How to install Google Earth for Linux

How To's

Posted by macewan - June 12, 2006 Comments 95

How to install Google Earth for Linux

Google Earth for Linux has finally arrived. The detailed instructions are found next.

macewan@cole:~$ wget http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
–21:09:09– http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
=> `GoogleEarthLinux.bin’
Resolving dl.google.com… 64.233.179.93, 64.233.179.91
Connecting to dl.google.com|64.233.179.93|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 17,077,661 (16M) [application/octet-stream]

100%[===================================>] 17,077,661 287.31K/s ETA 00:00

21:10:07 (285.54 KB/s) – `GoogleEarthLinux.bin’ saved [17077661/17077661]

macewan@cole:~$ chmod +x G*.bin
macewan@cole:~$ ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Verifying archive integrity… All good.
Uncompressing Google Earth for GNU/Linux 4.0.1563…………………………………………………………
Installing mimetypes…
Running /usr/bin/update-mime-database /home/macewan/.local/share/mime
***
* Updating MIME database in /home/macewan/.local/share/mime…
Wrote 3 strings at 20 – 88
Wrote aliases at 88 – 8c
Wrote parents at 8c – 90
Wrote literal globs at 90 – 94
Wrote suffix globs at 94 – 11c
Wrote full globs at 11c – 120
Wrote magic at 120 – 12c
Wrote namespace list at 12c – 130
***
Installing desktop menu entries…

Hats off to Ryan Gordon of icculus.org for this wonderful port of Google Earth for Linux.

First screen shot I noticed was from aptget @ digg & then xfceslacker a moment later brought it to my attention.

95 Comments

" title="Digg this story" class="social-digg">Digg How to install Google Earth for Linux

Ricky
on June 22nd, 2006

Hey! Didn’t know how to do it, so THANKS for the howto!
Romeo
on June 23rd, 2006

Yea same thing for me , i didn’t know how to install it !
THANKS!

I’m running ubuntu 6.06 !

THANKS AGAIN and Long Live For LINUX!
Silent Walker
on June 24th, 2006

Thanks for the howto. Really great product from google.Will try.
Kevin Anderson
on June 25th, 2006

Thanks heaps for that. Now all my problems are solved. Great product. I’m running FC5.
Walt
on July 11th, 2006

Many thanks for the howto. It works fine with SuSE linux 9.3
Salvador Banuelos
on July 14th, 2006

Thanks for the great advice, it works perfect with Ubuntu 5.10
My Box:
Thinkpad T22 384 RAM
20 Gb HD
Pentium III 896 Mhz
Riberto
on July 20th, 2006

Thanks a lot! Your instructions were right on the MONEY! This Linux Newbie was able to follow them and
install it on my laptop runing SUsE 10.1

THANKS A BUNCH!!!
Michael
on July 29th, 2006

Thanks for that. It NEARLY worked, except that even logged on as su and doing ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin I get permission denied. What is the matter?
Jack
on August 1st, 2006

Woohoo! Works great, thanks a bunch!

Ubuntu 6.06

1.4 gHz

aprx. 300 mb. ram
Michael
on August 3rd, 2006

Thank you all. OK, I have a desktop icon but when I open it I have a series of packages in michael/home etc but which one is the MAJOR one? I admit that I am an old fool, but this is frustrating. I must have tried everything but the right thing. Help appreciated. Sorry my friends. Mike.

Mike,

Don’t forget to do these:

macewan@cole:~$ chmod +x G*.bin
macewan@cole:~$ ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Alex
on August 8th, 2006

This has helped me a lot, thank you!!!
Erkki Kaila
on August 15th, 2006

Hi!

Excellent advice, excellent product!
UBUNTU, way to go!

EKa
chosaq » 14 days of Ubuntu
on August 16th, 2006

[...] Google Earth instructions on this page. If it doesn’t work (it didn’t for me), install Aiglx+Compiz (see below) and try again. [...]
Pepo
on August 19th, 2006

Thanks,

The “chmod +x” was the part I needed. After that is was just click, click, go.

