Yep, it does not run on my machine (Sid AMD64).
Hmm, I am sure I had it running, some months ago, when I had 2.6.26.early kernel, and the ATI drivers using kernel module. Since 2.6.27 I can’t compile the modules (yes ati sucks, drivers practically need to be upgraded for almost every blooming kernel version). So, even though I have some sort of glx running on my non accelerated machine, GoogleEarth throws me out to the login screen, when I try to start it.

Nope, doesn’t work on 64bit Debian Testing.

/usr/lib/googleearth/googleearth-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I have no interest in tracking down an OpenGL 32bit hack lib. It’s bad enough I have a proprietary Nvidia video card.

# dpkg -l | grep ia32-libs
ii ia32-libs 2.7 ia32 shared libraries for use on amd64 and ia64 systems
ii ia32-libs-gtk 2.7 GTK+ ia32 shared libraries
ii ia32-libs-xulrunner 1.8.1.3-0.2 xulrunner ia32 shared libraries

I’m often tempted to purge these 32bit libs taking any proprietary 32bit crud I really shouldn’t be running anyway with it.

The real answer is there is not a 64bit version. Anything else is just pounding the round peg into the square hole by using a really big hammer.

Thank you for the instructions. They were very helpful to install the latest version of Google Earth on DreamLinux, a Brazilian distribution based on Lenny. Unfortunately, in order to run it properly, I have to run it as root (gksu googleearth), otherwise all I see is a field of stars. Also, I have to deactivate Compiz, and still it runs very slowly. Much slower than on my XP partition on the same machine.

Any suggestions to solve these issues would be most welcome.

Regards,
Ghoti

[...] I’ve done a Google search and found solution at SysAdmin’s Diary. Just for my own information I’ll list the steps here, for details take a look at [...]

Michael Wigle,
Please verify if you have installed ia32-libs package.

For some reason I get a whole bunch of errors saying:
dpkg-shlibdeprs couldn’t find library libstdc++.so.6 needed for ….
you might nee to set LD_LIBRARY_PATH.

Am I missing a package somewhere that I need? I tried googling and can’t figure it out.

the formatter on my previous post seems to have removed thing between carots, so …
on number 4) the bin package file location follows “–file”
and both of the — marks are actually “–” and on 6) the deb package file name follows “-i” now i see why th epost originally used “”

Ubuntu instructions:
1) download the package directly from google site into your home folder
2) use Synaptic to download googleearth-package.
3) run #make-googleearth-package
4) run #googleearth-package –force –file
5) crybaby complaints from the installer, ignore
6) run #dpkg -i
7) #googleearth

now, how do I get a sexy icon on my desktop?

Brendan,
My pleasure :) It’s glad to hear that.

Thanks mate :)
very helpful post, went smoothly on Debian (Lenny)

all i had to change was “dpkg -i googleearth_4.1.7076.4458+0.4.3-1_amd64.deb” to suit

just rename GoogleEarthLinux.bin to GoogleEarthLinux.package (I’m on Debian, but on Ubuntu surely will work… I guess…) then in properties mark “allow this file to run as program” close properties and… just double click it. ;) in my case this work well.

debian:/home/x# make-googleearth-package
–01:24:53– http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
=> `GoogleEarthLinux.bin’
Resolving dl.google.com… 72.14.255.91
Connecting to dl.google.com|72.14.255.91|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
01:24:55 ERROR 404: Not Found.

Could not download Google Earth! (You may need to use –url or –file)

dem g33k

Still, you can force install it; try
dpkg -i –force-architecture

Yeah, looks like it doesn’t work on (x)Ubuntu…

Using –force will make i386 package and can’t install that:

dpkg: error processing googleearth_4.2.198.2451+0.2.0-1_i386.deb (–install):
package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)