empathy cause kernel-panic when executed

[Sebastián Perruolo]

Binary package hint: empathy

When I execute empathy I get a kernel-panic.

I think it is a kernel-panic because my screen goes black and caps-lock led blinks.

My system is Ubuntu Karmic Koala fully updated.

I thought the problem was in some user configuration, then I search for "empathy" in my user folder. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that I deleted the "~/.gnome2/empathy" folder entirely.

I don't know how to get log info to post.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

A kernel panic is not likely to be an empathy bug

[Sebastián Perruolo (sebastianperruolo+ubuntu)]

Well, I suppose that this may be related to another package. But, it just (and always) happen with empathy.

Does anybody knows how to get info about the last kernel-panic? I mean, I reboot and don't know where to look at...

Thanks

[u-foka (ufooka)]

Hy!

I now found the same bug on lucid with linux-image-2.6.32-19-generic, but empathy works great with 2.6.32-18...

[u-foka (ufooka)]

Finally it solved for me after I removed vmware workstation 7 with it's vmnet module

[Sebastián Perruolo (sebastianperruolo+ubuntu)]

I still get this error, I also have VMPlayer installed. I can't remove it 'cause I need it :(
Besides I already got used to pidgin ;)

@u-foka: How did you know that remove VMWare could work?

[u-foka (ufooka)]

@Sebastián: You can unload vmware's modules (including vmnet) with 'sudo
invoke-rc.d vmware stop' then you can start empathy and it shouldn't
freeze your kernel :) after vmware services restarted it seems that
empathy can remain working (but not tryed to reconnect to im services)
but after restarting vmware services, and starting empatyh freezes again...

On 04/08/2010 04:29 PM, Sebastián Perruolo wrote:
> I still get this error, I also have VMPlayer installed. I can't remove it 'cause I need it :(
> Besides I already got used to pidgin ;)
>
> @u-foka: How did you know that remove VMWare could work?
>
>

[Chuck Findlay (chuck-xtarutaru)]

Tried deleting the ~/.cache directory and all empathy configuration directories and it still persists. Lucid install btw.

chuck@chuck-laptop:~$ uname -a
Linux chuck-laptop 2.6.32-19-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Thu Apr 1 10:39:41 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

VMWare Workstation is indeed the culprit (I removed it, and things work again. Reinstall and the problem reappears.) Hardware is a stock Inspiron 1521.

Attatched is my lspci output. If it's the vmnet module causing issues maybe it just doesn't like the networking hardware on our boxes?

[Stefan Brozinski (stefan-brozinski)]

My box crashes while booting a Vista image in VMware player.
It is an ASUS P5Q-E mainboard. lspci output is attached.

[Carroarmato0 (carroarmato0)]

Gentle men, this bug is caused by Avahi trying to bind to Vmware's network module. Any application that uses avahi will likely cause a kernel panic, not only Empathy, but also Pidgin will cause that problem should the Bonjour/Avahi account be activated

I reported this problem back in Ubuntu 8.10 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+bug/329856

[Sebastián Perruolo (sebastianperruolo+ubuntu)]

@Carroarmato0: thanks! I think you're right. I'm having this problem since I enabled Avahi in Empathy. That's why I was trying to delete Empathy's account configuration. So, what would we do? Who must fix this bug? VMWare? Developers for the Avahi's plugin?

I make a dist-upgrade, everything work just fine, but I don't have VMPlayer installed yet.

[Chuck Findlay (chuck-xtarutaru)]

I disabled the people near me account in empathy after stopping vmware's services (/etc/init.d/vmware stop) to avoid a crash.

Then I shut down empathy, restarted vmware's services (/etc/init.d/vmware start,) opened empathy, and connected. No crash on a updated Ubuntu Lucid system.

This is a much better workaround, thanks!

[dino99 (9d9)]

Closing that outdated report as EOL has been reached long time ago