Mint 17 will not run Google Earth [Solved]

[wibbly]

Hi,

First off, I am using a battered old laptop that I switched to Linux many moons ago, and that saw a new lease of life in doing so. I have upgraded through 13-16 over the period without problems (usually motivated by out of date repo's etc that messed up the click and install process).

I saw that 17 was out so did a complete clean install, all went well, compared to Windows the difference in installation times is always a pleasure to behold.

Everything is running fine as far as Linux is concerned, with one strange element.

In all prevoius versions I have run Google Earth with no problems, it has been downloaded and run without me needing to do anything at all. It didn't even run noticeably slow, and was always a handy thing to have.

When I tried it with 17, it dowloaded ok, installed ok, but when I tried to run it it tells me that my graphics card does not support 3D or shading, at which point the only option is to shut it down.

Laptop specs:

System.png

Driver Manager:

mgr.png

I am assuming that 17 does not have a graphics driver that previous versions had, so if anyone can assist me in resolving this one I would be rather grateful.

Rob

[Kalyk]

Hello and welcome to this forum!!

Did some searching for intel 945gm site:linuxmint.com for the last month and saw this post
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&p=885457
Maybe for you adding the repos for intel drivers will help too.

[PatH57]

Hi,

you should try the updated kernel available in update manager first.
If it does not work we will try a newer kernel.
No worries linux gives you the option to switch back to the old kernel (GRUB will show you the option at start)

[Simtech68]

Hi,

First off, I am using a battered old laptop that I switched to Linux many moons ago, and that saw a new lease of life in doing so. I have upgraded through 13-16 over the period without problems (usually motivated by out of date repo's etc that messed up the click and install process).

I saw that 17 was out so did a complete clean install, all went well, compared to Windows the difference in installation times is always a pleasure to behold.

Everything is running fine as far as Linux is concerned, with one strange element.

In all prevoius versions I have run Google Earth with no problems, it has been downloaded and run without me needing to do anything at all. It didn't even run noticeably slow, and was always a handy thing to have.

When I tried it with 17, it dowloaded ok, installed ok, but when I tried to run it it tells me that my graphics card does not support 3D or shading, at which point the only option is to shut it down.

Laptop specs:

System.png

Driver Manager:

mgr.png

I am assuming that 17 does not have a graphics driver that previous versions had, so if anyone can assist me in resolving this one I would be rather grateful.

Rob

I noticed that you have a 64 bit processor but running the 32 bit version of LM17. It probably shouldn't make a difference but give the 64-bit a try. I don't know how much work you have done getting this far, but if it's not too much give it a try. There may be something with the graphics and the 32 bit not wanting to play together......just my two cents

[wibbly]

Smacks self on forehead...I hadn't even noticed the 64 bit anomaly, that will teach me to do things in a rush.

Many, many thanks for the suggestions, I will try another install, if that doesn't do the trick, I will give the other suggestions a go.

Jeez, I feel a complete idiot now.

Rob

[wibbly]

Update:

I did a fresh install of 64bit, but now the laptop runs slower?
The problem with Google Earth and the graphics message is still there.
I also see that You Tube videos are stuttering slightly.

I downloaded:

Graphics Installer 1.0.5 for Ubuntu* 14.04, 64-bit

but when I tried to run it, it told me that it was incompatible with my repositories. Was there anything else on the page that I should have grabbed while I was there?

https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads

If anyone can assist in resolving this one please, be my guest.

I would also add that although I have been using Mint for a while, I am not fully conversant with the command line syntax, so I would really appreciate any commands in a language that a complete novice would understand.

Many thanks

Rob

[Kalyk]

Hi Rob,

I don't know if installing the 64 bit version was necessary, but that shouldn't be a problem.
64 bit hardware is perfectly capable of running 32 bit Linux.

PatH57 suggested updating the kernel.
I like the procedure described here to do that
http://www.upubuntu.com/2014/07/install ... 54-in.html

And you could still try adding the intel-repository I found elsewhere and suggested.
So you're not out of options yet!!

[PatH57]

ok lets move one step at the time.
From the descripiton you give us it looks like a graphic card issue (worng or default driver)
Please provide the output in terminal of:

Code: Select all

inxi -v7

[wibbly]

Here we go, I assume that

drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)

reveals the problem?

