Google Earth SFS for Xenialpup/Slacko 560/570/Racy 55

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Mike Walsh
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Google Earth SFS for Xenialpup/Slacko 560/570/Racy 55

#1 Post by Mike Walsh »

Evening, everybody.

Some of you, no doubt like me, enjoy exploring the planet with Google Earth. You've probably also noticed that Phil hasn't, as yet, produced a package for Xenial.....32-bit or 64-bit.

I believe this is because Google are no longer distributing the 'Free' package, as such, but are instead now distributing the 'Pro' package for free instead. I d/l'd the 32-bit package of this earlier on this evening, packaged it up, and tried it out. I don't know whether Phil's had a look at this, and discovered what I did (if he's even had time to do so..!); it starts, but doesn't render properly, and a lot of the pop-up window features 'stick' and 'freeze' in place, and refuse to budge. Also, the only bit of the main window that can be seen is a 2" x 2" square up in the top-left corner. Which ain't a lot of good.....

(Of course, this could be entirely down to my onboard graphics.....the elderly ATI Radeon Xpress200 chip. It still works very well (even though it's nearly 13 yrs old!), and gives a beautiful, crisp picture.....but it won't let me view the new web version of Google Earth in the Chrome browser. Seems it's not 'WebGL'-capable.....*Jeez, Louise*)

Can't win 'em all. I'm not complaining; at 13 yrs old, according to most folks, she's well past her 'sell-by' date.....but she still runs sweetly. Which I attribute to Pup's modest demands this last few years...

-----------------------------------------------------------------

So. I tried Phil's original package of 7.1.2 he'd put together for Tahrpup, but it wouldn't start. Okay, I thought; let's see if we can find a somewhat newer version of the 'free' package. I've spent hours tracking down one lead after another, but, as expected, those sites that are offering these are invariably doing so for Windows. And Google, it appears (just like with Chrome), don't archive their older versions. They want you to always use the newest version.

In a GoogleProductGroups blog post that I found, they give their reasoning as follows:-

"As for your question about why we don't let users use any version they want, let me explain a bit about how Google Earth works. Unlike a typical application, Google Earth combines both client-side (the code that lives on your computer) and server-side (stuff running on our computers in the cloud) code. These two pieces need to work together in harmony. We also are constantly evolving and improving Google Earth - both in the quality and magnitude of the data, as well as the introduction of new features like historical imagery. Evolving the product often means making changes that require changes to both the client-side and server-side code. So as we do this, it becomes difficult and sometimes impossible to support older client software. So as we design new features and improve the product, we do so in a way that allow recent versions of Google Earth to continue to work, while sunsetting older versions after a reasonable period of time (1-2 yrs.)"

Fair enough, I thought. So, I unpacked Phil's Tahrpup package to see why it wasn't working. Turned out to be quite a simple 'fix'. The ld-lsb.so.3 sym-link in /lib (linked to ld-linux.so.2 in the same directory) appeared to be broken. So I've recreated the sym-link & packaged it up here in Xenial, and it now works as it should. This could of course be because ld-linux.so.2 in the original wasn't linked to Xenial's libc-2.23, but instead to Trusty's libc-2.19...

If what Google say about 'sunsetting' older versions holds true, I wouldn't like to say how long this will continue to last. This version came out 4 years ago, in 2013.....and I've got packages of version 5.xx.xx.xx (from around 2011) that appear to still be working fine in the Slackos. Let's hope it keeps chugging along for a while yet..!

Anyway; here's the link to 7.1.2, fixed, and re-packed, for 32-bit Xenial:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/cckfzr31h ... l-1386.sfs

(I would have re-packed the Tahr64 package for 64-bit Xenial, but I'm not running that one; I tried an install, but it proved somewhat 'problematic', and simply wasn't behaving itself on my hardware.....*sigh*)

Enjoy.


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Mon 31 Jul 2017, 17:26, edited 4 times in total.

