How to update the google talk / hangouts plugin for Linux

This threw me for a loop! Literally.

I wanted to use Google Hangouts, but it told me I needed to update the plugin.

I downloaded the plugin, installed it, fired up hangouts again, only to be told, I had to update the plugin again! The screen looks something like this:

What the? I just installed the plugin! How could you tell me I needed to install it again?

I did a sanity check.


apt-cache policy google-talkplugin


I got back the following:

google-talkplugin:
Installed: 3.10.2.0-1
Candidate: 4.9.1.0-1
Version table:
4.9.1.0-1 0
500 http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb/ stable/main amd64 Packages
*** 3.10.2.0-1 0
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

The page Google had sent me to, was trying to install the version 3.10 plugin. That isn’t going to work.

apt-cache policy shows me the installed version, 3.10 and the current version in the repo. 4.9!

So I told it to get the latest version in the repository.


sudo apt-get install google-talkplugin


When I redid the apt-cache policy it showed:

google-talkplugin:
Installed: 4.9.1.0-1
Candidate: 4.9.1.0-1
Version table:
*** 4.9.1.0-1 0
500 http://dl.google.com/linux/talkplugin/deb/ stable/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

and behold!

Wayno