Running OpenSUSE 10 on ASUS L3500H Notebook
Keith Rudder
on August 19th, 2006

Thanks!!
Martin
on August 31st, 2006

Well,
As a beginner in Linux I feel really lucky about this article.
Thanks!
Fuji
on August 31st, 2006

i have problems during installation googleearth in linux…this is error report from my computer.

user@linux:~> chmod +x GoogleEarthLinux.bin
user@linux:~> ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Verifying archive integrity…Error in MD5 checksums: 5b4327f9ca55dab1b53ac9afa81391ae is different from dea81c5bb266fcfd920208ab0d8b727e
user@linux:~>

so..you can help me to avoid this problems ?
please expalin me in step by step
thx.

\Please send ur answer to my email adress in puji.adiatna@yahoo.co.id

[edit] Fuji, I just tested it again on a clean Ubuntu Dapper install and it works fine. Just follow the instructions again
Andrej Rados
on September 1st, 2006

Fantastically beatutiful way to install. Thank you!
DD
on September 3rd, 2006

Installed just peachy thanks to the great directions, but when I try to run it, I get:

Installing desktop menu entries…
Xlib: extension “XFree86-DRI” missing on display “:0.0″.

It then hangs forever attempting to start.

Anyone know what I can do about this missing extension?

FWIW, I’m running SLED 10 on a Thinkpad T42.
wombat
on September 13th, 2006

the only way to install. apt-get didn’t work. It tooks five minutes and googleearh was runing fine.
thanxs mate
Fiapo
on September 23rd, 2006

It worked perfect!!!
Thank you !
JuanCamilo
on September 24th, 2006

Thank a lot, worked perfect.
that’s what linux needs…win applicantions…
Camdog
on October 23rd, 2006

Same Here! Big thanks
kal
on October 29th, 2006

I can’t use that terminal app am new to Linux ubuntu 6.10…I have just used linux for less than a week and am struggling to get my feet wet…lol
Erik
on November 4th, 2006

What do you mean you can’t use the app?

In Ubuntu: Applications > Accessories > Terminal

Viola!
Xrzyhoo
on November 11th, 2006

Not workin in Ubunto 6.10 I installed like you wrote but when I run application then I have screen Google Earth and initializing… and nothing… waiting and waiting and nothing ehhh Linux is better that Windows? I really doubt
panos
on November 14th, 2006

i get this error

Uncompressing Google Earth for GNU/Linux 4.0.2414…………………………………………………………
setup.data/bin/Linux/x86/setup.gtk2: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Xlib: connection to “:0.0″ refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

can someone help me ?
Please email me at sleepinsnack@yahoo.gr
alki
on November 23rd, 2006

It installs fine, but I can’t get it to run. The Google Earth splash comes up for a couple of seconds, then it disappears. The program never loads.
vimi
on November 27th, 2006

am not able to install it,but i already have the firefox….a headache!!!!
Joe Rella
on November 28th, 2006

Michael Says:
July 29th, 2006 at 4:02 am
Thanks for that. It NEARLY worked, except that even logged on as su and doing ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin I get permission denied. What is the matter?

instead of just typing “./GoogleEarthLinux.bin” try typing “bash GoogleEarthLinux.bin” from the directory where the file is.

** did you first:

chmod +x G*.bin
Fred Miranda
on December 2nd, 2006

I’m trying to install it on Yellow Dog Linux. It downloads fine but it stops after the following:
Uncompressing Google Earth for GNU/Linux 4.0.2414…………………………………………………………
After that I get:
[root@localhost ~]#

What happened? Why doesn’t it complete the installation? Any tips appreciated. Do I need to install something else first?
Thanks!
Ronald
on December 3rd, 2006

In reply to #26: check this (rather brilliant) post: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php/Cat/0/Number/683543/page//vc/1

Problem is that the Ati 2.28 & up drivers are incompatible with GE (v4). Either downgrade your ati-driver or copy an pre-2.28 libGL.so.1.2 to /usr/local/googleearth/libGL.so.1 (note the renaming!)
Michael
on December 8th, 2006

