Been having similar problems.
tc@box:~$ pidgin
Pidgin 2.5.5 has segfaulted and attempted to dump a core file.
This is a bug in the software and has happened through
no fault of your own.
If you can reproduce the crash, please notify the developers
by reporting a bug at:
http://developer.pidgin.im/simpleticket/
Please make sure to specify what you were doing at the time
and post the backtrace from the core file. If you do not know
how to get the backtrace, please read the instructions at
http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/GetABacktrace
Aborted
Haven't had a chance to look into it any further yet. (TC_2.5)