pidgin crashed with g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Document is empty

Could you launch pidgin from a terminal and give us the output from that after it crashes?

This is the output from terminal

Did this happen after an update?

This problem has persisted since I began using Jaunty. When I use the alternate msn-peacan protocol the problem seems to stop. Also running it in debug mode seems to allow it run for much longer than if I had opened it normally.

When I run it from terminal in normal mode it crashes after 20 mins or so with a:

Segmentation fault (core dumped)

 soap: read: Connection timed out
(10:30:27) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(10:30:27) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(10:30:27) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(10:30:27) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(10:30:27) g_log: purple_ssl_write: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(10:30:27) g_log: purple_ssl_close: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Update your system
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Turn off pidgin and then kill to verify
killall pidgin

Move your pidgin configuration to a different location
mv ~/.purple ~/.purple-bak

Make sure the change happened
ls -l ~/.purple-bak

Start pidgin and recreate your accounts. Start with only creating the accounts. Play with it a little while. If everything works fine, then continue to add any customization you've done. Do this slowly so you can pinpoint what change kills pidgin.

Also, running pidgin from a terminal at this point is a good idea. Make sure to report the errors you see, plus an additional 10 lines up and all the way to the end. For instance, what you reported is helpful, but seeing what happened before the connection timeout would be helpful as well.

This is the output produced when runing from terminal in debug mode. I replaced my email address with <emailaddress> for privacy purposes.

(12:23:07) msn: C: NS 000: USR 3 SSO I <emailaddress>
(12:23:07) msn: S: NS 000: XFR 3 NS 207.46.107.37:1863 U D
(12:23:07) dns: DNS query for '207.46.107.37' queued
(12:23:07) dns: Successfully sent DNS request to child 21603
(12:23:07) dns: Got response for '207.46.107.37'
(12:23:07) dnsquery: IP resolved for 207.46.107.37
(12:23:07) proxy: Attempting connection to 207.46.107.37
(12:23:07) proxy: Connecting to 207.46.107.37:1863 with no proxy
(12:23:07) proxy: Connection in progress
(12:23:07) proxy: Connecting to 207.46.107.37:1863.
(12:23:07) msn: C: NS 000: VER 4 MSNP15 CVR0
(12:23:07) msn: S: NS 000: VER 4 MSNP15
(12:23:07) msn: C: NS 000: CVR 5 0x0409 winnt 5.1 i386 MSNMSGR 8.5.1302 BC01 <emailaddress>
(12:23:07) msn: S: NS 000: CVR 5 14.0.8064 14.0.8064 8.1.0178 http://msgr.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/5/2/E/52EB299A-E4DE-43E2-8D55-510D7FB03610/en/wlsetup-cvr.exe http://download.live.com/?sku=messenger
(12:23:07) proxy: Connecting to 207.46.107.37:1863.
(12:23:07) msn: C: NS 000: VER 4 MSNP15 CVR0
(12:23:07) msn: S: NS 000: VER 4 MSNP15
(12:23:07) msn: C: NS 000: CVR 5 0x0409 winnt 5.1 i386 MSNMSGR 8.5.1302 BC01 <emailaddress>
(12:23:07) msn: S: NS 000: CVR 5 14.0.8064 14.0.8064 8.1.0178 http://msgr.dlservice.microsoft.com/download/5/2/E/52EB299A-E4DE-43E2-8D55-510D7FB03610/en/wlsetup-cvr.exe http://download.live.com/?sku=messenger
(12:23:07) msn: C: NS 000: USR 6 SSO I <emailaddress>
(12:23:07) msn: S: NS 000: GCF 0 6601
(12:23:07) msn: Processing GCF command
(12:23:07) msn: S: NS 000: USR 6 SSO S MBI_KEY_OLD rzJMhWaMgFC4yg2DLAjLKzZm8n6oUByJDBzKZUz5tPWn+Ai/gNRglA221ZovPNw5
(12:23:07) msn: Starting Windows Live ID authentication
(12:23:07) msn: Logging on <emailaddress>, with policy 'MBI_KEY_OLD', nonce 'rzJMhWaMgFC4yg2DLAjLKzZm8n6oUByJDBzKZUz5tPWn+Ai/gNRglA221ZovPNw5'
(12:23:07) dns: DNS query for 'login.live.com' queued
(12:23:07) dns: Successfully sent DNS request to child 21603
(12:23:08) dns: Got response for 'login.live.com'
(12:23:08) dnsquery: IP resolved for login.live.com
(12:23:08) proxy: Attempting connection to 65.54.186.47
(12:23:08) proxy: Connecting to login.live.com:443 with no proxy
(12:23:08) proxy: Connection in progress
(12:23:08) proxy: Connecting to login.live.com:443.
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
:~$ dns[21603]: Oops, father has gone, wait for me, wait...!