Hi Rob, again. You seem to know what you’re doing. I’m new to Linux, and your tutorial about GoogleEarth worked perfectly. Ok, I’m trying to learn how to use console.On one hand, I can and have downloaded Scribus 1.2.5 tar bz2 and have had no luck getting it up and running. I don’t mind downloading it again, so, if you can, please post a console scenario where I can do it just like google-earth. I’ve had a go at it but don’t know where to put the dots, dashes and spaces enough to make it work. Merry Christmas, Michael!
chandrakant
on December 25th, 2006

not special
Alan Levin
on January 2nd, 2007

Useful information, helped and worked! thanks to all involved…
Jason
on January 19th, 2007

Great! Right to the point! thanks for sharing.
Argiris Hatziemmanouil
on January 23rd, 2007

Great! Thank you very much!
despina
on February 7th, 2007

the howto-install-guidance very useful, it was installed alright on fedora core 6. When I run “googleearth” a window appears on the screen, saying the following
[...] You are currently running Google Earth in ‘OpenGL’ with software emulation. In this mode Google Earth will work but it will run very slowly. If you want to run Google Earth more quickly we suggest that you upgrade your graphics card driver. We only recommend this if you are comfortable doing software upgrades [...]
I intend to search about this, but I am kind of new on such things, so if anybody has a better and safer idea, i would be grateful if you let know.
AlexAv
on February 11th, 2007

Really great hope theres more people like you for explain me another things about ubuntu
Shuggie
on February 11th, 2007

Oh so close yet so far. Ubuntu 6.10 Doesnt like it. Im running an acer aspire 5510. Like the other post above i get the splash screen and initializing but nothing further. Im a complete newbie to Linux so need spoon fed at this point.
vivek
on February 16th, 2007

Great Thanks
vivek
on February 16th, 2007

Great Information !!!!!!!!!
Thanks
David Mackie
on February 16th, 2007

Many thanks. I had tried and failed to do this installation – but now it’s fine. Great stuff !
jason
on February 22nd, 2007

thanks
liberty
on March 4th, 2007

This website has a much easier install:
http://fosswire.com/2007/02/22/installing-google-earth-for-linux/
Samuel213
on March 14th, 2007

I tried it on OpenSuse10.2 and it worked great….
One more good reason to keep on working with Linux for a almost-newbie like me.
(I had to do the steps on the shell as normal user, not as superuser)
Thanks a lot for that very useful help!!
Michael
on March 17th, 2007

Recently I switched from Xandros 3.02 to Ubuntu 6.10. There were some difficulties at first with all sorts of stuff like Bluetooth and a lot of fiddling around.
Shuggie, I had early dramas with GE as well, even with Rob’s tuturial as you can tell by my previous posts. I actually DIDN’T KNOW(I’m getting on a bit) about copying and pasting into Terminal. So I typed my tits off making all sorts of errors!
Anyway, I’m using U6.10 on a Celeron 1.7 PC. This time, I just ran it copy/paste and it worked like a dream. Perfect install,GE icon on taskbar etc. Well, I had to do that bit …
I’ve noticed on UbuntuForums some issues with certain laptops with Edgy, which may or may not have something to do with the problem you have(had?) By the way, the GE I just downloaded and installed was 20-odd megs rather than 17+.It’s taken me some months to figure out how to do this stuff on Linux. Have fun, Shuggie. It will all work out in the end. Cheers, Mike.
ras
on May 28th, 2007

It’s great!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thanks——–
Seth
on July 20th, 2007

A noob might understand that stuff up there, but I’m only a beginner. I tried pasting lots of stuff up ther into terminal. I gpt nothing but error messages. Despite not knowing how to “do” the lines up there (whatever that means), I installed it like this:

1. right click on downloaded binary
2. select “properties”
3. select “permissions”
4. check “make executable” box
5. select “ok”
6. click on the now executable binary

Too bad all linux software isn’t this easy to install.
roxy
on July 31st, 2007

i think the google earth is fantastic but very blur and there is no bukit batok in the picture.
Randy
on August 31st, 2007

I get the following error.
wget http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Opensuse 10.2
any ideas?
Randy
on August 31st, 2007

Opensuse 10.2
I get the following error.
Xlib: etension “XFree86-DRI” missing on display “:0.0″.
any ideas?
macewan
on August 31st, 2007

