Google Earth shows a black screen and options are greyed out

I have installed the latest .deb Google Earth from Google, but the Google window is black (where the earth should be) Plus all 3D options are greyed out.

I have checked my graphics card, and 3D is enabled.

As shown here:

pst007x@pst007x-ubuntu64:~$ /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Mobile OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.11 Not software rendered: yes Not blacklisted: yes GLX fbconfig: yes GLX texture from pixmap: yes GL npot or rect textures: yes GL vertex program: yes GL fragment program: yes GL vertex buffer object: yes GL framebuffer object: yes GL version is 1.4+: yes Unity 3D supported: yes pst007x@pst007x-ubuntu64:~$ 

I have never been able to get Google earth to work on Radeon, Nvidia and Intel cards.

I have followed installation instructions, but no luck.

What is odd that in the options menu, the 3D settings page is all greyed out, I am unable to select any option.

I have looked at other threads and no answers.

I have set my DNS to manual, ipv6 is off....

I am at a loss on this one...

UPDATE:

I now get the error: We are unable to connect to the Google Earth servers

However I do not use a Proxy. I tried opening all ports in my routers firewall.

Still only a black window.

Now using Ubuntu 11.10 64bit..

6 Answers

Which (or any) of these methods have you tried?

Method A: (download binaries)

wget -q -O - | sudo apt-key add - sudo sh -c 'echo "deb stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list' sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get install lsb-core sudo apt-get install ia32-libs (needed for Ubuntu 11.10, 64bit) sudo apt-get install google-earth-stable 

Method B: (download & compile)

sudo apt-get install build-essential lsb-core sudo apt-get install googleearth-package sudo make-googleearth-package --force 

You may need to install 3D drivers if you have an Nvidia or Radeon card.

you can also check if all the required libraries are properly linked to the executable with ldd /opt/google/earth/free/googleearth-bin , in particular look for the links with the GL related libraries.

Which country are you at? I have found out that it behaves that way with the error(We are unable to connect to the Google Earth servers) popping up each time it tries to connect due to some country censorship of 'Google Earth'.

Found the problem. ISP DNS is rubbish! Changed my DNS and worked! OPENDNS nameservers are always: 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220, SITE LINK:

In router: Internet IP Address

Get Dynamically from ISP: yes 

Domain Name Server (DNS) Address

Get Automatically from ISP: yes