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.

Posted by Sam D at 13:10
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28 comments:

  1. Anonymous26 May 2011 at 13:15

    Thanks sorted me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous26 May 2011 at 13:20

    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

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sam D26 May 2011 at 13:30

    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?

    ReplyDelete
  4. ThePest26 May 2011 at 13:32

    thanks, this works

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous26 May 2011 at 13:34

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

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous26 May 2011 at 13:39

    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 ...)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Roy Vassie26 May 2011 at 13:43

    Thanks sorted my problem

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous26 May 2011 at 13:59

    that helps so much. thanks

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous26 May 2011 at 14:12

    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...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Igor26 May 2011 at 16:05

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

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous26 May 2011 at 18:20

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

    ReplyDelete
  12. Alberto27 May 2011 at 08:21

    Hi there!
    thanks for this:

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

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

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous27 May 2011 at 09:18

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous27 May 2011 at 23:25

    thanks a lot, ubu 10.10 32 bit

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous30 May 2011 at 14:50

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

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous1 June 2011 at 10:46

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

    ReplyDelete
  17. Garry1 June 2011 at 15:55

    Worked a treat. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous2 June 2011 at 14:54

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

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous3 June 2011 at 07:25

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

    Thanks..

    ReplyDelete
  20. Wolfi3 June 2011 at 14:25

    crazy, thanks! worked for me :)

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous14 June 2011 at 09:07

    " rm -rf ~/.Skype "

    just that line and my problem was fixed :D

    ReplyDelete
  22. Unknown15 June 2011 at 11:54

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

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous26 June 2011 at 06:52

    thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Anonymous27 August 2011 at 18:27

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

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous7 September 2011 at 20:51

    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

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous2 January 2012 at 19:05

    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.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Kshitiz Verma.8 March 2012 at 11:26

    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!!

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous28 July 2014 at 19:28

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

    ReplyDelete

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