Installing Google Earth

By default, you just need to execute ./GoogleEarthLinux.bin to install Google Earth on your GNU/Linux operating system. Nevertheless; Debian provides googleearth-package, a utility to automatically build a Debian package of Google Earth. To all Debianistas, we are special, aren’t we?
So, below are the simple steps based on my experience to get Google Earth in Debian.
0. My System Information
Debian Version: Debian Lenny aka Debian Testing
Kernel Version: 2.6.18-4-amd64
Architecture: AMD64 (x86_64)
1. Install googleearth-package
meister:~# apt-get install googleearth-package
2. Run the particular command to start building Google Earth package
In my case, I do not know the exact command. Hence, I issue

meister:~# dpkg -L googleearth-package
/.
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/man
/usr/share/man/man1
/usr/share/man/man1/make-googleearth-package.1.gz
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/googleearth-package
/usr/share/doc/googleearth-package/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/googleearth-package/README.Debian
/usr/share/doc/googleearth-package/copyright
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/make-googleearth-package

Yeah, there it is.
So, I run make-googleearth-package command. GoogleEarthLinux.bin will be downloaded from Google website.

meister:~# make-googleearth-package
–15:27:47– http://dl.google.com/earth/GE4/GoogleEarthLinux.bin
=> `GoogleEarthLinux.bin’
Resolving dl.google.com… 72.14.203.95, 72.14.203.91, 72.14.203.93
Connecting to dl.google.com|72.14.203.95|:80… connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 200 OK
Length: 23,852,601 (23M) [application/octet-stream]
100%[==============================>] 23,852,601 8.91K/s ETA 00:00
16:26:21 (6.64 KB/s) – `GoogleEarthLinux.bin’ saved [23852601/23852601]
Not building on non-i386; use –force to override.

For your info; at present, GoogleEarthLinux is currently available on x86 (32-bit) platform only. That is why I received that error.
3. Nevertheless, who cares! Use the Jedi force,

meister:~# make-googleearth-package –force
Google Earth for GNU/Linux 4.1.7076.4458
Supported Google Earth version: 4.1.7076.4458
……….
8< — (snipped, very long output) ———
……….
Package: googleearth
Version: 4.1.7076.4458+0.1.0-1
Section: non-free/science
Priority: optional
Maintainer: <>
Architecture: i386
Depends: ttf-dejavu | ttf-bitstream-vera, ia32-libs (>= 1.6), libc6-i386 (>= 2.3.5-1)
Description: Google Earth, a 3D map/planet viewer
Package built with googleearth-package.
dpkg-deb: building package `googleearth’ in `./googleearth_4.1.7076.4458+0.1.0-1_i386.deb’.
Success!

4. Install the Deb package
meister:~# dpkg -i –force-architecture googleearth_4.1.7076.4458+0.1.0-1_i386.deb
Please take note that I add –force-architecture parameter since I’m installing x86 package on x86_64 system.
5. Run Google Earth! Yiba yiba andre…..
irwan@meister:~$ googleearth

[1] Viewing Desa Pandan
[2] Viewing Petronas Twin Towers, KLCC
[3] Kuala Kangsar picture, save from Google Earth

Installing Google Earth 2011-06-16T18:05:00-07:00 Rating: 4.5 Diposkan Oleh: Unknown