Problems running Google Earth

[darwin]

I have installed Google Earth and it doesnt seem to load up . It appears to start up and a "Start-Up tip" screen appears , then another page flashes up really quickly then it shuts down.
Any ideas ?

[darwin]

Following on from another thread I get the same error the other guy gets

[user@localhost ~]$ google-earth/googleearth
do_wait: drmWaitVBlank returned -1, IRQs don't seem to be working correctly.
Try running with LIBGL_THROTTLE_REFRESH and LIBL_SYNC_REFRESH unset.
[user@localhost ~]$

[V6Jim]

I've been posting on another thread about this same problem! This is the first post:

'HELP!

I'm a new Linpus Linux user and am struggling with launching Google Earth.

Not even sure this is the correct bit of this forum to post this question?

Anyway, I have installed GE successfully (following a You Tube guide!) and it started fine. A bit slow and jerky, but quite useable. I used the default install path, but I'm damned if I can work out how to Launch it again. I can right click the desktop and under 'Network' I find the Google Earth icon, click it and I get the Google Earth startup screen. That's it. It stays there for a while, does a wee jumpy thing, then vanishes. It could be trying to start then immediately crashing?

Any suggestions? Please remember I'm entirely new to Linux and the Terminal, so please be very gentle with me!

Thanks,

Jimmy

I then got the following reply:

It does look as though it's crashing on startup.

When something like this happens, the usual procedure is to try starting it from the terminal, as usual more detailed error information is passed to the terminal (whereas on-screen error messages, if any, tend to be brief and less informative).

The problem here is knowing quite what the command is going to be to launch it from the terminal! I've not got GE installed on my One, but looking at my main machine I think you will need to enter the following into a terminal:

Code: Select all
google-earth/googleearth


(exactly like that, with the hyphen the first time but not the second, no spaces anywhere).

Try that and see if any more information comes out into the terminal - and if (as is quite likely!) it doesn't immediately make sense to you, copy it and paste it back here (although a new thread in the Software-Linux forum area might be better as it doesn't really look like an issue about installing software).

The only problem I can foresee with this is that GE runs under Wine, the Windows 'emulator' in Linux, and I'm not sure whether all error messages will make it back through the Wine 'layer' to the terminal.

I did as he suggested and replied:

Thanks David!

I did as you asked and it started as expected. Same as before!

The following appeared on the terminal:

[user@localhost ~]$ google-earth/googleearth
do_wait: drmWaitVBlank returned -1, IRQs don't seem to be working correctly.
Try running with LIBGL_THROTTLE_REFRESH and LIBL_SYNC_REFRESH unset.
[user@localhost ~]$

This any help?

Jimmy.

Still with me? He replied with the following suggestion.......


I have found a couple of Google references to this error messages, which seem to indicate that you can get round it (see here, for example), but I think it would be worth a post on the forum to see if anyone else has found a better solution - making the changes suggested there might also affect other programs.


I've pasted all this from another thread, but I'm not sure the links will still work. Anyway, to cut a long story short the suggestion was that I went into the Terminal and entered some blurb to 'unset' the LIBGL and LIBL thingies. I tried this a few times, but to no avail. It still comes up with the same message. This could be because I have no idea what I'm doing!

Having read up a bit more on the subject it could be something to do with the OpenGL not functioning properly. Who knows, but it seems to be such a common problem and nobody seems to have a definitive fix! Especially Google themselves who couldn't care less about Linux users.....

As I said at the top....HELP!

Jimmy

[Taki]

I am having the same problem with Google Earth. Has anyone else solved the problem?

[V6Jim]

Did a bit more digging and it does seem to be an OpenGL bug. In another forum the following has been suggested as a fix:



Add this line:

export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=true

before

exec "./googleearth-bin" $*

in /usr/bin/googleearth

This is great, but I have no idea how to carry this out? Please, oh wise Linuxers, help us!!!

Jimmy

[V6Jim]

OK. I've kind of fixed it, but not really...

I have now installed an earlier version of Google Earth found at the link below. It is the 2007 4.2 version and it seems to run really well in the AAO! Reasonably fast!

Starting it from the terminal I get the same message as before, but also now get lists of numbers as follows:
[user@localhost ~]$ googleearth
do_wait: drmWaitVBlank returned -1, IRQs don't seem to be working correctly.
Try running with LIBGL_THROTTLE_REFRESH and LIBL_SYNC_REFRESH unset.
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990
wx=0.312690, wy=0.328990, rx=0.639990, ry=0.330000
gx=0.210000, gy=0.710000, bx=0.149990, by=0.059990


It can also be started by right clicking the desktop, into Network and there is the GE shortcut!

YES!

Jimmy

[darwin]

Where did you get the older version ?
Cheers

[V6Jim]

Sorry, meant to put the link in the above post. This takes you straight to the download itself, so prepare by getting rid of the newer 4.3 that you've already installed. I don't know how to uninstall properly in Linux, so I just dug about in the file system and deleted anything that looked like Google Earth!

Here's the link:
http://dl.google.com/earth/client/GE4/r ... hLinux.bin

Let me know how you get on!

Jimmy

[Taki]

Jimmy,

That version worked like a charm! Thank you very much!!!

[darwin]

Seems to be working . Found 4.2 hidden at the bottom of the download page .
Thanks