Update: Easier installation instructions are now available. See How-to Install Google Earth 5 on Ubuntu.
Google Earth is a 3d globe that puts the world’s geographic information at your fingertips. It’s is available on Linux, Mac, and Windows.
Start the installation by downloading the Linux installer.
Open a terminal and change to the directory where the installer downloaded to. If it’s on your desktop you can use this command:
cd ~/Desktop
Change the permissions on the installer so you can run it:
chmod +x GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Run the installer as the root user:
sudo ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
The installer dialog will open. The default install paths work fine. Click Begin Install.
Once the installation is finished you can click Start to launch Google Earth.
Want to add Google Earth to the Application menu? Open the menu editor in System->Preferences->Main Menu.
Select the submenu you want to use and click New Item. The command value needs to be googleearth.
You can now launch Google Earth from the Application menu.
[update] You may also be interested in improving Google Earth’s appearance.
Enjoyed this post? 
Google Earth is in the Ubuntu repo in 7.10 (gutsy) and 8.04 (hardy).
http://packages.ubuntu.com/cgi-bin/search_packages.pl?keywords=googleearth&searchon=names&subword=1&version=all&release=all
So on Gutsy and Hardy you just need to “sudo apt-get install googleearth” which is preferable over installing the binary downloaded off the web.
Or alternatively use the Medibuntu non-free repository:
http://www.medibuntu.org/packages.php
googleearth 4.2.198.2451-0medibuntu4
sudo apt-get install googleearth
Nico
Funny, I’m hoping to upgrade my system to 7.10 shortly on a new machine and was just a few minutes ago thinking of installing Google Earth with the extra power and space I’ll have.
One for the bookmarks.
Thanks.
look due i know your probly doing this for the good of your health but can u help us
i done exactly as u said but i get
Could not create directory:
/root/.googleearth/Cache
ok
i pressed ok and got
Google Earth could not write to the current cache or myplaces file location. The values will be set as follows:
My Places Path: “/home/barry/.googleearth”
Cache Path: “/home/barry/.googleearth/Cache”
ok
popey,
I have tried the package “googleearth-package” in Ubuntu and it didn’t seem to work.
Having a major problem with this install, after installing and trying to launch GooleEarth all it does is restart my computer.
After installing using .bin once invoke the command googleearth all it does is restart the system and take me to login window
Thanks! Nice and clear, just like I love it! You doing a great job!
Thanks Tom!
After endless frustrations with delays opening, running, and closing Vista on a new laptop - I have consigned Vista to digital oblivion and installed Ubuntu.
What a difference - blistering speed - no delays anywhere
Googling for help getting VLC and then Googleearth running I noticed that your blog came up - and was most helpful…
Have bookmarked and will now browse your site for more gems…
Cheers, Nick
Excellent tutorial! Perfectly clear with spot-on accuracy.
Thank you very much for making my transition to Linux just that much easier.
After installing using .bin once invoke the command googleearth all it does is restart the system and take me to login window; am using ubuntu 7.10
This is exactly what i was looking for. Thank you for your clear instructions.
Running Gutsy on an old 486 Dell. Installed using the binary, per your instructions. GoogleEarth launched automatically after the install and worked great.
A menu entry was added automatically. Subsequent launches from menu or from terminal opened the GoogleEarth application, but I could not navigate anywhere. The image is “stuck” on a sky view (the last image from my first use of GoogleEarth).
Now I cannot return to the ground view or anywhere. Toolbar icons are all gray, nothing appears in Places, etc. The View menu does not contain the original “view from..” options.
Help!
to songstruck
Had a similar problem. Googleearth doesn’t run properly unless I ran it as root. Then everything worked. I don’t know why it isn’t documented anywhere. But I think because it has on the fly resolution and graphics changes, it needs to run as sudo. Because unless I do that, like you, its stuck in sky view and i can’t even edit any preferences. But I tried all types of installing as user, as root, as root with the privileges going to the user, and it still doesn’t work unless I gksu or sudo before googleearth
Hi, i’ve just install it but it doesn’t work
[...] I’ve got a how-to if you haven’t yet installed Google Earth. [...]
