Symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libQtOpenGL.so.4: undefined symbol: _ZNK14QWidgetPrivate17hasHeightForWidthEv

Question

I installed skype using several process in my newly installed Ubuntu 14. 04 64 bit... it shows a skype icon in dash... but when I click on it, nothings happens. What can I do?

I tried almost everything found in net. Every time it installed quite normally and found skype icon in dash. But not opening, when I click on it.

I downloaded skype 4.2 version from their website and installed using software centre and also tried installing via command line. But still not working.

When I tried to run skype using terminal it produce following output--

skype: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libQtOpenGL.so.4: undefined symbol: _ZNK14QWidgetPrivate17hasHeightForWidthEv

Answer 1

The problem is for nVidia optimus driver

Skype 4.2 in Ubuntu 13.04 won't open in nVidia Optimus Laptops

Open the link and enjoy not even a restart is needed

Steps:

1. Open a terminal and type sudo nano /etc/ld.so.conf.d/skype.conf

2. Add the code /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/mesa/ in the next console window, and press ctrl+x to exit, when prompted enter y to say yes

3. And finally run sudo ldconfig -v

Answer 2

This post helped me to figure out my problem. "skype: symbol lookup error: skype: undefined symbol"

I had problem in my skype launcher. However I edited this through this command

gksu gedit /usr/share/applications/skype.desktop

in super user mode. After opening the script in gedit I edit

Exec=Skype to Exec=env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/ /usr/bin/skype

to force use of the libraries in the i-386-linux-gnu directory and successfuly launched Skype.

Answer 3

Because I just solved an issue with a Qt application on my installation of Ubuntu 16.04:

If you go to /usr/local/lib, you might find many libQtfiles. Simply move these files out of that folder and into /usr/.

mv *Qt* /usr/local/lib /usr/

Moving these will not break your system, I've done it before and the changes can be reverted by simply moving them back to /usr/local/lib.

One of my Qt applications behaved just like your issue with Skype. Clicking on it did nothing and running a terminal command would respond by saying "symbol lookup error".

It seems Qt doesn't like to run well on Ubuntu and even fresh installations of it seem to have wrong configurations.

Answer 4

It seems to be a bug in the build against the Qt libraries, since they are using the same packages as precise in trusty. In the case of skype, you need to wait until new builds are available. In the case of any other opensource application, just download the sources, download the development libraries of Qt libqt*-dev and build your program again.

This is not specific of Skype, other Qt applications has the same problems:

https://askubuntu.com/q/389246/169736

Answer 5

Installed Skype using the method described in the NoobsLab article. http://www.noobslab.com/2014/01/skype-released-new-version-install-in.html

While it installed and ran flawlessly on my desktop I had the same issue as the original poster and could not run the application on my laptop.

I realised that it maybe due to the GPU with the use of Bumblebee so I tried it using optirun from the terminal. I was able to run and configure Skype after which it continued to run from the launcher.

I leave it upto you guys to work out why and offer a better solution.

Answer 6

This worked for me

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ $(lsb_release -sc) partner"
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install skype