libssl.so.0.9.8: undefined symbol: EVP_idea_cbc

I just hit the same issue, fresh install of 9.04, amd64, and the same versions of googleearth-package and Google Earth itself. The same workaround worked for me.

I use Ubuntu Jaunty with a Nvidia card in TwinView mode.
Renaming the file /usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8.removed-by-installer to /usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8 solved this problem for me too. Thanks :)

Ubuntu januty 9.04 64bit
Linux wirechief-laptop 2.6.30-020630rc2-generic #020630rc2 SMP Wed Apr 15 13:20:18 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
numerous warnings (see attachment)
ls libssl*.*
libssl.so.0.9.8

also i was missing msttcorefonts so ...sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts but the renaming of the errored libssl.so.0.9.8
fixed the issue of not starting for me..

sudo mv libssl.so.0.9.8 oldlibssl.so.0.9.8
googleearth
/usr/lib/googleearth/googleearth-bin: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8: undefined symbol: EVP_idea_cbc

Jaunty on ECS Green 733, 256Mb RAM:
I found libssl.so.0.9.8 in /lib/.
Here is my attemp:
1. rename the errored libssl to other name (or delete it):
wijit@wijit:/usr/lib/googleearth$ sudo mv libssl.so.0.9.8 tmp-libssl.so.0.9.8
2. make a symbolic link to the libssl located in /lib/
wijit@wijit:/usr/lib/googleearth$ sudo ln -s /lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 libssl.so.0.9.8
Thanks to all good guys.

Ubuntu 9.04 i386 - nvidia with twinview.
I installed using googleearth-package to create a deb and had the same problem.
Renaming the file also fixed it for me.

This worked for me as well on Ubuntu 9.04....

Toshiba A100-OFH
Intel 945 integrated graphics

1) chappejw@codefu:/usr/lib/googleearth$ sudo mv libssl.so.0.9.8 tmp-libssl.so.0.9.8
2) chappejw@codefu:/usr/lib/googleearth$ sudo ln -s /lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 libssl.so.0.9.8

Applications > Internet > Google Earth

Works.!

same problem on karmic koala (9.10) AMD64 same fix , renamed /usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8 to /usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8.bak and GE starts and runs OK .

I think things are getting mixed up here:
some of you obviously needed to rename/delete "/usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8" to make GE work. In my originally reported bug it was the other way round: Ubuntu's "googleearth-package" built a package where "/usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8" was already renamed to "/usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8.removed-by-installer". With this setup on Ubuntu Intrepid AMD64 the above mentioned error appeared and GE refused to start. Renaming "/usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8.removed-by-installer" to "/usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8" solved my problem.
So, wijit, Nick Hall, chappejw and sojourner seem to have another problem. I guess it would be interesting which version of Google Earth you are running and did you use googleearth-package to build a Debian package? I know this is a problem with GE itself, but googleearth-package provided a fix which - at least in my case - would not be necessary any more.

Same here on mom's pc running Xubuntu 9.04 i386 (console messages in Portuguese):

$ sudo dpkg -i googleearth_5.0.11733.9347+0.5.4.1-1_i386.deb
Selecionando pacote previamente não selecionado googleearth.
(Lendo banco de dados ... 155620 arquivos e diretórios atualmente instalados).
Desempacotando googleearth (de googleearth_5.0.11733.9347+0.5.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Configurando googleearth (5.0.11733.9347+0.5.4.1-1) ...

Processando gatilhos para shared-mime-info ...

$ googleearth
/usr/lib/googleearth/googleearth-bin: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8: undefined symbol: EVP_idea_cbc

$ sudo mv /usr/lib/googleearth/libcrypto.so.0.9.8.removed-by-installer /usr/lib/googleearth/libcrypto.so.0.9.8

$ googleearth (it works fine so far)

$ make-googleearth-package --help
Unrecognized command-line argument: --help
googleearth-package 0.5.4.1
usage: make-googleearth-package [options]
  Creates a Debian package from the Google Earth GNU/Linux installer.
  By default, will look for the installer in the current directory.
  If not found it will be downloaded automatically

Same deal here:

rtucker@arrogant-bastard:~$ googleearth
/usr/lib/googleearth/googleearth-bin: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/googleearth/libssl.so.0.9.8: undefined symbol: EVP_idea_cbc
rtucker@arrogant-bastard:/usr/lib/googleearth$ sudo mv libssl.so.0.9.8 libssl.so.0.9.8.removed-by-rtucker-lp369471

And it's good now... googleearth Version: 5.0.11733.9347+0.5.4.1-1. Fascinating :-) -rt

For this problem, I just edit the file /usr/bin/googleearth and replace the last line by

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8 LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/googleearth /usr/lib/googleearth/googleearth-bin "$@"

I downloaded the GE installer and also installed lib32nss-mdns as showed in this how to ( https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GoogleEarth ) and did this in terminal to fix the message error but didn't worked at all...
1- Installed GE from the installer
2- sudo apt-get install lib32nss-mdns
3- did : > mv ~/google-earth/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 ~/google-earth/libcrypto.so.0.9.8.bak
                > ln -s /usr/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 ~/google-earth/libcrypto.so.0.9.8
4- Execute GE starts and flickers the earth view and then it crashes giving the following error:

santiago@hyperion:~$ google-earth/googleearth
./googleearth-bin: symbol lookup error: ./libssl.so.0.9.8: undefined symbol: EVP_idea_cbc
santiago@hyperion:~$

any help? HP 6735s ATI Radeon HD3200 with latest ATI driver downloaded from ATI website.

This bug was fixed in the package googleearth-package - 0.5.6ubuntu1

---------------
googleearth-package (0.5.6ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  * Fix bashism in make-googleearth-package (Closes: #524686)
  * Do not use the shipped libssl (Closes: #537837) LP: #369471

 -- Tormod Volden <email address hidden> Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:19:45 +0200