This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install Google Earth Pro or Enterprise Client in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 20.04

Today we can use Google Earth easily in web browser or mobile phone. For those still need a desktop app, it’s easy to install in Debian/Ubuntu through:

• either Google’s official apt repository (native .deb packages),
• or Flatpak package, that runs in sandbox environment.

Choose either one that you prefer, though both run in only amd64 (Intel/AMD) CPU architecture.

Method 1: Install Google Earth from its official repository

Google provides an official repository that contains the native .deb package for Google Earth Pro and Enterprise Client for all current Debian/Ubuntu systems.

1. Setup the key:

To add the Google Earth repository, you need to first install the key so your Ubuntu will trust the package from that repository.

To do so, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open up a terminal window, and run the command below:

sudo wget -qO - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/google-earth.gpg >/dev/null

This is a single command that download the key file, dearmor it, and install as ‘google-earth.gpg’ file under ‘/etc/apt/keyrings’ directory to follow the new Debian policy.

After  that, you may run ls /etc/apt/keyrings to list the directory content and verify if the key file is there.

2. Add Google Earth repository:

After setup the key, run the single command below to add the Google Earth apt repository into your system:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/google-earth.gpg] https://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth.list'

This command will create google-earth.list file under ‘/etc/apt/sources.list.d’ directory, and write the line “deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=…] http://… main” (without quotes) into that file.

You can verify its content by running the cat /pat/to/file command in the screenshot below.

3. Install Google Earth

Finally, refresh system package cache via command:

sudo apt update

The command should output lines including something looks like “Get:x http://dl.google.com/linux/earth/deb/…“.

And, then you can install the application by running command:

sudo apt install google-earth-pro-stable

For choice, replace google-earth-pro-stable with google-earth-ec-stable for Enterprise version.

After installation, search for and launch it from either start menu or Gnome overview screen depends on your desktop environment and enjoy!

NOTE: After installed the .deb package, it automatically setup a duplicated apt repository, via the old deprecated way!

It’s recommended to open terminal and run command (Ctrl+Alt+T) to remove the auto-generated source file & key file:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth-*.list /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/google-earth-*.gpg

Then run sudo apt update to refresh cache.

Method 2: Install Google Earth Pro via Flatpak

For choice, Google Earth (Pro edition only) is also available to install as Flatpak package. It runs in sandbox environment, but can be installed on most Linux.

This is an unofficial, but open-source package. The source about how it’s built is available in this github page.

Linux Mint 21 and Fedora Workstation (since 38 with 3rd party repository enabled) can directly search for and install it from either Software Manager or Gnome Software.

While, Ubuntu/Debian and other Linux can follow the steps below to install the package.

• First, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open up a terminal window. When it opens, run command to enable Flatpak support:

  sudo apt install flatpak

  For other Linux and old Ubuntu 18.04 and earlier, follow the official setup guide for this package format support.

• Next, install Google Earth Flatpak package by running command in terminal:

  flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/com.google.EarthPro.flatpakref

  There may be lots of run-time libraries to download, if you don’t have them.

Just like normal .deb package, you can then search for and launch the app from menu after installation.

If you don’t see the app icon, either log out and back in to apply variable change or use flatpak run com.google.EarthPro command to start it from command line.

Remove Google Earth and its repository

To uninstall the Google Earth apt repository, open up a terminal window and run command to delete the corresponding source and key files:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-earth*.list /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/google-earth*.gpg /etc/apt/keyrings/google-earth*.gpg

Then run command sudo apt update to refresh system package cache.

And, to remove the Google Earth .deb package, run the command below in terminal:

sudo apt remove google-earth-*-stable

For the Google Earth Flatpak package, use the command below to uninstall it:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.google.EarthPro

Also run flatpak uninstall --unused to clear useless runtime libraries.