Pidgin won't connect to MSN, claims "Invalid response"

Question

I'm using Pidgin on Debian Wheezy, Debian's package version 2.10.6-3. A few days ago I started getting sign-in errors on MSN; specifically, Pidgin complains about Windows Live ID authentication:Invalid response.

Looking at the Pidgin web site, there is a newer version 2.10.7 specifically to fix signin errors with MSN. Unfortunately Debian hasn't packaged such a version for Wheezy yet (it's in Jessie and Sid, though), and I really only need the certificates (the security fixes listed on the front page don't apply in my situation).

I tried going into Tools -> Certificates and delete all SSL certificates that had live, passport or msn in their host names, and when I reconnect after that it installs certificates for local-bay.contacts.msn.com and login.live.com, but I am still getting the exact same error.

While waiting and hoping for Debian to package an upgrade, is it possible to use the certificates packaged with Pidgin 2.10.7 (either the official source code or the Debian package from Jessie or Sid) with the 2.10.6-3 build as distributed in Wheezy? If so, how? It is OK if this might break on a reinstall of the Wheezy build of Pidgin, because by the time that comes up hopefully the version that would be installed is fixed anyway.

Edit I downloaded and installed Pidgin 2.10.7-2 (specifically the pidgin, pidgin-data, libpurple0 and libpurple-bin packages) from Jessie, confirmed that I am running those (through dpkg and Pidgin's About dialog), deleted the Live and MSN certificates and reconnected, but I am still getting the same error.

Answer 1

Microsoft just stopped using MSN. They wanted people to use Skype instead. Look at e.g. http://community.skype.com/t5/Live-Messenger/Will-MSN-IM-service-stop-working/td-p/1187128

Answer 2

This is the solution I've figured out just now:

1. Visit http://login.passport.com
2. Log in with whatever you got (My olden MSN passports are linked to gmail accounts)
3. Try logging into MSN via pidgin after you log in on their page

While the accepted answer there isn't entirely the case yet, as they haven't fully coerced users into skype but are in the process of it (I think they're keeping it around for people in countries where they still have a sizable IE7 browser share kind of deal going for their avg computer, forget what I had read the other day that led me to this solution), you might as well start talking to the people you care to keep in touch with via that particular conduit of communication and tell them to switch to something fresher that you're up on as well.