The Linux installation for Google Earth isn't a simple click or double-click. Here's what I did:
1. Open a browser and navigate to http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html.
2. Download the installer for Linux. At the time I did it, the file name was GoogleEarthLinux.bin. Download it to whatever directory you please.
3. Open a Terminal window and go to the directory where you downloaded the installer.
4. Grant execute privileges on the installer. I used
chmod +x GoogleEarthLinux.bin
5. Run the installer with
sh GoogleEarthLinux.bin
Set the installation directory and bin path as you please, following the prompts displayed by the installer.
The install worked fine, but it didn't add an entry to the Applications menu in Gnome. They don't make any assumptions about which desktop you might be using. To add it, I took the following steps:
1. Copied the Google Earth icon from the installation directory to /usr/share/pixmaps.
2. Created a googleearth.desktop file in /usr/share/applications with the following contents:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Google Earth
GenericName=Google Earth
Exec=googleearth
Terminal=false
X-MultipleArgs=false
Type=Application
Icon=googleearth-icon.png
Categories=Application;Network;
StartupNotify=true
This worked fine.
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