June 28, 2023

Google Earth on Fedora Linux

When GE is good, it is very good, but when it is bad (which is more often than one might wish), it is really bad.

It has gotten better.

North at top

Don't ask me why it would ever do anything else, but it does.
Use the "n" key to get back to north on top.
Use the "r" key to "reset the view", which includes the above.
Here is a full list of keyboard shortcuts:

GE cannot recognize my video card

This is best fixed by rebooting. Seriously. As near as I can tell, the real issue is that files for a new kernel have been installed by DNF, but I have not yet booted to the new kernel. Somehow this confuses Google earth.

Various tips and notes

How to get to vertical view. It can be nice on rare occasion to get a perspective view, but most (almost all) of the time I want a strict vertical view -- like an air photo. I definitely want this as my default.

Pressing the "u" key gets to vertical!

Go to Tools -- Options -- Navigation tab and select "do not automatically tilt while zooming."

Old misery and trouble

I tried this back in 2012 with Fedora 16 and it was a disaster. I abandoned the whole idea for over 5 years and when I needed or wanted to run google earth, I resorted to my Windows machine that I otherwise use for Photoshop.

But in 2019, with Fedora 30, I tried it again and it seems to work! It involves adding some kind of DNF repo file and simply doing a package install. Sorry no instructions were saved here.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Adventures in Computing / [email protected]