VLC won't start on Ubuntu 17.10 error: cannot instantiate qt4 dialogs provider

VLC won't open GUI. Ubuntu 17.10 on X, all packages are up to date vlc:amd64/artful 2.2.6-6 uptodate. Tried system reboot and purging and re-installing VLC. VLC was installed with sudo apt install vlc. Here is the output in console:

matias@matias-System-Product-Name:~$ vlc
VLC media player 2.2.6 Umbrella (revision 2.2.6-0-g1aae78981c)
[000055fc8c43a918] core libvlc: Running vlc with the default interface.
Use 'cvlc' to use vlc without interface.
[000055fc8c550a28] skins2 interface error: no suitable dialogs provider
found (hint: compile the qt4 plugin, and make sure it is loaded properly)
[000055fc8c550a28] skins2 interface error: cannot instantiate qt4 dialogs provider
[000055fc8c550a28] [cli] lua interface: Listening on host "*console".
VLC media player 2.2.6 Umbrella
Command Line Interface initialized. Type `help' for help.
> 

Because it suggests a problem with Qt, I tried following the instructions here: Qt4 interface not working for VLC and installed Qt 5.10.1 but it didn't help (verification by qmake -version Using Qt version 5.10.1 in /opt/Qt/5.10.1/gcc_64/lib)

Using VLC via command line seems to work fine. Here is the output of vlc -vv https://pastebin.com/kC86TBN7

I tried to also tag skins2 but not enough rep.