I'm running a live session of a recent daily build of Ubuntu 13.10 and i installed Google Earth to see if i could get it running... There are many sites that tell you how to install it and i used the terminal commands it showed and supposedly the program is now installed (or so the terminal had said...lol)... Anyway, the problem is i can't find it to open it...when i search on the dash it does not come up...This is the 64 bit version, by the way... I've had this problem when trying to install Google earth even on previous ubuntus....seems to install fine but then cannot be located... Any suggestions on how to find and open it? I did this on live session because i hesitated to play with it on my currently installed ubuntu 13.04... Thanks
Last edited by craig10x; August 26th, 2013 at 12:57 AM.
Hi, If you can start it in the terminal then it is installed. I haven't tried 13.10 but I experienced the same problem in Debian Sid and I think the reason and the solution ae the same. It is simply that the .desktop file is not copied to or linked to /usr/share/applications when you install a third party applications like GE or Chrome, you will find it in /opt/google/google-earth/ or something like that. So you either just copy the .desktop file to /usr/share/applications or make a symlink to it and you should see it in the dash. In 13.04 and before when you install a third party application like GE or Chrome the .desktop file is automatically copied to /usr/share/applications or /usr/local/share/applications. I hope this is a bug and will be fixed at release so new users don't get confused.
Last edited by monkeybrain20122; August 26th, 2013 at 01:13 AM.
The terminal can't seem to locate it so makes me wonder if it really got installed...Funny thing is i have had the same problem even trying to add it to previous ubuntus as well...Would be so much easier if it was actually in the software center...then at least the dash search would bring it up... I'm going to run this live session through monday afternoon...maybe i will try installing using the deb and the ubuntu software center...though i doubt if i will have any better luck... Does it matter which bit version you use?...64 bit was the one i tried for and used terminal commands for it... edit: i just left clicked on the deb file in nautilus and ubuntu software center reads the package but has a message that says: dependency is not satisfiable ia32-libs I did a little googling on that and apparently that was a hack that use to enable you to install a 32 bit package in 64 bit ubuntu.... Does that mean that i need to install 32 bit Google earth instead? (I assumed the 64 bit version would work)... If so, i will try getting the deb file from Google for 32 and see if the ubuntu software center can install it...
Last edited by craig10x; August 26th, 2013 at 01:49 AM.
if you can start it with the terminal command 'google-earth' then it means it is installed If you try to use the locate command to find stuffs you need to update your database first, because the database is updated at regular time intervals and locate would not find things that you just installed without upgrading the database. the command is Code: sudo updatedb
sudo updatedb
No luck...tried your ideas and 32 bit also and it was also missing something...will probably give up unless someone comes along with some other idea... Google earth seems to be a rather frustrating problem to install on Linux...on windows and mac it is a snap...Never had a problem installing Chrome either it's just this Earth program that seems to be a pain in the rear in linux...
Last edited by craig10x; August 26th, 2013 at 02:02 AM.
Your best bet is to wait until google-earth redo's their package & stops requiring a now non-existent meta package (ia32-lbs) which actually used to install more than was needed anyway. If really inclined it can be done now, just did, took a couple of minutes. Basically you install what it does need (or at least min. to run.. Code: sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 lsb-core Then you take the downloaded google-earth current deb package & r. click extract. Once extracted open the extracted folder > Debian. Inside is a control file. Open it in gedit & remove the dep on ia32-libs, save. (once saved remove back up "control~" file Then delete or move the orig. google-earth-stable_current_amd64.deb package & rebuild the edited folder with dpkg -b /path/to/extracted-folder Ex. I downloaded the .deb, put in a new folder called gefix. Then extracted, edited the control file, saved. The orig .deb I deleted, leaving just "google-earth-stable_current_amd64" folder in gefix. From terminal - doug@doug-XPS-M1330:~/Downloads/gefix$ dpkg -b '/home/doug/Downloads/gefix/google-earth-stable_current_amd64' dpkg-deb: building package `google-earth-stable' in `/home/doug/Downloads/gefix/google-earth-stable_current_amd64.deb'. doug@doug-XPS-M1330:~/Downloads/gefix$ Once the debian package is created then a simple - sudo dpkg -i /home/doug/Downloads/gefix/google-earth-stable_current_amd64.deb screen one shows all I've mentioned, screen 2 ge running on saucy 64 bit
sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 lsb-core
Wow...a rather complex way to get it running...Google really should get that straightened out...it should be as easy to install as the Chrome Browser... Appreciate your post...i guess i will wait for Google to smooth this out...too much of a hassle right now
@craig10x: The easiest way is just download the Google Earth 32bit version and install using gdebi. Worked great on my 13.10 64bit.
HP 17 Notebook, 8GB DDR3, A10-APU ATI Radeon HD 8650G
Really? and no dependency problems, tdockery97? If so, thanks for the tip...i will have to try it that way and see how it goes...did it come up in the dash search for you to launch it the first time? Thanks...
Originally Posted by craig10x Really? and no dependency problems, tdockery97? If so, thanks for the tip...i will have to try it that way and see how it goes...did it come up in the dash search for you to launch it the first time? Thanks... No dependency problems. And yes, it showed up right away in the Dash search, upon which I moved it to the Launcher. Good luck.
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