@Randy,

That is not an error and the link is still valid. Try it again.
Randy
on August 31st, 2007

macewan,
note: 52 is the issue.
51 was an accident.
sairin
on September 2nd, 2007

although i installed it everytime i try to run it the pc logs me off from my linux account and when i log back in nothing happens..
cturk
on September 27th, 2007

It didn’t work for me!! I got this:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ wget http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
–21:13:24– http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
=> `GoogleEarthLinux.bin’
Resolving dl.google.com… 66.102.1.91
Connecting to dl.google.com|66.102.1.91|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
21:13:24 ERROR 404: Not Found.

uh help?
toedipper
on October 14th, 2007

Hi all,

As a work around to the 404 error just download the file manually from the Google site http://earth.google.com/tour/thanks-linux4.html and then open a terminal in the location you save it and start at step 2 above, the chmod step, and continue on from there.

The first step wget is just is just a download command but google have changed the location which is why there is a 404 error.

Worked for me.

toe

http://www.vistaisrubbish.com
Mario
on November 30th, 2007

thanks for posting the commands to install. I had a heck of a time running the .bin file after downloading from google
Nigel
on March 18th, 2008

Hi
I am trying to install Google Earth on Fedora 8 but when I compile I get the following Error:-
setup.data/bin/Linux/amd64/setup.gtk2: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
setup.data/bin/Linux/amd64/setup.gtk: error while loading shared libraries: libXi.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
The setup program seems to have failed on amd64

Fatal error, installer failed to run at all!
I would be grateful for any help…Nigel
carux
on April 25th, 2008

Thanks, worked perfect
Parshwa Murdia
on May 20th, 2008

I am not able to install the Google Earth for the Linux I am using in my machine. Pleae let me know what to do? Though it gets downloaded but is not getting installed. Is there any package which is not yet installed in my PC or anything new is to be done, please let me know regarding the same. I am using the Linux with the Fedora Core 5. And also if possible, please let me know how to upgrade from the internet and update for the latest things and the softwares. Not only this but I am also not able to use some of the common softwares, so please help rectify the same.
djole_nisam_ja
on May 24th, 2008

Great stuff.

Thanks man
Jorge
on May 28th, 2008

THANX MAN!! You saved me! =D, the only thing that you have to change now is the URL…

http://dl.google.com/earth/client/GE4/release_4_2/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
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on June 6th, 2008

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on June 9th, 2008

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agblat
on July 5th, 2008

Great install info, Google boots up and then a black screen with a few lines of text that flash too quickly to be captured followed by a login window. Running Ubuntu 8 on P-IV on ASUS MB.
eight
on August 7th, 2008

after the whole uncompressing google earth for gnu/linux andthe ………………….. it went back to [eight@localhost ~]$ instead of installing whatever?
napster
on August 14th, 2008

Hi! I have a Acer Aspire One, and the GoogleEarth does not work, it starts but soon closing. Is this about the RAM?

I downloaded and used this guide…
It should work, but doesnt…

Stats…
Intel Atom 1,6 ghz
512mb RAM
8 gb flash drive

. Napster .
Yawar Hadi Noshahi
on August 21st, 2008

google isntalled correctly but when i run it its too slow….to move the worldmap.and point to the specified location .the message apper on terminal is
Installing mimetypes…
Installing desktop menu entries…
Installing desktop icon…
do_wait: drmWaitVBlank returned -1, IRQs don’t seem to be working correctly.
Try running with LIBGL_THROTTLE_REFRESH and LIBL_SYNC_REFRESH unset.

hope any body deal with it.
Lizard King
on September 7th, 2008

This is correct: wget http://dl.google.com/earth/client/GE4/release_4_2/GoogleEarthLinux.bin

Not this: wget http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
joselyn
on September 12th, 2008

this is awesome you can see many things that you dont no visit google earth
Mel
on September 21st, 2008

Newbie Linux user needs help please! Followed the steps, followed intructions on screen, got icon on desktop, promped to type in ‘google earth’ to run program, nothing happened……
Mel
on September 21st, 2008

Newbie needs help….. Can anyone tell me what to do now?

