Pidgin crashes at startup

[falstaff]

When I start Pidgin, it crashes with this message:
Gtk:ERROR:/build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.14.4/gtk/gtktreestore.c:531:gtk_tree_store_get_path: assertion failed: (G_NODE (iter->user_data)->parent != NULL)
Aborted

I found a workaround somewhere, which always works, but only for one startup. So I have to run this at every startup:
rm -rf ~/.purple/icons/

[Lupine (thelupine)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better, but unfortunately I've been unable to reproduce your issue on Ubuntu 8.10. Can you reproduce this issue with an Ubuntu LIVE CD and report back if the problem still exists on Ubuntu 8.10 LIVE CD? What version of Ubuntu and pidgin are you running? Have you applied the latest Ubuntu updates?

Please try to obtain a backtrace following the instructions at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProgramCrash and upload the backtrace (as an attachment) to the bug report. This will greatly help us in tracking down your problem.

[Rob (robklg)]

I have the same problem as of today........

I have been running Intrepid since alpha..... and updated it regularly (only security updates and intrepid recommended updates ).

I have:

 - 1 ym login
 - 2 msn logins

Since today 1 msn login didn't work, with the error: Unable to retrieve MSN Address Book
Interestingly it didn't work for this account both at my work's workstation, and at home. Both pidgin on Intrepid. (why would i have this on one msn account only?...)

Well, so i tried to restart pidgin..... but now it doesn't open...... In the shell I get the error:

Gtk:ERROR:/build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.14.4/gtk/gtktreestore.c:531:gtk_tree_store_get_path: assertion failed: (G_NODE (iter->user_data)->parent != NULL)

I see the pidgin window appear, and it gets killed after 2 seconds.

When i move .purple to .purple.bak, pidgin works....... So it's something wrong with files in there...

See backtraces attached......

[Rob (robklg)]

quoted from falstaff:
"I found a workaround somewhere, which always works, but only for one startup. So I have to run this at every startup:
rm -rf ~/.purple/icons/"

This work-around works!

And it makes me think.. When it worked today, Someone tried to send my a file through ym. It opened the file browser for me to select the location to save.... This failed, the dialog box froze..... I just closed it (pidgin kept running). I tried it 2 times, but it kept freezing. I have 543 files in .purple/icons

[Matt Storer (matthewbstorer)]

I ran into exactly the same problem. I'm running Pidgin 2.5.2 on Ubuntu Linux 8.10.

Pidgin started, briefly displaying the Buddy List window. after about a second, it vanishes.

The prescribed workaround works. I found, though, that simply reducing the number of files in the ~/.purple/icons folder was sufficient - e.g., I had many, many icons to begin with, and cleared all jpegs and gifs, leaving only pngs. that was enough to let me start up Pidgin.

in fact, I was able, after applying the workaround, to recreate the issue by introducing a large number (1000) of new jpgs to the icons folder (I did this by writing a quick and dirty perl script to copy a single jpg 1000 times).

the resulting error that Pidgin throws when executed from the command line is as follows:

**
Gtk:ERROR:/build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.14.4/gtk/gtktreestore.c:531:gtk_tree_store_get_path: assertion failed: (G_NODE (iter->user_data)->parent != NULL)
Aborted

so there ya go. a real bug with steps to recreate. is this enough to work with? please say yes! :)

Matt

[Lupine (thelupine)]

Matt,

Thanks for the update. Would you mind switching this bug from Incomplete to Confirmed, since you are able to reproduce the issue? You do that by simple clicking (above) the link Incomplete, then change to Confirmed and then Save Changes. That will help the bug get more attention. Thanks!

[Matt Storer (matthewbstorer)]

Done and done. Ticket is now tagged as Confirmed.

[falstaff (falstaff)]

I can contribute some informations too:

I have a contact which has an avatar (XMPP). When I start pidgin the above error happens. But when I delete this picture in .purple/icon/, startup succeeds, and pidigin write the picture again (with the same filename, 67a550b3ac05c2d900cfba688e9ccfe2a86d840d.png). When I try to restart, pidgin crashes again....

When I now delete the avatar, and copy anothers avatar and rename it to 67a550b3ac05c2d900cfba688e9ccfe2a86d840d.png, the crash happens too... So its not picture related.

Its somehow avatar/contact related...

[falstaff (falstaff)]

I now found also an permanent workaround for me:

I deleted the picture which cases the crash and created a folder with the same name:
mkdir 67a550b3ac05c2d900cfba688e9ccfe2a86d840d.png

Pidgin creates then the avatar with the name 67a550b3ac05c2d900cfba688e9ccfe2a86d840d.png.save. After that i can restart pidgin without a crash...

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, according to this report, you are not using the most recent version of this package for your Ubuntu release. Please upgrade to the most recent version and let us know if you are still having this issue. Thanks in advance.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for pidgin (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Martin Svensson (stellarvortex)]

I have the same problem with pidgin 2.6.6 in Ubuntu 10.04.
"pidgin -d" tells me:

10:09:10) util: Writing file /home/martsv/.purple/icons/b9119949af7b85e244a6c5f99b2aa157ee0ea93a.png
(10:09:10) buddyicon: Deleted cache file: /home/martsv/.purple/icons/2d2f63312725d07f7004dce9fc6b40ec91c0b43a.gif
**
Gtk:ERROR:/build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.20.1/gtk/gtktreestore.c:522:gtk_tree_store_get_path: assertion failed: (G_NODE (iter->user_data)->parent != NULL)
dns[7113]: Oops, father has gone, wait for me, wait...!
dns[7112]: Oops, father has gone, wait for me, wait...!