Thursday 26 May 2011

Ubuntu - Skype won't start, crashes with aborted.


Completely out of the blue a previously working install of Skype started crashing out every time it was started. The window would flash up briefly, and then dissapear, leaving an "aborted" message in the terminal. I'm unsure as to what caused this, as I hadn't recently applied any updates, however I eventually found a fix.

For 64 bit the problem appears to be to do some combination of ia32-libs and the Skype temporary directory. So (skip to the second command if you're using 32 bit):

sudo apt-get install --reinstall ia32-libs
and remove the skype temporary directory (This will remove stored passwords and conversations):
rm -rf ~/.Skype
Start Skype again and hopefully it'll work! While searching for information on this problem I saw a fair few different fixes, with differing success rates, so while this may or may not work for you, it's worth a try.

Otherwise, this thread on launchpad may help.

Edit: The problem seems to be fairly widespread, and across distributions - So I suspect Skype have managed to do something that has broken current installations of their program on Linux.

Edit2: A less intrusive and more specific alternative of the second command appears to go along the lines of (thanks to whoever commented this):
 rm ~/.Skype/shared.xml
This will preserve things like your chat history. As this is the file causing the problem.

28 comments:

  1. Thanks sorted me!

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  2. Same thing happens on 32bit ubuntu (have 10.10, 11.04) after recent updates. I also have a machine with xubuntu 11.04 with outstanding updates and it works fine. None of the oustanding updates have anything to do with skype or system. All of them are application specific. WTF

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  3. Odd! On my system the problem was a combination of the Skype temporary directory and the 32 bit compatability libraries. The fix didn't work unless both commands were run before retrying Skype. Have you tried just running the second command and relaunching skype?

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  4. thanks, this works

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  5. works on my iPhone but not my PC????

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  6. Same problem here after updating + rebooting today (11.04). This fixed it *without* loosing any data (chat history, ...):

    mv ~/.Skype/shared.xml ~/.Skype/shared.xml~

    (or simply delete shared.xml ...)

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  7. that helps so much. thanks

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  8. Deleting the shared.xml even solved the problem on my Skype on Windows (Vista 32) so this issue seems to be broader then Skype on a specific OS...

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  9. Thanks!!!
    You restore my communication to my work group.
    Thanks a lot!

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  10. Thanks a lot...that has restored my Skype on Ubuntu 10.04.

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  11. Hi there!
    thanks for this:

    mv ~/.Skype/shared.xml ~/.Skype/shared.xml~

    this restored skype after installing it again. ubuntu 10.10 64 bits

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  12. This also worked for me:
    mv ~/.Skype/shared.xml ~/.Skype/shared.xml~

    ubuntu 10.04 64 bits. Didn't lose any chat history too.
    Thanks for the tip. I was surprised to get a solution to this so fast.

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  13. thanks a lot, ubu 10.10 32 bit

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  14. Thanks a Lot. Removing .Skype directory solved my problem.

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  15. Many thanks. Removed shared.xml only - all history preserved

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  16. Thanx for the post. I managed to get my skype up and running with just deleting the shared.xml on ubuntu 10.10 64bit

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  17. Thanks.. mv ~/.Skype/shared.xml ~/.Skype/shared.xml~ helped me to get back my skype communication on Ubuntu 10.04.2

    Thanks..

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  18. crazy, thanks! worked for me :)

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  19. " rm -rf ~/.Skype "

    just that line and my problem was fixed :D

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  20. it worked for me with:
    mv ~/.Skype/shared.xml ~/.Skype/shared.xml~

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  21. thank you so much!

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  22. Mine still doesnt wrk and I dont even have shared.xml~ anywhere

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  23. hey, in case you have still problems here's what worked for me (Skype beta 2.2 @ gentoo)

    mv ~/.Skype ~/.Skype.bak

    then I run skype and it worked fine, creating whole new ~/.Skype directory

    BUT i wanted to get my chat history back, so I copied whole ~/.Skype.bak/{my_profile_name} back to ~/.Skype:

    cp -R ~/.Skype.bak/{my_profile_name} ~/.Skype/

    then skype started crashing again :/ what worked though was to remove the directory 'chatsync':

    rm -fr ~/.Skype/{my_provile_name}/chatsync

    and re-run skype. it's up and running, and chat history is back where it should be.

    hope that helps,
    PB

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  24. This is a working solution. ~/.Skype/shared.xml is the only file in the directory which needs to be moved/removed/renamed, as other users have stated.

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  25. I could not really understand what is going on. Until now since last 6 months or so I was having the same problem. Today one of my friends said that start skype from Start menu->... and it worked! The same 6 months old problem was not there!!

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  26. Thanks sorted,just follow instructions, and it works visit more info Skype Support and Call +1-800-231-4635 USA (Toll Free).

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