[mel@localhost ~]$ ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Verifying archive integrity… All good.
Uncompressing Google Earth for GNU/Linux 4.3.7284.3916……………………………………………………..
loki_setup: Suspect size value for option option

loki_setup: Suspect size value for option option

Installing mimetypes…
Installing desktop menu entries…
Installing desktop icon…
./googleearth-bin: error while loading shared libraries: ./libminizip.so: cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied
[mel@localhost ~]$
Prozzaks
on October 8th, 2008

I installed Kubuntu 8.04 on my Aspire One AOA150-1493 (120 GB HD version). Then I tried Google Earth. It’s so slow it’s totally useless! It takes at least 1 minute before you get the main windows and expect to wait at least 5 minutes before the initial turn zoom animation.

I don’t understand why this is so slow. I would expect the Atom 1.6 GHz and the Intel 945GME to pack enough punch to run this, but it’s simply useless as it is.

I’d like to test the speed of Google Earth on the Aspire One running Windows XP, but I flushed it to install Linux and it would be way to painful to re-install it just for a test.

I’m now searching for good alternatives for Linux, but I think I’m pretty far from the kind of solution I’m looking for. Basically, what I want is an off-line (or with some kind of off-line cache) tool to see the topography, satellite imagery, street maps that also enable geo-referenced place marks, is able to calculate paths (directions from point A to point B), and can potentially handle a GPS.

*** OSX can be installed on Intel boxen.
macewan
on October 17th, 2008

Mel, did you chmod +x *.bin before hand? Also, what version of what distro are you using?

cheers,
macewan
Zrg
on February 3rd, 2009

tnx man, realy tnx, i didn’t know how to do it
Brian
on March 3rd, 2009

I have down loaded Google earth. a bin file, who do I install it?
All the information above is probably very good, but where do I enter the codes?
calvin
on March 3rd, 2009

how do you do it for ubuntu in the GUI?
chris
on April 8th, 2009

on mine it comes up with
chris@chris-desktop:~$ wget http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
–2009-04-08 11:00:57– http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Resolving dl.google.com… 209.85.229.190, 209.85.229.136, 209.85.229.91, …
Connecting to dl.google.com|209.85.229.190|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
2009-04-08 11:00:57 ERROR 404: Not Found.
do know how to do it wiv ubuntu
HR
on June 2nd, 2009

Hi,

I just installed googleEarth & googletalk. Nothing works. By the way I have Asus Eee pc with linux OS. I am new to Linux & dont know what to do. Please help.

I will appreciate that.
ted
on June 9th, 2009

[gc@localhost Download]$ chmod +x G*.bin
[gc@localhost Download]$./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Verifying archive integrity… All good.
Uncompressing Google Earth for GNU/Linux 5.0.11733.9347………………………………………………………

(setup.gtk2:29720): Gtk-WARNING **: Invalid input string

(setup.gtk2:29720): Gtk-WARNING **: Invalid input string

(setup.gtk2:29720): Gtk-WARNING **: Invalid input string
./setup.sh: line 158: 29720 Segmentation fault “$setup” “$@”

–
that the error. Help please.
OS: mandriva-2009 spring
fred Carruthers
on July 1st, 2009

Thanks for that it now runs on my acer aspire netbook
Wayne Linton
on July 6th, 2009

./googleearth-bin: error while loading shared libraries: ./libminizip.so: cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied

disable SELinux and it will work fine.
ebrick
on July 21st, 2009

son of a bitch
Steve Ayres
on August 19th, 2009

I’m using Yellow dog on a PS3 and like other people, I find that after uncompressing the file it jsut dumps me back to [root@localhost ~]#.

Haven’t found an answer to this problem anywhere

Can anyone help?
Jayesh Tembhekar
on February 15th, 2010

Error: “No protocol specified”

Probably you are running G*.bin as root while logged in as another user, in that case run G*.bin as the same user as logged in.
juan
on March 11th, 2010

gracias por la ayuda para instalar google earth
ARmands
on June 2nd, 2010

Hi!I am on Linux Mint 9.My PC does not support .bin.
kolin
on August 6th, 2010

I interest the Worlk Map for learnning .
susan downing
on August 10th, 2010

would really appreciate your help in installing google earth