This occured after I did all the things you listed by the way.

Just to verify, this happens after you move your profile, create a new profile, and do nothing but add the accounts?

Could you give me the output of this: aptitude search pidgin
I just want to compare what you have installed against what I have installed.

Yes this is after I did all of that. I added nothing other than the accounts back.

this is the output you requested:

aptitude search pidgin
i pidgin - graphical multi-protocol instant messaging client for X
p pidgin-audacious - pidgin integration with Audacious
p pidgin-blinklight - Blinks your ThinkPad's ThinkLight upon new messgaes
p pidgin-bot-sentry - pidgin anti spam plugin
i pidgin-data - multi-protocol instant messaging client - data files
p pidgin-dbg - Debugging symbols for Pidgin
p pidgin-dev - multi-protocol instant messaging client - development files
p pidgin-encryption - pidgin plugin that provides transparent encryption
p pidgin-extprefs - extended preferences plugin for the instant messenger pidgin
i pidgin-facebookchat - Facebook Chat plugin for Pidgin
p pidgin-festival - pidgin plugin to hear incoming messages using voice synthesis
p pidgin-guifications - toaster popups for pidgin
p pidgin-hotkeys - Configurable global hotkeys for pidgin
p pidgin-lastfm - Last.fm plugin for Pidgin
p pidgin-libnotify - display notification bubbles in pidgin
p pidgin-librvp - MS Exchange RVP instant messaging plugin for Pidgin
p pidgin-mpris - sets your available message to your currently playing track
i pidgin-musictracker - Plugin for Pidgin which displays the current music track in your status
p pidgin-nateon - Pidgin plugin for NateOn instant messaging service
p pidgin-nateon-dbg ...

Could you remove pidgin-facebookchat and pidgin-musictracker, and redo the profile again? May as well purge since they don't store their own settings.

sudo apt-get remove --purge pidgin-facebookchat pidgin-musictracker

If this fixes the issue, then add only pidgin-facebookchat and try that out. I have a hunch the issue may be in one of these packages. I'm guessing it's most likely in pidgin-musictracker.

purged those plugins and moved my pidgin configuration to the bak folder again and got the following output:

(20:07:53) oscar: Connecting to FLAP server 64.12.30.88:5190 of type 0x0010
(20:07:53) dns: DNS query for '64.12.30.88' queued
(20:07:53) dns: Wait for DNS child 6742 failed: No child processes
(20:07:53) dns: Created new DNS child 6753, there are now 1 children.
(20:07:53) dns: Successfully sent DNS request to child 6753
(20:07:53) oscar: Empty encoding, assuming UTF-8
(20:07:53) blist: Updating buddy status for kaptivatingblue (AIM)
(20:07:53) dns: Got response for '64.12.30.88'
(20:07:53) dnsquery: IP resolved for 64.12.30.88
(20:07:53) proxy: Attempting connection to 64.12.30.88
(20:07:53) proxy: Connecting to 64.12.30.88:5190 with no proxy
(20:07:53) proxy: Connection in progress
(20:07:53) proxy: Connecting to 64.12.30.88:5190.
(20:07:53) oscar: connected to FLAP server of type 0x0010
(20:07:53) oscar: FLAP connection of type 0x0010 is now fully connected
(20:07:53) oscar: no more icons to request
(20:07:58) util: Writing file blist.xml to directory /home/matrixblue/.purple
(20:07:58) util: Writing file /home/matrixblue/.purple/blist.xml
(20:08:00) msn: C: SB 092: OUT
(20:08:00) msn: destroy httpconn (0x99a7d58)
(20:08:00) msn: Releasing buddy icon request
(20:08:00) msn: new httpconn (0xabf9568)
(20:08:00) msn: C: NS 000: XFR 128 SB
(20:08:00) msn: switchboard send msg..
(20:08:00) msn: Appending message to queue.
(20:08:00) msn: msn_release_buddy_icon_request(): buddy_icon_window-- yields =0
(20:08:00) msn: S: NS 000: XFR 128 SB 65.54.171.48:1863 CKI 285000843.599297.179150205 U messenger.msn.com 1
(20:08:00) msn: Switchboard:auth:{285000843.599297.179150205} socket:{65.54.171.48:1863}
(20:08:00) dns: DNS query for '65.54.171.48' queued
(20:08:00) dns: Successfully sent DNS request to child 6753
(20:08:00) dns: Got response for '65.54.171.48'
(20:08:00) dnsquery: IP resolved for 65.54.171.48
(20:08:00) proxy: Attempting connection to 65.54.171.48
(20:08:00) proxy: Connecting to 65.54.171.48:1863 with no proxy
(20:08:00) proxy: Connection in progress
(20:08:00) proxy: Connecting to 65.54.171.48:1863.
(20:08:00) msn: C: SB 099: USR 1 <email> 285000843.599297.179150205
dns[6753]: Oops, father has gone, wait for me, wait...!
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

