Been trying to get Google Earth to work for some time now. Kept having overlay issues. Not anymore!
Google Earth works on my system with one tweak to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Nothing else needed. No false files, no adding i386, nada!
Option "Accel" "off"
added to the “screen” section did the trick for me.
To download Earth for linux (64 bit): Google Earth Download
I installed using gdebi. Imagine dpkg -i works as well.
*Note (Info) – From man xorg.conf:
Option "Accel"
Enables 2D hardware acceleration. This option is on by default, but it
may be necessary to turn it off if there are bugs in the driver. There
are many options to disable specific accelerated operations, listed
below. Note that disabling an operation will have no effect if the oper‐
ation is not accelerated (whether due to lack of support in the hardware
or in the driver).