08_use_aplay_for_sound.dpatch patch by Festor Wailon Dacoba to use
      aplay to play sounds
    + debian/control:
      - modify iceweasel to firefox | abrowser in amsn Suggests field
      - add xdg-utils and gstreamer0.10-nice to amsn Depends field
      - mofify sox to alsa-utils in amsn Suggests field as we are now using
        aplay
  * New upstream release (LP: #562619), tarball repacked according to
    debian/README.source.
  * Fix missing-debian-source-format lintian warning.

amsn (0.98.1-2) unstable; urgency=low

  * Bump Standards-Version to 3.8.4. No changes were needed.
  * debian/control: ${misc:Depends} was added to the field Depends of amsn and
    amsn-data.

amsn (0.98.1-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
  * Error caused when chat windows was opened has been fixed in this new
    upstream release. (Closes: #543977, #550490, #553367, #493766)
  * debian/control: amsn now depends on libsnack2-alsa | libsnack2 instead of
    just libsnack2-alsa so that users may be able to use the OSS output.
    (Closes: #552145)
  * aMSN is able to send offline messages again. (Closes: #550643)
 -- Devid Antonio Filoni <email address hidden> Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:21:29 +0200

is this bug fixed now?

Karmic has long since stopped to receive any updates. Marking the Karmic task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".