(20:54:25) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Document is empty
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Start tag expected, '<' not found
(20:54:25) soap: Malformed SOAP response:
(20:54:25) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Start tag expected, '<' not found
(20:54:25) soap: Malformed SOAP response:

(20:54:25) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Document is empty
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Start tag expected, '<' not found
(20:54:25) soap: Malformed SOAP response:
(20:54:25) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Start tag expected, '<' not found
(20:54:25) soap: Malformed SOAP response:

(20:54:25) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Document is empty
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Start tag expected, '<' not found
(20:54:25) soap: Malformed SOAP response:
(20:54:25) g_log: purple_ssl_read: assertion `gsc != NULL' failed
(20:54:25) xmlnode: Error parsing xml file: Start tag expected, '<' not found
(20:54:25) soap: Malformed SOAP response:

Don't move anything to that -bak directory again. It's there as a backup for your original configuration.

Let's first destroy anything pidgin:
sudo apt-get remove --purge pidgin pidgin-data pidgin-facebookchat pidgin-musictracker pidgin-otr libpurple0
rm -R ~/.purple

This should clean out any junk on your system. Next, install JUST pidgin and it's dependencies
sudo apt-get install pidgin

Then try running things again.

If this doesn't work, then I think it's time to find an upstream developer that knows a little bit more about what's going on. I'm definitely getting to the end of my knowledge here...

I did everything you said but it still crashes (less frequently but still).

It does the same on my fresh Xubuntu install and I suspect it may have something to do with the ext4 file system I use.

How do I get an upstream developer involved?

I've been looking for one. While I'm looking, is there any chance you could do a fresh install using Ext3 and set everything up the same way?

I do remember a bug in Ext4 that caused some desktop apps to not sync properly, but that doesn't seem like it's the case here.

There we go... It is a known issue but not with Ext4. It sounds like it's an issue with using gnutls as the ssl backend to the login process.

I'll add a link to this bug report when I find more information.

This issue, along with other MSN SOAP crashes, was maybe (likely?) (don't quote me on that) fixed by this commit: http://developer.pidgin.im/viewmtn/revision/info/881df138362222308d7b078687b7576861609e9c

That commit should make the SOAP code a lot less mysteriously crashy, though.

Are you at all familiar with building something from source and applying patches. It looks like there's a patch that can potentially fix this, but I don't have a system that I would build a patch for. That could potentially make you want to kill me.

If this patch does fix the issue, then I can try to push it to Ubuntu. Otherwise there's some debugging we can do with pidgin that will royally suck - but will also give the developers significantly more to go on.

It's your choice, try to apply an existing patch for a bug that is very close or exactly the same as what you're experiencing, or try to do more in depth debugging.

I'll wait a while longer to see if any more info comes on this issue. If not then I'll apply the patch. I have some experience building from source although I get stuck with dependencies sometimes.

I'm using Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 (I've installed it today, on a new partition, to test it) and I'm experiencing the same problems with Pidgin. It often freeze and/or crashes suddenly.
Please note: I also tried Pidgin 2.5.5 on Ubuntu 8.04, using ubuntu packages provided by pidgin.im website, and I experienced the same problems!
I've tried to start pidgin from terminal but this is all I was able to get:

andy80@andy80-jaunty:~$ pidgin
/usr/share/themes/Dust/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:708: Murrine configuration option "highlight_ratio" will be deprecated in future releases. Please use "highlight_shade" instead.
/usr/share/themes/Dust/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:709: Murrine configuration option "lightborder_ratio" will be deprecated in future releases. Please use "lightborder_shade" instead.
^CSegmentation fault (core dumped)

Any idea?

This bug was fixed in the package pidgin - 1:2.5.5-1ubuntu7

---------------
pidgin (1:2.5.5-1ubuntu7) jaunty; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/71_upstream_change_fix_ssl_crasher.patch:
    - upstream change to fix a crasher issue which has lot of duplicate
      (lp: #328878, #341434, #354272)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:21:58 +0200