Google Earth doesn't show map

I have found the solution to the problem:

Find the currently installed Google Earth package

dpkg --list 'google-earth*'

Uninstall the existing package:

sudo dpkg -P google-earth-stable

Install the googleearth-package package:

sudo apt-get install googleearth-package

Use the script to download the latest binary and create a .deb package:

make-googleearth-package --force

An example of the message you should get after executing the above command:

Description: Google Earth, a 3D map/planet viewer
 Package built with googleearth-package.
dpkg-deb: building package 'googleearth' in './googleearth_6.0.3.2197+1.2.0-1_amd64.deb'.
-----------------------------
Success!
You can now install the package with e.g:

sudo dpkg -i googleearth_6.0.3.2197+1.2.0-1_amd64.deb
-----------------------------

Install the .deb package as mentioned in the description:

sudo dpkg -i googleearth_6.0.3.2197+1.2.0-1_amd64.deb

In case any dependecy problems arise (which did in my case), use

sudo apt-get -f install

This will successfully install a compatible version of Google Earth for your system.

Here's how Google Earth now looks:

(As opposed to how it looked on my PC as shown in the question)

Note: This method worked for me, hope it works out for you as well :)

(reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GoogleEarth)

Option 1: Install an older Google Earth Pro version

The latest versions of google-earth-pro are not compatible with GNU/Linux drivers for newer graphics hardware.

Uninstall the latest google-earth-pro version, then download and install google-earth-pro-stable_7.1.8.3036-r0_amd64.deb from the official or a private backup repository, as suggested here.

In the Synaptic Package Manager, select Packages → Lock Version to prevent future upgrading.

Option 2: Modesetting DDX

If the xserver-xorg-video-intel package is in use, and your Intel integrated graphics is rather new, simply uninstall it and reboot.

$ sudo apt remove xserver-xorg-video-intel

As the information packaged with the driver explains:

The use of this driver is discouraged if your hw is new enough (ca. 2007 and newer). You can try uninstalling this driver and let the server use it's builtin modesetting driver instead.

Option 2 caveat

Unfortunately, modesetting DDX breaks many other things:

• backlight switches,
• loading ICC colour profiles with xcalib,
• Chromium showing artifacts.

See also archlinux.org.