Is there a better driver?

[FOM]

I love Linuxlite!  Need help with an issue. Google Earth worked on this PC with XP Home a month ago, but since being overwritten by Linuxlite it doesn't. Google pop-up says this Pc's graphics card does not meet the minimum specs for Google Earth.... I'm thinking if if it worked in XP, it can work in Linuxlite.
This is the system info for my video card:

Code:

  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 02
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:e8000000-efffffff memory:feb80000-febfffff ioport:ed98(size=8)

I'm hoping there is a better driver or something. All suggestions welcome.
Thanks
Jerry

[torreydale]

Are there other options when you go to the Additional Drivers utility?  Go to Menu and start typing "drivers".  You'll see it.

[avj]

According to the google earth download page it is required that you have Linux - LSB 4.0 (Linux Standard Base) libraries installed for it to work.

http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html

Linux Standard Base is available in Install/Remove Software by searching for "lsb".

The package "lsb" looks like it will install several dependencies and is probably what is required.  You may want to wait for someone more knowledgeable on this to confirm, I have not tried to install this and don't know what affect it may have on your system. 

[avj]

More info on google requirements. If you are on a netbook the minimum resolution requirements may be the problem.

Code:

Linux System Configuration
Minimum:
Kernel: 2.4 or later
glibc: 2.3.2 w/ NPTL or later
XFree86-4.0 or x.org R6.7 or later
CPU: Pentium 3, 500Mhz
System Memory (RAM): 512MB
Hard Disk: 500MB free space
Network Speed: 128 Kbits/sec
Graphics Card: DirectX9 and 3D capable with 64MB of VRAM
Screen: 1024x768, "16-bit High Color" screen
Recommended:
Kernel 2.6 or later
glibc 2.3.5 w/ NPTL or later
x.org R6.7 or later
System Memory (RAM): 1GB
Hard Disk: 2GB free space
Network Speed: 768 Kbits/sec
Graphics Card: DirectX9 and 3D capable with 256MB of VRAM
Screen: 1280x1024, 32 bit color
LSB must be installed in order for Google Earth to run on Linux. Your operating system should install this dependency automatically when you install Google Earth.
Google Earth is officially supported against the most current versions of the Ubuntu and RHEL Linux distributions.
Although we do not officially support Google Earth on other Linux distributions, many users have successfully run Google Earth on these platforms.

Info found here.
https://support.google.com/earth/answer/20701?hl=en

[FOM]

Hi Guys, Thanks for the input. This computer is an old Dell Dimension Desktop circa 2004. I want it for web surfing, e-mail, simple games, YouTube and Google Earth. Check for the first four in spades. One to go.

I ran the additional drivers utility with the result of no new drivers.

This display is currently running at 1024x768 pixels resolution.

I just checked Synaptic and Linuxlite has lsb-release ver. 4.1+Debian11ubuntu6  Linux Standard Base version reporting utility already installed. Also installed is lsb-security 4.1+Debian11ubuntu6 Linux Standard Base 4.1 Security package. Also available via Synaptic are several other lsb releases not installed including lsb-graphics 4.1+Debian11ubuntu6 Linux Standard Base 4.1 graphics support package, lsb-multimedia 4.1+Debian11ubuntu6  Linux Standard Base 4.1 Multimedia package, and others.

Thinking out loud: The latter two look promising, especially the graphics package, but not sure what to do without damaging something. Avj writes "According to the google earth download page it is required that you have Linux - LSB 4.0 (Linux Standard Base) libraries installed for it to work."  Google is imprecise as there exists a family of options within the LSB libraries from which to choose. They do not specify. Since the latter two mentioned above are part of the LSB libraries and missing on my system, perhaps that is the missing link.
Any thoughts or further suggestions? 

[avj]

My next suggestion would be to check the amount of video memory the card has.  The requirements state you need a minimum of 64MB.  You can check it by running the following in a terminal, it will list a lot of text and you will probably have to scroll back through it to find the information you are looking for.

Code:

lspci -v

The amount of memory will be listed under "VGA compatible controller" or similar. It will look like the following.

Code:

Memory at 40000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]

[FOM]

Hi avj.
Here it is:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82865G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Subsystem: Dell Device 01d5
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
Memory at e8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at feb80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
I/O ports at ed98 [size=8]
Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: i915

(As an aside, this request worked, but earlier when I tried the terminal it asked for my password and the Terminal did not accept the input-nothing happened. Is there some input detail I don't know?)
Am I reading it correctly at 128 MB?
Jerry

[avj]

You do appear to have a 128 MB card.  So it would seem that you should be able to run google earth. I also noticed you said no extra drivers were available.  After some searching I have found that there is a known issue with google earth running on systems based on debian or ubuntu.

"Resolving crashing and graphics issues on Linux machines

There is a known issue with Linux builds of Google Earth crashing when attempting to maximize the program window. This can be resolved by disabling Visual Effects. To do this, go to Appearance Preferences > Visual Effects, and set the radio button to None."

I don't know if this will help with your problem, but the information was found on the google earth support site in the troubleshooting section.
https://support.google.com/earth#topic=2364258

[nomko]

Are there other options when you go to the Additional Drivers utility?  Go to Menu and start typing "drivers".  You'll see it.

Not for Intel-based onboard GPU's. That's just 1 driver installed during setup.

[FOM]

Thanks everybody, I finally got Google Earth to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This was my path. Besides the above I installed  lsb-graphics 4.1+Debian11ubuntu6 Linux Standard Base 4.1 graphics support package and lsb-multimedia 4.1+Debian11ubuntu6  Linux Standard Base 4.1 Multimedia package, first the former and tested, then the latter and tested, both to no avail. Turns out the key package was lsb-core which came preinstalled with Linuxlite. I then uninstalled Google Earth. This turned out to be a real challenge as Synaptic could not do it. Maybe it is because the Google Earth package came from the Google website and not a Linux repository. I did a crash course in terminal use during this whole process and it required the terminal to uninstall Google Earth. I used the command line instructions from this site. http://www.ehow.com/how_2279483_uninstal...buntu.html
I then decided to try the package from Synaptic entitled 'googleearth-package' following the instructions found here: http://blog.irwan.name/?p=103. This package appears to promise to download and create a more Debian friendly Google Earth from Google. Since  this was the only thing left for me to try at the time, I did it. And it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It wasn't totally straightforward. The install initially failed as there was a missing package called libfreeimages3. Google Earth was labeled broken by Symantic. I found libfreeimages3 by searching in Symantic and installing. Google Earth was no longer broken and a repeated install attempt via the terminal succeeded. Note that for me, the final command that worked in terminal was: make-googleearth-package
Which came from the blog.irwan above. My terminal did not create that command. It created:  make-googleearth-package.1.gz      which failed. Perhaps this is because I am so unfamiliar with terminal use. Anyway, the use of the correct command worked.
That commanded created: sudo dpkg -i googleearth_6.0.3.2197+1.1.0-1_i386.deb
which installed a full functioning Google Earth.
Many Thanks to all those who contributed their help!
Jerry