How-to Install Google Earth 5 on Ubuntu

How-to Install Google Earth 5 on Ubuntu | Tombuntu
(I used this how-to on FoxU, HL 20100109)

Google Earth puts the world's geographic information at your fingertips. There's a native Linux port of the latest version, Google Earth 5.

Here's how you can easily install Google Earth on Ubuntu.

Install Google Earth

1. Download and save the Google Earth installer for Linux.
2. The file you downloaded should be called GoogleEarthLinux.bin. Find this file, right mouse click on it and select Open with Other Application.
3. Click to expand the Use a custom command section of the Open With dialog. Type sh, and click Open.
4. The Google Earth installer will decompress itself, and in a few seconds the Google Earth Setup window should open. The default options should be fine, so click Begin Install to continue.
5. Once the installation is finished, click Quit to close the installer, and press return to close the terminal that the installer opened. Start Google Earth from the Applications->Internet->Google Earth menu.

Troubleshooting
If Google Earth opens, shows the splash screen, and then crashes, you're probably experiencing a common issue. Running ~/google-earth/googleearth in a terminal will show this error:
./googleearth-bin: relocation error: /usr/lib/i686/cmov/libssl.so.0.9.8: symbol BIO_test_flags, version OPENSSL_0.9.8 not defined in file libcrypto.so.0.9.8 with link time reference

To fix this, browse to the folder you installed Google Earth into. By default this will be google-earth in your home folder. Find the file libcrypto.so.0.9.8 and rename it to something else, like libcrypto.so.0.9.8.bak. Google Earth should now start correctly. [related bug report]