Google Earth SFS packages for 32-bit Xenialpup 7.0.8.1/Slacko 560 & 570
 

Morning, everybody.

Some of you, no doubt like me, enjoy exploring the planet with Google Earth. You've probably also noticed that Phil Broughton, Xenialpup's developer 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 morning, 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.....)

Oh, well; you 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...

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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 a link to 7.1.2, fixed, and re-packed, for 32-bit Xenial, at my MediaFire a/c:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/cckfzr...enial-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. :hattip:

Morning, all.

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

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:-

www.mediafire.com/file/2qkgymy94plnmxq/Google_Earth-7.0.2-s14-i386.sfs

Enjoy.


Mike. ;)

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, here's the link for Slacko 560/570/X-Slacko 232 (all Slackware 14.0-based):-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/hadrhu...7-s14-i386.sfs

And for Xenialpup, it's here:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/913qiw...enial-i386.sfs

I have this running in 570, Xenialpup and 232 on my 15-yr old, P4-based Dell Inspiron 1100. It's very much more responsive than the 7-series.

Enjoy.


Mike. ;)

some one has been having fun with puppy thanx

You're very welcome, Drakeo. Someone's gotta keep Puppy well supplied with goodies..! :D And I don't even look at other distros.....with the exception of AntiX. There's nothing the big boys can do that Puppy can't...

Hope they work for you. Enjoy.


Mike. ;)

I keep a current slacko64 multi lib and I like the new LXDpup 7.0 that uses slacko's work. I keep some of Berry's older stuff to compile older programs that do not build in newer gcc.
I used to build my own wolf just for open sim and secondlife all set with priority drivers. My latest project will be a kde5 pup with kdenlive editor. When I find time.

Afternoon, all.

I've just knocked together an SFS of the current 64-bit Google Earth Pro. To get this running correctly in Puppy (i.e., a full display, instead of a two-inch square in the top-left corner!), you may need to use mode-setting to disable the open-source radeon or intel drivers. Of course, this could just be my own hardware; after adding 'radeon.modeset=0' to the kernel line, it all behaved itself...

For anybody who may be interested in giving this a try, here's the link for 64-bit Google Earth Pro 7.3.0.3830:-

http://www.mediafire.com/file/atlyhr...tahr-amd64.sfs

Feedback would be appreciated on this one. Have fun.


Mike. ;)

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/c7uav3...-Racy-i386.sfs

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


Mike. ;)

Afternoon, all. An 'update' for you....thought I'd better add this to the thread.

In case there's anybody out there who isn't yet aware of it, Google pulled the plug on the server-side for the 6-series versions of Google Earth about 3 months ago. If you fire up a 6-series package of GE now, you merely get a blank screen, with a small embedded window telling you (essentially) that URL 'such-and-such' can't be found.

That's the URL for the 6-series servers - or was. So it's 7-series or nothing now, I'm sorry to say. (Or if you're running sufficiently new hardware for Puppy, you can of course access the 'new', web-based version of Google Earth.....as long as you're 'WebGL-capable', that is!)


Mike. ;)