Google Earth deb64 - (non Lib32) Installation 2014

[growly]

Google Earth Fix - LMD 64 and ubunto 64 [You can substitute file names etc to do the same with the 32 bit version]

I had problems installing Google earth 64 in Linux Mint Debian - it functions fine without the Lib 32 dependencies.
Choosing to force an install - the file it will work but will still be seen by the software managers as a broken file.
If you install any software later using Synaptic or the software manager after forcing, It will flag up as a broken package and will not update anything on your system until Google Earth is removed again with synaptic. Also installing new software packages will automatically uninstall Google Earth again.

The following is the easiest way I found to do it properly after reading many posts, a lot of posts were over my head initially so I have included in this article with manual GUI tools too, in case you do not get on completely with terminal editing.

Here is the fix and instructions collected from many places in these posts but written in my own words - hope it saves you time and frustration.
Remember to use the "sudo" command before some of these (inserting a space after) if it says you do not have permission. You will then be asked for your superuser password before execution of the terminal commands.
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Manually click on your linux File System folder and then the folder tmp
Then find and activate terminal screen.

Terminal window:
cd /tmp
then
wget -c http://goo.gl/hZQ6K -O google-earth-stable_amd64.deb
It links directly to the stable 64 linux version on google earth site This file will now be downloaded into your system tmp dir

Terminal window:
mkdir ge
then
dpkg-deb -R google-earth-stable_current_amd64.deb ge This teminal command extracts the contents of the downloaded package folders to the ge directory

or: instead of using terminal, you could extract the downloaded .deb to ge directory within tmp using right click mouse and archive manager selecting the temp/ge directory as the destination.

Go into system "tmp/ge/debian" right click and open the control file with text editor and remove the lines ", ia32-libs" after “the depends line” in the control file. (Save this file)

Go back to Terminal: (ensure you are in tmp directory) # cd /tmp

dpkg-deb -b ge googleearth-custom_amd64.deb this is where the folders and the modified control file are that came from the original .deb file
then type
gdebi googleearth-custom_amd64.deb

This terminal command will take the contents of the tmp/ge folder and re-build a .deb package from the contents naming it "googleearth-custom_amd64.deb"


There will now be a file called “googleearth-custom_amd64.deb” in the system/tmp directory. Save this file for future use and install Google Earth freshly from this custom file. (In the future you can re-install from this custom file or build a new one after downloading from Google earth).

After installation of googleearth-custom_amd64.deb using package manager

If the google earth start up link does not show up anywhere in your computer (like my pc) you can create it very easily like this.

right click on desktop select - create a new launcher here
Name: Google Earth
Command: /opt/google/earth/free/googleearth
click ok

To create the Icon right click on the newly created desktop launcher, select Properties and click on the springboard icon in basic properties.
Browse: “File System /opt/google/earth/free/googleearth” and select the Product_logo_64.png icon
Job done.

It would be great if a non lib32 dependence version of Google Earth was added to the software repository as standard.

[TheObserver]

Thank you for this easy to understand explanation.
I had difficulties to install earth since using LMDE.
Your guide looked promising but it didn't work for me.
I did it the same exact way you described. Still, google earth just shows the "Earth Logo" and crashes a second later.

I'm really wondering that no one who would be in the position to fix the issue is doing anything. After all, this software is used by a majority of users and on almost every device these days.
Since LMDE- in the Software Manager, there seems to be no way to just click and install googleearth anymore.... -and it used to be so simple.

[filozofio]

I have LMDE 64 bits. This is how it worked for me:

I had already done this:

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sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386

Then:

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sudo apt-get install googleearth-package

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make-googleearth-package

This created a package named "googleearth_6.0.3.2197+1.1.0-1_amd64.deb" in my home directory.

I tried to install it with GDebi, but it said that I had broken packages. The I run:

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sudo apt-get update -f

to repair all broken packages.

After that, Google Earth was installed and working properly.

[TheObserver]

I did the steps filozofio mentioned before and earth works again!
I did not have to repair any packages though... I just ran the commands and started earth normally.

Today I am able to use google-earth on Mint the first time in month without crashing
Thanks a lot for your help!!!

[filozofio]

I am glad that it worked!

[sdibaja]

I should have looked here first.

a slightly different method that just worked for me:

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sudo apt-get install googleearth-package alien lib32nss-mdns libfreeimage3 lsb-core ttf-mscorefonts-installer pax rpm ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera make-googleearth-package --force
sudo dpkg -i googleearth*.deb
sudo apt-get install libcurl3:i386
sudo apt-get -f install

[sdibaja]

Dropbox on LMDE seems to be a moving target.

I downloaded dropbox-lnx.x86_64-2.10.52.tar.gz (the version that works fine on Mint 17).

This is what I did:

kill dropbox in System Monitor
delet the contents of /home/(user)/.dropbox-dist
replace with the contents of the .tar.gz
double click on dropboxd
select Run

time will tell, wish me luck!