gstreamer appears to be the fix (or a combination of the above packages, since it started working only when I installed gstreamer, which I installed last, naturally). I can now place and receive calls, although I have now lost the video feed on the phone in both directions... rebooting now to see if that fixes it... Interesting find though. PS: On a side note, what are all these packages? Did I just blindly install a bunch of malware on my phone? All that for Gtalk ?