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Mike Walsh
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#2 Post by Mike Walsh »

Evening, all.

I've re-worked a 7-series package for Slacko 560 & Slacko 570. I hadn't realised until earlier this evening that the existing Slacko 5-series package was from 2009.....so, 8 years old..! :shock:

One thing has become apparent, however; which ever Pup you want this to run in, you have to build the SFS package in that Pup.....so that the ld-lsb.so.3 sym-link is linked to the correct ld-xxx.so module, via ld-linux.so.2. Once that's done, it all falls into place.

Link as below:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/2qkgymy94 ... 4-i386.sfs

Enjoy.


Mike. :wink:

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Mike Walsh
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#3 Post by Mike Walsh »

Evening, all.

I've re-packaged a slightly older 6-series Google Earth for the Slackos and Xenialpup. This is rather more lightweight than the 7-series, yet was, I believe, the first release to come with the Streetview feature. It runs better on older hardware than the 7-series, due to somewhat lower demands. It doesn't require all the CSV stuff.

For anyone who's interested, for Slacko 560/570 & X-Slacko 232 (all Slackware 14.0-based), it's here:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hadrhu388 ... 4-i386.sfs

For Xenialpup, you can find it here:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/913qiwcip ... l-i386.sfs

Enjoy.


Mike. :wink:

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#4 Post by Mike Walsh »

Afternoon, everybody.

I've just made a pleasant discovery, which should come as a nice surprise for users of Racy 5.5. If you have performed Battleshooter's 'glibc-220' upgrade (for enabling Chrome to run in Racy), you can also run Google Earth.

For Battleshooter's upgrade, details here:-

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=96316

I've once again packaged the older 6-series, since it's lighter on resources than the later releases. It was the first series to include the StreetView feature. ld-linux.so.2 is this time linked to the upgrade's ld-220.so.....which in turn makes use of the upgrade's libc-220.so.

For those of you interested in trying this out, the link's as follows:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/c7uav3bsi ... y-i386.sfs

Anyone who does decide to try this one out, I'd appreciate feedback on it. Have fun!


Mike. :wink:
Last edited by Mike Walsh on Mon 31 Jul 2017, 20:51, edited 1 time in total.

sheldonisaac
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works in Tahr

#5 Post by sheldonisaac »

Mike Walsh (in part) wrote: I've once again packaged the older 6-series, since it's lighter on resources than the later releases. It was the first series to include the StreetView feature.
..
If you do decide to try this one out, I'd like some feedback on it. Have fun!
Many thanks, Mike.
As an old newbie, I just bumble around. Had used Opera 12.16 & its predecessors for years under Lucid Puppys. Changed to newer Puppys because of Web site problems.

For a few months, I've mostly been using Tahr 32-bit.

Code: Select all

Linux puppypc29392 3.14.79 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Dec 13 19:32:40 GMT 2016 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux
And Iron browser.
A few days ago, I noticed that Google maps did not show a 3-D option.
That does work in Xenial 64-bit.

I just downloaded your Google_Earth-6.0.3.2197-Racy-i386.sfs
and did sfs_load
It said something was missing (below), but it works anyhow!
/intl/en/tips/v5/tip2.html was not found on this server. That’s all we know.
THANK YOU!

Sheldon
Last edited by sheldonisaac on Mon 31 Jul 2017, 21:04, edited 1 time in total.
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Mike Walsh
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#6 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, sheldon.

Ah, glad someone's taken the plunge. It's all well & good building packages that work on your own hardware, but it's not until you get feedback from other folks confirming whether or not they work for them that you KNOW you've got things right..!

The one thing I have proved is that these Google-Earth packages will work in pretty much any Pup. Racy was kind of a 'final test', since it's blessed (or cursed, depending on your point of view!) with that ancient glibc. I'd already performed the glibc 'upgrade' for Google Chrome, but I wasn't at all certain whether Google Earth would work with it. Seems it does.