Thanks for making this easy!
I’ve installed google earth on hardy and it says it cant connect to the internet even though I have no firewall active and I have a good and working connection.
I had google earth in gutsy and all was well. This problem started after the update.
Sugestions?
I tried what you told me to do on terminal, however it doesn’t work, could you help me please?
Thank you very much
Thanks, Worked like a charm on my Ubuntu 8.04 laptop!
To Songstruck and Anonymus,
The same thing happened to me. Google Earth worked fin on the first lauch during the install, however, when launching from Applications, it remains stuck in “starland”. I can launch it correctly from a terminal window using sudo googleearth. Any thoughts on how to fix?
Excellent, succinct directions - Thanks!
8.04 Mine also has problems running, needs to be run from root (sudo googleearth) and even then is agonizingly slow, on a pretty fast ‘puter. (2.4G Dualie w/2 gigs of ram) I’m thinking the Integrated Intel Graphics (Media Accelerator 900) is the cause of the problem, so will put in a stand-alone card and give it another go.
But thanks again!
Here’s how to fix the “only works with sudo” problem
in your homedir, cd .config/Google, then do ’sudo chown [you user name] GoogleEarthPlus.conf’
Next time you run googleearth, it’ll show you an error message about not being able to write to /root/.googleearth, and that it will use your homedir instead…
Hope this helps others!
Strange .. In the Synaptic package manager I only find a google earth debian package utility. I cannot find the GoogleEarth app itself there. Am I doing something wrong?
Add the repository to your sources.list.d Go here for instructions - add the non-free repo.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu
Ok.. Thanks for tips people particularly last sudo chown tip.. No more starfield.. wondered why it needed sudo to install anyway.
My problem now is…. Unless I keep moving the mouse I get a black bar kinda thing at the top of the screen.
ati graphics here 9800 pro (128mb) .. probably AGP on a K8T Neo mobo
doesn t work. Brings up error message 29
After installing and trying to launch GooleEarth all it does is take me to user name and password.
Thanks, worked perfectly, step by step, just did not required to Add to the menu (is itself listed itself over there). Thanks again
I loaded as you instructed but I am unhappy with outcome. Can you explain how to remove. Root is owner and I do not know how to do the uninstall. I can find uninstall file but ubuntu says it is not a valid uninstaller.
Please help. Thank you.
had a problem with error 29 with 64bit Ubuntu 8.04.01. A search revealed that the lib32nss-mdns package had to be installed which fixed the problem in my case
Thanks - the ‘chown the config file’ trick from chop works for me.
Dear Google, please do this in the install script
thank you everybody its ok wonderfull commands
first chmod +x GoogleEarthLinux.bin
then ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin
[...] Hier beispielhaft zwei Seiten, die Dir helfen sollten: Google Earth ? Wiki ? ubuntuusers.de How-to Install Google Earth in Ubuntu | Tombuntu Selbst, wenn ein gew?nschtes Programm nicht in Deiner Distribution direkt enthalten ist, w?rde ich [...]
Who can help?
I installed GoogleEarth in Ubuntu 8.04.1.
If I start the program, I get the error code 29 and the hint that network connection to http://www.google.de can not be reached or the firewall does not allow the connection. Howevwe I have no external firewall and with Firefox I may open http://www.google.de
What is wrong in my installation?
If you have problems with the installation using the sudo command googleearth-package it is easy to remove! ( sudo apt-get remove googleearth-package ) And yesterday the commands at the top of the page worked fine for installing GE on my 64 bit distro and it was awesome then I was attacked and the pictures I saved from GE and my addon background images were stolen off my pc then a command app popped up removing my installation and it wouldn’t reinstall. Needless to say I reinstalled the os and retried and it says it can’t open the 64 bit installation files for GE. Really crazy and I’m not too happy!
Thank you, very helpful!
Thanks! trubkir,
Installing that lib32nss-mdns package, did the trick — You rock!
Peace
Hey– I have a random question.
What Emerald/Metacity theme do you use?
