Google Earth for Linux and SELinux

There’s a beta Google Earth client for Linux, which sounds like fun, except, like Picasa, it doesn’t work out of the box with SELinux.

Dan Walsh has provided the following simple workaround:

chcon -t unconfined_execmem_exec_t /usr/local/RealPlayer/realplay.bin
execstack -c /usr/local/google-earth/libcrypto.so.0.9.8

I don’t know why these apps need executable memory, and whether it’s truly safe to make these changes, as I don’t have the source to them.

Update:
Dan has more analysis here.

Update #2:
Dan received some email from google developers: looks like the problem snuck in at the last minute, and a fix is expected in the next release. Also, I installed it on my FC5 laptop running SELinux in enforcing mode and saw no problems, so it’s not affecting everyone.