How can I exclude more than one pattern in a "grep -v" statement?

Answering a friend:

Q: How can I exclude more than one pattern in a "grep -v" statement?

A: # grep -v -e PATTERN1 -e PATTERN2 -e PATTERN3 <...>

Missing libXxf86vm.so under Debian

If you want do use googleearth under Debian and you do get a error message about a missing libXxf86vm.so.1 library here's what to do:

1) Make sure you do have the file /usr/X11R6/lib/libXxf86vm.a - it's in the xlibs-static-dev package.

2) Generate a shared library out of libXxf86vm.a:

# ld --whole-archive -shared -o /usr/X11R6/lib/libXxf86vm.so.1.0 /usr/X11R6/lib/libXxf86vm.a
# ln -s /usr/X11R6/lib/libXxf86vm.so.1.0 /usr/X11R6/lib/libXxf86vm.so.1

3) Rebuild the library cache:

# ldconfig -v

Now googleearth should startup without an error.
Have fun!