****************************


~ $ inxi -v7
System: Host: rob-Aspire-5630 Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine: System: Acer product: Aspire 5630 version: V3.50 Chassis: type: 10
Mobo: Acer model: Grapevine Bios: Acer version: V3.50 date: 02/13/2007
CPU: Dual core Intel Core2 CPU T5500 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 6650.26
Clock Speeds: 1: 1000.00 MHz 2: 1000.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Mobile 945GM/GMS 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@60.0hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 945GM GLX Version: 1.4 Mesa 10.1.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card: Intel NM10/ICH7 Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-24-generic
Network: Card-1: Broadcom BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX driver: b44 ver: 2.0 bus-ID: 06:01.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:16:d414:a6
Card-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection driver: iwl3945 ver: in-tree:s bus-ID: 05:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 00:19:d2:65:66:1b
WAN IP: 2.216.114.96 IF: eth0 ip: N/A ip-v6: N/A IF: wlan0 ip: 192.168.0.5 ip-v6: fe80::219:d2ff:fe65:661b
Drives: HDD Total Size: 80.0GB (6.7% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS54168 size: 80.0GB serial: SB2211SGJUK71B
Optical: /dev/sr0 model: N/A rev: N/A dev-links: cdrom
Features: speed: 24x multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: N/A
Partition: ID: / size: 73G used: 5.1G (8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
label: N/A uuid: 0526b92d-9cf0-47e1-88bb-64c693c37973
ID: swap-1 size: 1.06GB used: 0.25GB (24%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
label: N/A uuid: 8f6592f2-0478-4f00-9335-54abaf25f35f
RAID: System: supported: N/A
No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Unused Devices: none
Unmounted: ID: /dev/sr0 size: 1.07G label: N/A uuid: N/A
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 52.0C mobo: 52.0C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 145 Uptime: 3:45 Memory: 552.9/984.5MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4

[PatH57]

and what's your DE (desktop environment mate, cinnamon...)

945gm will likely never get up to speed with its capabilities on WXP. It's a bit sad, but ancient stuff doesn't get any newer, so what's the point for Intel to work on a driver for something that old? They keep it alive and usable with newer releases, and that is the most you can expect.
The Intel installer is mostly targeted at newer hardware (Sandy Bridge and newer), it won't change much for you for the better.

[wibbly]

Yes, it's cinnamon, 64bit.

Information about this edition
Release Qiana
Edition Cinnamon (64-bit)
Desktop Cinnamon
Media DVD
Size 1.3GB
MD5 3d8c3c3e82916e2110f965111b0ee944
Release notes Release Notes
Announcement Announcement
Torrent Torrent

I agree about the ancient civilisation part, but as the laptop was sold to me 4 years ago for £12.50 (quite a bargain back then), and was given a new lease of life when OpenSuse was installed, since updated with iterations of Mint, it is a very handy fast boot up, ready to use, 'free' tool.

It was all hunky dory up until I replaced 16 with 17, hence the original question. If nothing else I would be curious as to what has changed?

[PatH57]

well as I said Mint17 carries a newer engine that won't bring anything to your laptop (£12.50 was a bargain just three pints of lager)
dp your self a favor and go for Mint13 Mate, it's a long term supprot release meaning it will receive updates and keep you rolling for a while.
New OSs bring a lot of "features" that older hardware doesn't have anyway. You can't just put a new engine in an old car.
Also you only have 1GB memory witch is used by the onboard graphic card, it was top 10 years ...

[wibbly]

I tried the cure described here:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 25#p895225

The Intel Installer ran all of the way through ok.

However, Driver Manager tells me that no proprietary drivers are installed, and Google Earth still has the original problem.

Am I missing something? Do I need to revert the lsb-release file to the original after I have run the update?
Is there any way to get the driver that worked ok in 16, to install and run in 17?

Plus an update:

I tried Update Manager just to see if anything was there, with the modified lsb-release file still in place.

I got this message:

Screenshot.png

(Public Key is displayed but not included in the screenshot)

I then reverted to the original lsb-release file, and still get the same message when I run Update Manager.

As I haven't changed anything else, and didn't edit the original file, I simply renamed it and then reverted to the original name...can anyone shed any light on this?

I cured it with:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys {Copy and Paste key from error message}

[wibbly]

Hi,

you should try the updated kernel available in update manager first.
If it does not work we will try a newer kernel.
No worries linux gives you the option to switch back to the old kernel (GRUB will show you the option at start)

Screenshot KERNEL.png

I am guessing that the Kernels are up to date, as there is nothing new to download in Update Manager.

[PatH57]

you have an update available, but your screenshot is a bit strange, did you at some point try to manuallay make a kernel upgrade? usually trying a lot of thinhs and just being loast a long the way. It does happen to me at least once a week

[wibbly]

The screenshot confuses me a little. I don't know if it is telling me what is installed, or whether I should be updating something?

I definately haven't updated the kernel, I wouldn't have a clue about how to do that, and wouldn't randomly click on something unless I was certain that it wouldn't mess anything up.

[PatH57]

then you are safe you never did an update.
time to try one out, you can always boot back to the old old one it's linux if it was windows would you think about it?

[wibbly]

If anyone can give me step by step instructions about what to do I will do it. I am used to tech stuff, but don't have a clue about the Linux OS (though learning more all the time). I tend to find that I learn more by fixing something than I do by using something that works perfectly.

[PatH57]

just click on install. it will do it for you

[colyn]

Back to your original problem... If you installed the latest version of Googleearth that will most likely be the problem since it does not like Intel much..

Completely purge Googleearth then follow the directions to the letter below. I would suggest you copy/paste and do each step in the order listed....

Find the package name.

Code: Select all

dpkg --list 'google-earth*' | cat

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg -P google-earth-stable

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove --purge google-earth-stable

Be sure to change google-earth-stable to the package name...

To install..............

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install lsb-core

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install googleearth-package

Code: Select all

sudo make-googleearth-package --force

Wait till it completes then open your home folder where you will find a googleearth.deb file not .bin

Double click it. There will probably be dependencies needed so let it download and install..it will then install Googleearth...