Howto: Gmail Voice and Video Chat on Ubuntu Linux
This information is outdated and should not be used, since there is a version of Google Talk Plugin working wonderfully on Linux.
The Gmail Team at Google recently released Voice and Video chat for Gmail, available via a browser plugin. Unfortunately the plugin is only available for Mac and Windows systems.
Digging a little, I found that is possible to use this functionality also on Linux, in my case Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex. As far as I tested, this method offers only audio (voice) functionality, because of some Wine limitations.
For this to work, you’ll need the browser plugin to be installed on Windows.
What you have to do is:
- Install the latest version of Wine.
- Download Firefox 3 for Windows and install it under Wine. LE: also install Adobe Flash Player
- Modify this file, replace alex with your username.
- Using wine’s Registry Editor (~/.wine/drive_c/windows/regedit.exe) import gmail.reg.
- Copy from a windows installation the next files from Documents and Settings (preserving directories structure) into ~/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/alex/ (replacing alex with your username):
/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Google Talk Plugin/googleadapter.dll
/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Google Talk Plugin/googletalkax.dll
/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Google Talk Plugin/googletalkplugin.dll
/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Google Talk Plugin/googletalkplugin.exe
/Application Data/Mozilla/plugins/npgoogletalk.dll
Open Firefox from Applications->Wine->Programs->Mozilla Firefox and check if the Google Talk Plugin NPAPI appears installed (Tools->Addons->Plugins).
If everything went right, you may now happily use the voice capabilities of the new Gmail Videochat feature, on your Ubuntu Linux Installation!
LATER EDIT: Because of the popularity of this post (+1000 views), I also made a small script doing all of this for you, you can download it from here and use it at your own risk.
December 30th, 2008 at 4:47 am
This is the best voice chat for Linux that I know of. Thanks very much for your efforts in making it available via Wine! I can hear someone talking to me better than with any other program I’ve used. Unfortunately, they can’t hear me, although my mike is unmuted and my audio sounds good locally.
December 30th, 2008 at 5:51 am
Played around with KMix controls & switches in CentOS 5.2 & finally got mic to work. Thanks again for figuring out how to use Voice & Video Chat in Linux.
December 30th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
You welcome! For me it’s just amazing how far wine it is now. I’m getting used to see windows programs just working with wine.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:23 am
Great work. Many thanks.
I really wish all google apps especially this video chat be released for Linux.
January 13th, 2009 at 8:11 am
Hello Alex
Iam unable to find the dll files in Windows machine.
Could you please send the files to me
Email removed
January 14th, 2009 at 1:49 am
I’ve tried the described way several times on opensuse 11.1 64 bits but nothing happens.
when i open firefox , there’s no plugins installed.
I don’t see a step were we actually install the plugin, and the folder we copy the files to, is not related to firefox anyway.
something seems missing here, becuase according to the steps described, we didn’t modify firefox in anyway. please help
Regards,
Ahmed
January 14th, 2009 at 2:18 am
@ahmed:
~/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/$USER/Application Data/Mozilla/plugins/npgoogletalk.dll this is a dll affecting Firefox.
Do you open suse’s firefox, or firefox you just have installed in wine? You must use wine’s version, that is available in Applications->Wine->Programs->Mozilla Firefox menu.
January 14th, 2009 at 2:57 am
Hi alex:
Thanks a lot for your help, it seems that file “~/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/$USER/Application Data/Mozilla/plugins/npgoogletalk.dll” was the missing part, i copied this file from my windows installation, and added it to c_drive/program files/mozilla/plugins, and now it works
Thanks again
ahmed
January 15th, 2009 at 6:28 am
It works fine for me.
Thanks a lot Alex
January 17th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
hi
when i install the GoogleVoiceAndVideoSetup.exe installer , no thing appear and the web page of google to assistance the use of video on microsot os
http://www.google.com/support/installer/?hlrm=fr&errorcode=0×80070057&extracode1=0×00000000&extracode2=0&app={D0AB2EBC-931B-4013-9FEB-C9C4C2225C8C}&guver=1.2.131.27&ismachine=0&os=6.0&sp=%20&mid={41ABCD34-E4BB-11DD-879C-00219BF1AFA5}&uid={41ABD342-E4BB-11DD-879C-00219BF1AFA5}&iid=&source=updatecheck
Help meeeee
January 17th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
On what operating system are you trying to install GoogleVoiceAndVideoSetup.exe?
