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Today I got an update to Skype 4.3. I was really happy to see that and I immediately update it from 4.2 through software update program (default in Ubuntu). After the update I tried to start Skype but after few seconds nothing happend. So I opened up terminal and typed command skype and I found the problem. There it is:

Skype problem with Gtk

user@hostname:~$ skype
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "overlay-scrollbar"
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "unity-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Aborted

I already tried to find unmet dependencies, but it seems that there is everything installed. I'm using Ubuntu 14.04.1 64-bit. How to solve that problem?

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  • Well I get the first error because I unintalled overlay-scrollbar have you tried to --reinstall that?
    – Tim
    Aug 2, 2014 at 10:18
  • I tried and problem still exists.
    – user1257255
    Aug 2, 2014 at 11:00
  • Tried for all 3?
    – Tim
    Aug 2, 2014 at 11:18
  • No, just for overlay-scrollbar, because I don't know in which package are unity and canberra gtk modules. If I try to reinstall them I got error E: Unable to locate package unity-gtk-module.
    – user1257255
    Aug 2, 2014 at 12:39
  • i expect it is in ubuntu-desktop
    – Tim
    Aug 2, 2014 at 12:39

4 Answers 4

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sudo apt-get install libcanberra-gtk-module

or possibly, force the i386 version: 

sudo apt-get install libcanberra-gtk-module:i386

I am uncertain of the dependencies and requirements for the other two: my understanding is that "overlay-scrollbar" is not critical, but unity-gtk might be.

sudo apt-get install unity-gtk2-module:i386

I am facing a similar issue.

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3
  • I discovered those two packages a little bit before I saw your reply. They are a part of fix, but there's a new problem. You have to install overlay-scrollbar-gtk2:i386, but it is not possible due to unmet dependencies which are already installed. And there's another message which is saying something about GLib and GSettings backend. I know that much for now...
    – user1257255
    Aug 2, 2014 at 17:01
  • It seems that there's the end of Skype usage for users which have the same problem as us. I successfully installed all dependencies and after when I run skype command, there's just message: Aborted. I don't know what could be wrong -.-".
    – user1257255
    Aug 2, 2014 at 17:18
  • LOL! Check out the last comment in reply of ShadowMitia. It works even if you don't have dependencies mentioned in main post.
    – user1257255
    Aug 2, 2014 at 17:20
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You should try reinsatlling the skype package if you haven't already. If it still doesn't work maybe you should try to download and install from the skype official website?

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  • 1
    I reinstalled Skype package and there wasn't any change. I will not install Skype from official website, because we need to find out what's the problem with the version from Ubuntu repository and fix it, to enable new users good experience and solve my problem :)
    – user1257255
    Aug 2, 2014 at 15:38
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    That seems fair enough! I seem to remember I had a problem while upgrading skype a few months ago, I remember solving it by doing mv .skype skype-bak, I never understood why but I only wanted it to work ;)
    – ShadowMitia
    Aug 2, 2014 at 16:49
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Well there's something else: see this thread from the Skype support forums. http://community.skype.com/t5/Linux/Skype-4-3-crash-on-ubuntu-14-04/td-p/3219892

Even with these dependencies unmet, it seems that clearing the files download history does the trick. It did for me, and I am now able to use Skype 4.3 on Ubuntu 14.04

You can try this (untested)

$ sqlite3 ~/.Skype/[username]/main.db
> UPDATE Messages SET body_xml=substr(body_xml,instr(body_xml,'<files')) WHERE type=68 AND body_xml LIKE 'posted%';
> .quit

Or simply delete ~/.Skype (the Skype directory under your home folder). Then try starting up Skype, and see how it goes.

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I had the same error. I had to 

sudo apt-get --purge remove skype

and for some strange reason also 

sudo apt-get --purge remove skype-bin

then remove the hidden folders .Skype and .config/skype in my home directory. Download the new "skypeforlinux" from the official website, select "skype for linux DEB". Install the new skype by navigating to the Download folder and doing

sudo dpkg -i skypeforlinux-64.deb
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2
  • Didn't work for me
    – Camilo Rada
    Feb 14, 2018 at 1:57
  • 1
    Yeah it doesn't work with the most recent version of skype anymore. You might want to go to the skype website and look for older versions. skypeforlinux_8.10.0.4_amd64.deb is the one that I downloaded. It runs fine on Ubuntu 14.04
    – mcExchange
    Feb 14, 2018 at 9:46

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