Ever since the first version for Windows was released in 2008, lots of us Gmail users have been nagging the developers to release a plugin that worked with Linux. A few days ago, our prayers and petitions were finally answered : Google released a Debian plugin. I immediately installed it on my main stationary box and on my main laptop, both of which are running 64-bit Lucid, but with very different results - on the former the plugin is recognised by the machine and when I click on the little web cam icon when starting a chat, video starts, on the latter, however, I get a link which suggests that I add the plugin ! Checking on Synaptic, I find that version 1.4.1.0-1 of «google-talkplugin» has been installed on both boxes ; moreover, «/opt/google/talkplugin» contains precisely the same folders and files. But when I check my plugins from the «about:plugins» button on my FF browser (the same version (Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; sv-SE; rv:1.9.2.9pre) Gecko/20100822 Ubuntu/10.04 (lucid) Namoroka/3.6.9pre GTB7.1) on both machines), I find to my surprise that the
Google Talk Plugin Video Accelerator

Filename libnpgtpo3dautoplugin.so
Plugin Version:
Plugin Description: Google Talk Plugin Video Accelerator version:0.1.43.3

mimetype Description Extensions Enabled
application/vnd.gtpo3d.auto O3D MIME Yes
and the
Google Talk Plugin

Filename libnpgoogletalk64.so
Plugin Version:
Plugin Description: Version: 1.4.1.0

mimetype Description Extensions Enabled
application/googletalk Google Talk Plugin googletalk Yes
files, which are listed in the case of the stationary box, are absent in the case of the laptop. Das also war des Pudels Kern ! I've tried deleting the plugin package and re-installing it several times, but no joy. And, as Mr Murphy's law would demand, the irony of the matter is that I don't have a web camera installed on the stationary box and the microphone plug is dodgy, so I can't even run ordinary sound chat from a headset there, while both function splendidly on the laptop ; thus, e g, Skype for Linux works fine....

Any suggestions as to what can have gone wrong with the installation process on the laptop and how I can correct it ? Any help that can be provided will be most appreciated !...