January 17th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
i am using ubuntu , and i install wine and after firefox.exe
January 17th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Well, you cannot install googlevideoandvoice on wine, because of missing BITS implementation.
You have two options:
1. if you have windows installed, copy dll’s from there (as described above in this tutorial)
2. if you don’t have windows, try the installation script you can download from here: wget http://eftimie.ro/store/gmailvoice.bash ; chmod +x gmailvoice.bash ; ./gmailvoice.bash
January 17th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
In first time an error appeared that an error of wirefire to stop the googleupdate.exe to access to internet ,but now it open the pageof google help to how configure on miscrosoft os
but i am on ubunto !!
January 17th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
well, then use the script!
January 17th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
I have copy them into the folders , i have done all the steps ! i will execute the script maybe it works
January 17th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
Sorry what mean this , firefox 3 for windows is installed and i use it also ???
icha@laptop:~/filesTo$ chmod +x gmailvoice.bash
icha@laptop:~/filesTo$ ./gmailvoice.bash
This script will put in place the required files for Gmail Voice and Video plugin to work with Firefox installed in wine
Prior to this, you must install wine, firefox for windows and adobe flash player
Error: Firefox 3 for Windows not found.
You can download and install it from: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html
icha@laptop:~/filesTo$
January 17th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Hm, try to modify the line “exit -2″ with “#exit -2″ in the script, and run it again.
January 17th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
Ok the problem i think that as i could not put the firefox into “$USER /.wine/drive_c/Program Files/” i put under $USER/firefox ,
because when i select /.wine space an error that no suffisent space there
, i don’t understand how this
January 17th, 2009 at 11:40 pm
this doesn’t sound good. i don’t know how is firefox arranging its files, it might not look for the plugin dll’s where you put them.
Anyway, did you also installed Adobe Flash Plugin for windows? it is required for the gmail voice and video plugin to work.
January 17th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Yes i install it “adobe flash plugin ” ,
When we choice firefox 3 folder in the installation step , when i put :
~/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/$USER/Application Data i have the error no space sufficient , in this case i create one folder FireFox up to ~/.wine !!!
here is the problem source, It must into wine not out of wine space !
” Download Firefox 3 for Windows and install it under Wine. LE: also install Adobe Flash Player ” What mean under Wine ,in the repository of wine ,
January 18th, 2009 at 12:01 am
No, there’s no such wine repository, but you must install it in drive_c/program files.
Try installing Firefox again, but this time, choose “C:\Program Files” (don’t go with z: your home) or go for standard installation at setup.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:14 am
Great post. Good job Alex. This post is definitely going to my bookmarks
Thanks,
`A
January 31st, 2009 at 9:40 pm
[...] is some good news , gmail voice chat now works under wine!! Video doent work , but voice is here!! Howto: Gmail Voice and Video Chat on Ubuntu Linux | Student la CS | Alex Eftimie Cheers! __________________ The Future is Open ..The Future is LINUX.. Fedora 10 , Ubuntu 8.10 [...]
February 9th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Keep working ,great job!
February 12th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Hallo Alex,
very very good, but I cannot see my video on setting at googlemail. googlemail can access my webcam isight, but cannot use it. what is the problem?
Regards
Manu
February 12th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Hi Argonist, unfortunatelly, webcams are not officially supported by wine, so i can do nothing about it
February 12th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Thanks for excellent howto. There are some other options available too. But I did not feel comfortable storing google password with these apps. And ofcourse this howto (the script) worked flawlessly for me on Ubuntu 8.10 . Thanks again!
February 15th, 2009 at 10:17 am
[...] – făcut script, rezolvat problemă Gmail Voice pe ubuntu [...]
