Comment 15 for bug 357949

Same here:

user@jaunty$ dpkg-query -W pidgin libxml2
libxml2 2.6.32.dfsg-5ubuntu4
pidgin 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu7

I tracked down the problem. It happens when the jabber plugin reads the custom buddy icon from the local cache "~/.purple/icons/".

user@jaunty$ grep 'protocol\|buddy_icon' ~/.purple/accounts.xml
  <protocol>prpl-jabber</protocol>
   <setting name='buddy_icon' type='string'>c0fe6764000aa9099bb6a1cf961a92f07ce397fc.png</setting>
   <setting name='buddy_icon_timestamp' type='int'>1224082285</setting>

If I delete the buddy icon, it starts correctly.

user@jaunty$ rm -f ~/.purple/icons/c0fe6764000aa9099bb6a1cf961a92f07ce397fc.png