What are you actually using the Racy package in, just out of curiosity?


Mike. :wink:

sheldonisaac
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#7 Post by sheldonisaac »

Mike Walsh (in part) wrote: What are you actually using the Racy package in, just out of curiosity?
The Tahr 32-bit.

Code: Select all

~> ls -l /mnt/home/t215/
total 244004
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   1525211 Feb 15 16:03 initrd.gz
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 209301504 Feb 15 16:08 puppy_tahr_6.0.6.sfs
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root      4096 Jul 31 09:11 tahrsave-feb26
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root   4871472 Dec 13  2016 vmlinuz
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  34152448 Feb 15 14:16 zdrv_tahr_6.0.6.sfs
~> 
Iron Version 58.0.3050.0
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#8 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, sheldon.

Ah, right. There is actually a Tahr package, y'know; one of the 7-series...7.1.2. Phil made it up years ago, shortly after Tahr was released.

http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pe ... _7.1.2.sfs

But, as I said, the 7-series are somewhat more demanding than 6.0.3.2197. It has all the stuff you want (including StreetView).....but it doesn't possess the unnecessary 'cruft', i.e., all the images, and tour guide stuff.

Anyroad, it it works for ya.....nice one.


Mike. :wink:

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OscarTalks
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#9 Post by OscarTalks »

I thought I would test the 32bit Google Earth Pro desktop package.
Downloaded, tweaked and repacked as .sfs
Version number is 7.3.0.7830
Runs quite well for me in Stretch Pup
Also runs in Wheezy but is a bit slower than in Stretch.
This one seems quite sweet in terminal
The errors that cropped up with 7.1.x are gone (although those versions did run).
7.3 is a bit bigger than 7.1 (no surprise) and is now using Qt5 libraries.
I expect results will vary a lot depending on hardware, especially graphics.
I have set up the icon to display in JWM windows and tray buttons.
Package may be uploaded but strictly for testing only.
https://yadi.sk/d/a_pz785f3Lbcuz?force_show=1
EDIT:- In Slacko 6.9.9.9 it has rendering problems with the intel video driver but modesetting looks OK
Attachments
Google-Earth-Pro.jpg
Google Earth Pro stable 7.3.0.7830 in Stretch Pup
(70.34 KiB) Downloaded 1065 times
Oscar in England
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step
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#10 Post by step »

OscarTalks wrote:I thought I would test the 32bit Google Earth Pro desktop package.
Downloaded, tweaked and repacked as .sfs
Version number is 7.3.0.7830...
Thanks! It runs well for me in Fatdog64-710 with the 32bit-fd64.sfs loaded and an ATI Radeon graphics card.
[url=http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=117546]Fatdog64-810[/url]|[url=http://goo.gl/hqZtiB]+Packages[/url]|[url=http://goo.gl/6dbEzT]Kodi[/url]|[url=http://goo.gl/JQC4Vz]gtkmenuplus[/url]

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#11 Post by Mike Walsh »

Morning, Oscar.

Ungh. I've got exactly the same problem with your 'Pro' package as I had when I tried packaging it myself. I thought I'd done something wrong, but it appears not.

I get a 2-inch square at the top-left of the viewing window; that's all that will display. And the initial 'pop-up' windows all freeze in place, and refuse to clear.

You can see that Pro is working (what I can see of it through the 2-inch square!), but it won't display full-screen. Qt5, d'you reckon? This is in Xenialpup. Or is it....what was it you said? 'Mode-setting', or something? Got any pearls of wisdom to dispense on this front? :lol:

I have to use 'i915.modeset=0' on the old Dell, with the Intel 'Extreme Graphics' chip, in order to get things to work at all. What's the equivalent for an ATI Radeon chip; any ideas?


