Pidgin crashing with gstreamer errors while using PulseAudio

[Scott Ritchie]

Binary package hint: pidgin

I've been getting periodic Pidgin crashes in Intrepid (about twice per day)

~/.xsession-errors gives this:

(pidgin:2310): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_element_set_state: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed

(pidgin:2310): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_object_unref: assertion `((GObject *) object)->ref_count > 0' failed

(pidgin:2310): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_element_set_state: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed

(pidgin:2310): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_object_unref: assertion `((GObject *) object)->ref_count > 0' failed

(pidgin:2310): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_element_set_state: assertion `GST_IS_ELEMENT (element)' failed

(pidgin:2310): GStreamer-CRITICAL **: gst_object_unref: assertion `((GObject *) object)->ref_count > 0' failed

Changing Pidgin's sound options from Automatic to ALSA stopped the crashes.

[Alejandro R. Mosteo (mosteo)]

Similar errors here in .xsession-errors. I ran pidgin within gdb and got this stack trace (although I had no debug symbols installed):

$ dpkg -s pidgin | grep Version
Version: 1:2.5.2-0ubuntu1

#0 0xb7fa0430 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
#1 0xb7558880 in raise () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#2 0xb755a248 in abort () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#3 0xb77d790c in g_logv () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#4 0xb77d7946 in g_log () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#5 0xb7e7cad2 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgthread-2.0.so.0
#6 0xb77f75a9 in g_thread_join () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#7 0xb2d7526c in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstaudio-0.10.so.0
#8 0xb2d83f5b in gst_ring_buffer_release () from /usr/lib/libgstaudio-0.10.so.0
#9 0xb2d7d978 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstaudio-0.10.so.0
#10 0xb7eb62f8 in gst_element_change_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#11 0xb7eb925c in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#12 0xb7eb5522 in gst_element_set_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#13 0xb7ea6b2a in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#14 0xb2d9cfdb in ?? () from /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstautodetect.so
#15 0xb7eb62f8 in gst_element_change_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#16 0xb7eb925c in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#17 0xb7eb5522 in gst_element_set_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#18 0xb7ea6b2a in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#19 0xb7eb62f8 in gst_element_change_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#20 0xb7eb925c in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#21 0xb7eb5522 in gst_element_set_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#22 0xb7ea6b2a in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
---Type <return> to continue, or q <return> to quit---
#23 0xb2f00170 in ?? () from /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstgconfelements.so
#24 0xb2efcff6 in ?? () from /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstgconfelements.so
#25 0xb7eb62f8 in gst_element_change_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#26 0xb7eb925c in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#27 0xb7eb5522 in gst_element_set_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#28 0xb7ea6b2a in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#29 0xb7eb62f8 in gst_element_change_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#30 0xb7eb925c in ?? () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#31 0xb7eb5522 in gst_element_set_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#32 0xb2dd38ac in ?? () from /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstplaybin.so
#33 0xb2dd6da7 in ?? () from /usr/lib/gstreamer-0.10/libgstplaybin.so
#34 0xb7eb62f8 in gst_element_change_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#35 0xb7eb608e in gst_element_continue_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#36 0xb7eb64f3 in gst_element_change_state () from /usr/lib/libgstreamer-0.10.so.0
#37 0xb7eb925c in ?? () from /usr...

[Caspar Clemens Mierau (leitmedium)]

Though this bug is already confirmed, I'll mark it as duplicate of #162701 which has a lot of more detailled information about this issue. Thank you for the taking the time to report this error. Feel free to continue commenting on #162701 or rising a new bug if you are sure that this bug is different.