I just think it looks cool. ^_^
chuggaboo:
The theme is “Milk flat - darker blue”:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Milk+flat+-+darker+blue?content=64535
Installed fine on Ubuntu 8.10 beta but will not work
seems OK but viewer is black and stays that way. Program crashed. used GoogleEarthLinux.bin from their download site. Everex explora machine.
Google maps works fine.
[...] there doesn’t know about this one, but it definitely deserves a mention don’t ya think? Tombuntu takes you a full installation [...]
[...] Esta herramienta no necesita presentación, en Tombuntu tienes una guia de como instalarlo. [...]
says installation completely crashed for AMD…… I have Ubuntu 8.10 on my AMD 64
HEY! Where do you come off making an installation in Linux EASY! It’s supposed to be a pain in the kazoo so that you would go to bed and stay up all night wondering what it’s going to take to install that stoopid GoogleEarth.Then you go to a
forum and most of the people reply to you like your some kind of Idiot. this is the only time I’ve seen it clearly and concisely explained for us people who are still at the bottom of the learning curve. Thanks a million.
sou uns fills deputa
[...] out there doesn’t know about this one, but it definitely deserves a mention don’t ya think? Tombuntu takes you a full installation [...]
correction
sudo apt-get install googleearth-package
This is a very good information here!
thanks
after finished install google earth i try to to launch this application, then show warning like this
“are you blocking opt/google-earth/googleearth-bin?”
how to set the firewall alow googleearth in ubuntu
thanx a lot ….i recently joined the linux resolution and was looking for google earth…it’s working on my machin but with problems….but its good to have it on my pc….thanx again
How come that after the installation if I run google earth everything is fine and if I open it the second time it doesn’t work ?
How can I see Google Earth in real time?Is that possible?
Thank ypu very much! Very useful help. Ubuntu 8.10 user.
but i can’t use it
it is showing initializing
then it disappears.
i have problem with google earth,when i run google in root i get this problem Warning: Unable to create prefs directory ‘/root/.googleearth’. File exists.
./googleearth-bin: relocation error: /usr/lib/i686/cmov/libssl.so.0.9.8: symbol BIO_test_flags, version OPENSSL_0.9.8 not defined in file libcrypto.so.0.9.8 with link time reference.Somevan help
Followed your instructions and installed in Ubuntu 8.1 — got this message at install
Warning: Unable to create prefs directory ‘/root/.googleearth’. File exists. ./googleearth-bin: relocation error: /usr/lib/i686/cmov/libssl.so.0.9.8: symbol BIO test_flags, version OPENSSL_0.9.8 not defined in file libcrypto.so.0.9.8 with link time reference
When try to start Google Earth, there is a ’startup tips’ screen which is blank and then the Google Earth Screen and then it disappears.
Any ideas about this?
ubuntu is fine and all, but why the hell do you have to go through all these command lines. this is not user friendly and as long as linux systems are like this, it will never surpass mac or windows
thanks tom
oh yeah, thanks for installation tips, i’m not really into ubuntu yet
Read here for the solution!
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/earth/thread?tid=7b1b524777b9b982&hl=en
[...] http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/earth/thread?tid=7b1b524777b9b982&hl=en http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2007/11/28/how-to-install-google-earth-in-ubuntu/ [...]
I note that other people have had the same prob but I can’t seem to see that a resolution has been posted.
When I start Google Earth I get Could not create directory /root/.googleearth/Cache
Any help please?
Thanks chaps
can i see my house in selite
yeah thats the way
Thanks alop for the chown tip. Had a blank Google Earth. Now it’s working with Ubuntu 8.10 on an Asus eee 700.
Really sluggish though. Well, I know the screen resolution is too low, but I had to try.
at least could use it to directions.
I love linux because of all the people who contribute here and all over the internet. I wish I grow up to be like one of them!
[...] chmod +x GoogleEarthLinux.bin > Run the installer as the root user: > sudo ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin > http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2007/11/28/how-to-install-google-earth-in-ubuntu/ On Sun, May 24, 2009 > 1:31 AM Night at Museum 2, Shaw building (Orchard), LQ, Blackberry VS [...]