May 1st, 2009 at 11:26 pm
To all people,
I spent some time trying to run Gtalk voice chat
I finally found a software http://sites.google.com/site/jozsefbekes/Home/gtalx
and it is a Gtalk OS version. I runs very neice on my Ubuntu Interpid
You have to compile it. if anyone needs binaries for interpid I could email them.
Have a nice chat!
May 2nd, 2009 at 4:39 am
Are the comments here real or do you just make them up? The reason I’m asking is because they seem kind of fishy. No offense
May 3rd, 2009 at 11:35 pm
@Johnny: there is a lot of spam, i need to get time to clean it up.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
Admin,
Got it! That make’s sense to me.
May 19th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
super tare, mersi pt post
June 7th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
Thanks Alex for excellent howto. But only problem is Video Chat.
The voice chat works excellent.
Any idea how Video Chat will work from gmail.
Please advise, waiting for your reply.
Thanks & Regards
AK
June 17th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Nice try and very good explanation…
Thanks..
July 6th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I think , we can use Empathy to do google voice calls
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/howto-setup-voice-chat-with-google-talk-user-using-empathy.html
July 25th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
[...] Solução temporária para o GMail Video Chat no Linux Se você é usuário de Linux e está afim de testar o Gmail Vídeo Chat, há uma solução temporária, que utiliza Wine e o Firefox para Windows. O time do Gmail prometeu suporte nativo para Linux, mas enquanto ainda não sai, você pode tentar utilizar este tutorial. [...]
August 21st, 2009 at 7:48 pm
hey alex, my mic isnt working , i think it is not integrated with wine..
August 23rd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
@Santosh: check in your wine preferences, audio output.
September 17th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
[...] was looking for some resolution with wine, but unfortunately according to this article only sound works this [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 2:00 am
[...] [HOW-TO] Cómo usar Google Voice bajo Linux [EN]alex.eftimie.ro/2008/11/18/howto-gmail-voice-and-video-chat-… por dystopic hace pocos segundos [...]
October 5th, 2009 at 9:03 am
[...] » noticia original [...]
November 8th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
does this work on any other disort of Linux? tried this process with Fedora 10, it did not work.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:31 am
I believe Google has updated Voice & Video because it stopped working & I now get a menu item for “new” voice & video.
Have others had the same experience? Any solution?
Thanks.
Dave
November 25th, 2009 at 5:43 am
It’s working again, without changing the setup.
Dave
December 4th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
in ubuntu 9.10 the GoogeTalk files from the windows installation should be copied into the following folder:
~/.wine/drive_c/users/
December 4th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
@alfar: thanks for the tip.
Last week I tried gtalk voice in Empathy and then Pidgin in ubuntu 9.10, both worked fine for me, so there is no need to do this hacking any more.
Anyway, due to Linux Chromium popularity, I think that Google will son release a native Linux version of the plugin.
December 4th, 2009 at 11:33 pm
well.. regarding my previous post.. I guess I was wrong.. those files have to be in both folders..
March 26th, 2010 at 2:29 am
Could you make a soft link to the “Google Talk Plugin” folder instead? Have any better solutions appeared since before? My webcam isn’t recognized by Skype.
March 26th, 2010 at 9:31 am
A soft link would work, of course.
This post is pretty old (November 2 years ago), since then I’ve been using succesfully Empathy and Pidgin for both audio and video chat over GTalk (although sometimes video hangs).
May 19th, 2010 at 2:13 am
I tried with tutorials. I have all the dll files in the right place. After I opening the firefox using wine I did not find the above mention plugin.
I sign in GMAIL but no audio video options are available.
What should I do now?
Thank you for helpd
August 6th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
you scrip end on this:
lejla@lejla-desktop:~/Plocha$ fixme:system:SetProcessDPIAware stub!
fixme:dwmapi:DwmIsCompositionEnabled 0x32fcd4
September 1st, 2010 at 5:48 pm
wow. how did you do this? it works. well for me needs several hours since i am really really a newbie in ubuntu. thank you very much!
October 18th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Great Job Mr.Eftimie, we managed to get it to work on Linux thanks to one of our colleagues who understood these directions better than an economist…Best of luck forward ! E.