24

When I do

apt-get install chromium-browser

it downloads some .deb file, and then installs a snap package:

Selecting previously unselected package chromium-browser.
(Reading database ... 227048 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../chromium-browser_77.0.3865.120-0ubuntu1~snap1_amd64.deb
...
=> Installing the chromium snap
==> Checking connectivity with the snap store
==> Installing the chromium snap
Warning: /snap/bin was not found in your $PATH. If you've not restarted your
         session since you installed snapd, try doing that. Please see
         https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/9469 for more details.

chromium 78.0.3904.70 from Canonical✓ installed
=> Snap installation complete
Unpacking chromium-browser (77.0.3865.120-0ubuntu1~snap1) ...
Setting up chromium-browser (77.0.3865.120-0ubuntu1~snap1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.63ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.32.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.24-1ubuntu1) ...
(base) keddad@keddad:~$

But I didn't ask it to get me chromium via snap, I wanted to get a normal .deb package. It works, after all, but it just feels wrong. If I want to get a snap, I use snap, not apt. Why such behavior is considered normal?

6
  • 3
    It's been announced: ubuntu.com/blog/chromium-in-ubuntu-deb-to-snap-transition Oct 30, 2019 at 21:08
  • Does this answer your question? askubuntu.com/a/1208738/1041922 Feb 7, 2020 at 9:59
  • 1
    All this is a golden opportunity to switch to Firefox.
    – Sqerstet
    Jul 9, 2020 at 4:48
  • If they gave you a choice, you probably wouldn't do it it. So they didn't. Nov 12, 2021 at 12:32
  • 1
    @Sqerstet I got upset with Chromium forcing snap, and a few other bugs which have been around for years but Chromium do not seems to care fixing them. A few months ago, I decided to switch to Firefox. I don't regret it. I still use Chromium for website testing, but Firefox is my main browser now.
    – Gael
    Jan 5, 2022 at 10:16

4 Answers 4

13

For Ubuntu 19.10 it was a developer's decision. See cite from release notes:

Ubuntu 19.10 New Features

The Chromium browser is only available as a snap in 19.10. This blog post has more details.

It is normal and expected.

If you don't want to install the Chromium snap package, see How to install Chromium without snap?

8
  • 2
    Is there a way to work around that? I tried adding the chromium PPA, but it still wants me to install snapd.
    – hiigaran
    Oct 31, 2019 at 20:38
  • 1
    Quick search for PPAs using Y PPA Manager gives ppa:system76/proposed with Chromium deb package 76.0.3809.100-1pop1 which is now outdated (it means insecure). So I would recommend to run fresh installation of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (will be supported until 2023).
    – N0rbert
    Oct 31, 2019 at 21:00
  • 4
    relevant as chromium snap version has a hardcoded whitelist for xdg-open-URLs, breaking nearly everything except "http", "https", "mailto", "snap", "help", "apt", "zoommtg". if you try to open a slack/notListed url it fails silently... see: bugs.launchpad.net/snapd/+bug/1776873
    – Munchies
    May 6, 2020 at 10:13
  • 3
    Linux stood for freedom. Let us chose, why throw snap at our faces?
    – GunJack
    May 29, 2020 at 10:46
  • 6
    One of the new-and-improved features of the snap-based chromium is that it is unable to access anything on the separately mounted /opt partition that I created on my Ubuntu 20.04 system. Until and unless the snap-based chromium allows access to partitions other than the one on which it is running, I will stick with a non-snap-based version.
    – HippoMan
    Oct 24, 2020 at 21:07
9

I had the same problem. I disabled/removed snap/snapd from my Ubuntu and didn't want to install it again because of Chromium. Since Ubuntu and Debian are usually compatible, I installed Chromium from the Debian repositories: https://askubuntu.com/a/1206153/1038363

2
  • 5
    This is probably the best solution on here seeing as Canonical is trying to force the use of snapd after originally stating that it would never replace apt.
    – Tmanok
    Jun 18, 2020 at 2:41
  • I tried this for a while, but it's pretty unstable -- probably because of library differences. I gave up on Ubuntu on my workstation and laptop because of this (used it on and off since 2006) and I've switched to Manjaro.
    – lnostdal
    Nov 6, 2020 at 11:42
6

I've had the same problem. Wanted Chromium, but no via Snap. Found Chromium Dev PPA, works stable so far: https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/ubuntu/chromium-dev

1
  • keep in mind that the API keys are missing and you have to add them yourself. Quoted from the repo: "Some Chromium features, including Sync, require an API key, which is not included with the packages below."
    – Munchies
    May 6, 2020 at 10:10
1

If you are looking for a .deb (not snap) package for Ubuntu 20.04+:

You can get latest official .deb build for all currently supported versions of Ubuntu (latest and LTS) here: https://launchpad.net/~phd/+archive/ubuntu/chromium-browser/

This is a PPA repository with official Ubuntu packages released originally for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic) and updated as soon as a new version is released.

UPDATE:

Since April 2023 Canonical does no longer provide Chromium .deb packages for any version of Ubuntu.
Hence THIS REPOSITORY WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATED.
You may want to switch to:
https://freeshell.de/phd/chromium

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