Mike. :wink:

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OscarTalks
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#12 Post by OscarTalks »

Hi Mike,

With Slacko 6.9.9.9 I got the same small corner issue that you describe.
Using Xorgwizard to switch from intel to modesetting does fix it.
I have only tested on one machine which is a few years old. All my others are considerably older still.

This desktop has integrated intel graphics. Most Puppies load the intel driver automatically. Wheezy certainly does and the Google Earth Pro seems OK with it.

Newer Puppies (perhaps because of newer Xorg?) seem to do strange things. Slacko 6.9.9.9 loads the intel driver but there are font rendering problems from the outset (throughout Puppy, not specifically Google Earth) so I have to switch to the modesetting driver anyway because of that.

Stretch seems to detect a problem with the intel driver at first boot and loads the modesetting driver automatically. I can switch manually to intel but then the same problems show up so I am forced to use modesetting anyway.

Looks like users have to experiment a bit with all the variables including Google Earth version, Puppy version, hardware, graphics drivers etc. I will probably stick with this Pro version in Stretch. One thing I did notice is that the .sfs refuses to unload because of a running dbus-daemon process, but this is a minor issue. I can kill that or just restart X if I wish to unload.
Oscar in England
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Mike Walsh
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#13 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Oscar.

Mm-hm. I dredged the depths of my memory, and remembered something.....so I tried it. And t worked.

I added 'radeon.modeset=0' to the kernel line.....and that fixed it. However, it all seems horribly 'laggy' on the big Compaq when I do that, so I shall probably stick with 7.1.2.2041, and the graphics running as normal.

I'm going to try this on the Dell, just for kicks. It's got mode-setting engaged all the time, 'cos Pup won't behave itself without it. It'll like as not be as slow as a slug, but. we'll see; I shall in all likelihood end up going back to 6.0.3.2197, which runs sweetly in all Pups on the Dell. It still has StreetView (it was the first to use it, apparently), but is a lot lighter on resources.

I'm going to run up a 64-bit package of Earth Pro, and try it out in Tahr 64.....see what happens, like.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Right, boys & girls. Here's a 64-bit package for Tahr 64. It's based on Phil's original 'patched' version for the original Tahr64, so includes a few extra libs:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/atlyhrd51 ... -amd64.sfs

Feedback would be appreciated. Enjoy.


Mike. :wink:

sheldonisaac
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#14 Post by sheldonisaac »

Mike Walsh (in part) wrote:Here's a 64-bit package for Tahr 64. It's based on Phil's original 'patched' version for the original Tahr64, so includes a few extra libs:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/atlyhrd51 ... -amd64.sfs
Feedback would be appreciated.
Mike, this is on my usual computer, the Dell Latitude E6410.
It seems that I already had Tahr 64:

Code: Select all

uname -a
Linux puppypc18981 3.14.79 #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Dec 10 14:04:42 GMT 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
I booted it.
And then downloaded your Google Earth Pro, and did an sfs_load.
And ran it.
It started with no complaints, and opened windows: A NewsQuench article; Google Earth Pro (plus a Start-up Tips)

Of course, all this is new to me. Others will report on their testing.

But it does work. So, thanks a lot.
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#15 Post by Devonian »

Hi Mike.
I'm only just getting my head around Linux, could you please explain step by step how to do "I added 'radeon.modeset=0 to the kernel line" as I'm getting the small display that you found.

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#16 Post by Mike Walsh »

Hi, Devonian.

Mm. O-kay. Well, I can describe the steps required to do this, but it won't work for you if you're not running ATI/AMD Radeon graphics. Which I am, y'see.

First step would be helpful to know what Puppy you're running; this will only work in a 64-bit Pup, like Tahr64 or Slacko64.....or Xenialpup64, etc.

