Google Earth and Error Code 29

I finally installed Google Earth on my Ubuntu Intrepid installation at work today, but everything crapped out with a “Could not contact… Error code 29” error. Didn’t find any obvious solution at first, but deep inside a thread at the Ubuntu forums I stumbled across a post about how to fix Error Code 29 in Google Earth. The trick? Install lib32nss-mdns through apt-get, delete .googleearth and .config/Google/GoogleEarthPlus.conf, restart and be happy.

Worked great. Thanks Mr. / Ms. / Mrs. Melk79.

Mouse Stuck in Lower Right Corner in Ubuntu Intrepid under VMWare?

If your mouse pointer is stuck in the lower right corner after upgrading to the current alpha version of Ubuntu, Intrepid, the reason is that the vmmouse driver got borked somewhere between Hardy and the current version of Intrepid. This means that you’ll only see “Moving to desktop 2” (or whatever desktop you have in the lower right corner). The fix is to change the reference to ‘vmmouse‘ in /etc/X11/xorg.conf to ‘mouse‘. This is not as good (you’ll not be able to move your mouse pointer from your host to your vmware machine seamless any longer), but at least it works.

You can track the current progress over at trackpad: Ubuntu Bug #248521.