Secondly, I would need to know the make & model of your graphics card. Do this for me, would you? Open a terminal (Menu->Utility->Urxvt terminal emulator), and enter the following:-

Code: Select all

lspci -vnn | grep VGA -A 12
The symbol in the middle is the 'pipe' symbol (found immediately to the left of the 'z' on UK keyboards).....or, you can copy'n'paste this, if you want to. To copy'n'paste in Puppy, left-clk & drag to highlight ('copy'), followed by middle-click (click the scroll wheel) to 'paste'. One of Pup's little peculiarities, this; you'll soon get the hang of it. Once you've pasted it, press 'Enter', then please repeat the process to paste the output into your reply.

You should get something similar to this:-

Code: Select all

# lspci -vnn | grep VGA -A 12
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 [Radeon Xpress 200G Series] [1002:5954] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device [1462:7141]
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 17
	Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
	I/O ports at ef00 [size=256]
	Memory at fdbf0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
	[virtual] Expansion ROM at fdb00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
	Kernel driver in use: radeon
It will also tell me what kernel driver is in use; in Linux, all your drivers are contained in the kernel. There is rarely, if ever, any need to 'install' drivers in Linux.....although there's always exceptions to the rule. By and large, the open-source graphics drivers are perfectly adequate for most things. :)

When we've determined what your card is, we can add the appropriate 'mode-setting' entry to the kernel line.....


Mike. :wink:

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Mike Walsh
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#17 Post by Mike Walsh »

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

For anyone running the 6-series Google Earth who (like me) has found in recent days that it no longer works, the reason is quite simple; Google have finally switched off the servers for this particular version.

Because Google Earth uses both client-side code (the stuff running on your box) and server-side code (the stuff running on Google's servers 'in the cloud'), if one or the other no longer functions, that's it. No cigar.

The only recourse is to switch to one of the available 7-series packages, I'm afraid. And even those probably won't last that much longer, due to the fact that Google have made current versions of Earth 'web-based' only.....for which you need WebGL-capable hardware. And for this, you need to enable hardware acceleration. And guess what?

Google don't support hardware acceleration under Linux. The 'flag' for this doesn't actually do anything. Grrr..!!

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/10/har ... rome-linux


Mike. :wink:

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sszindian
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Google Earth Work-Around

#18 Post by sszindian »

Really a shame Google decided to turn off their servers for Google Earth '6'. That's what happens when big companies hire 'those' that think they know what everybody should/should-not have for the latest equipment available... maybe if they didn't make so much money to keep updating their own equipment they would find out how many have to make do with older equipment, good old solid programs!

Anyway for those in need of a pretty good Google Earth (not all the frills) for your needs go to-

https://mapper.acme.com/

This actually has a few things that out-shine the Original Google Earth-6... 'flicker' that displays more pictures than Google Earth did, Terrain-view, USA Topo, Hike-Bike Trails, and more, plus... nothing needs to be installed on your computer!!!

If you need a satellite display you just might find this will fill your needs?

'Enjoy'

>>>---Indian------>
Cloud Computing For Every Puppy (a .pet)
[url]http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=69192[/url]

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Mike Walsh
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#19 Post by Mike Walsh »

@ sszindian:-

Thanks for that, mate. Looks like (as you say) a fairly good G.Earth replacement!

I thought I'd found most of 'em, but this one had escaped me.... I've been half-heartedly tinkering with the KDE-supported NASA 'Marble' app, but Christ, it wants some dependencies. Being KDE-sponsored, I can't say I'm surprised..!

Yes, I have to agree; if Google didn't have more money (and 'clout') than God (and thus access to as much top-end hardware as they could possibly want), they might indeed be in less of a hurry to cut access to older, reliable software.

But that's 'big business' for ya. Especially when said 'big business' feels it has the God-given right to dictate to everybody else what they can and can't do with their own equipment. Unfortunately, that's summat I can't ever see changing anytime soon.....

Cheers.


Mike. :wink:

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Billtoo
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#20 Post by Billtoo »

Hi Mike,

Google-Earth Pro is working well in Phil's bionicpup64 -beta 7.9.7

I've run it with nvidia,radeon, and intel graphics, works well in all,
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