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Is there an easier way to install Chromium than what is described here?

Furthermore, is there an easier way to stay up to date with current Chromium releases rather than having to re-build Chromium each release? (a script which automatically grabs and installs the latest build possibly?).

Related:

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  • I don't know if this question belongs here, if it's inline with stack exchange type questions. I'm unsure because, at this stage of Chromiums product development, the information will become out of date
    – Crowie
    Apr 14, 2014 at 9:25
  • Aren't all versions of Chromium essentially development versions on there way to being Chrome?
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 6, 2015 at 22:13
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    @ElderGeek Read google's documentation, chromium is the open source version of chrome that doesn't spy on you like chrome... both should be up to date.
    – Tcll
    Jan 6, 2017 at 23:35
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    @Tcll I'm not sure at this moment exactly how I came to that conclusion. Perhaps here or perhaps the quote "Chromium is the open-source project that forms the basis for Google Chrome." found here
    – Elder Geek
    Jan 7, 2017 at 17:27

7 Answers 7

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Chromium is currently not built for the chromium-daily PPA, which makes using it a bit of a security issue. Unless you can find a better PPA that stays up to date, I'd recommend you use the repo version of Chromium. Using an old browser on the internet will get you hacked. See:

Does someone know why the Chromium daily package isn't build anymore?

For the latest stable of Chromium click the button here:

https://snapcraft.io/chromium

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  • 16
    That's not the latest stable version of Chromium. That's just the latest version to be frozen for the newest version of Ubuntu. The latest stable version of Chromium is version 30. That website only offers the .deb for version 25 -- the same version in the official Ubuntu Universe repository. Judging by the question, this answer is simply not correct.
    – Evan Carroll
    Jul 6, 2013 at 19:46
  • @EvanCarroll Everything I can find on the wikipedia article you linked in your claim that at the time of writing "the latest stable version of chromium is 30" seems to make it abundantly clear that Chrome is the stable release and Chromium is the development version. Have I missed something? It seems it's not so much the answer that's wrong but the question.....
    – Elder Geek
    Mar 6, 2015 at 22:11
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    @ElderGeek No. As of the time of writing, Chromium, is up to version 42. However, Chromium as packaged for 14.10, the lastest stable distro is 40.0.2214.111. The question remains, how do you get Chromium 42 on Ubuntu 14.10. The PPA mentioned in this question is no longer up to date. A new answer is needed.
    – Evan Carroll
    Mar 7, 2015 at 4:14
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    Ubuntu app directory definitely does not have the latest stable version. Actually it is 12 major releases behind current stable
    – sdaffa23fdsf
    Mar 10, 2016 at 5:08
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    This link is to an EXTREMELY old version of chromium, which is ironic given your "Using an old browser on the internet will get you hacked" comment.
    – matt5784
    Feb 1, 2017 at 19:52
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I've asked a similar question. What I do is use the daily zip archives. Within Chromium I install the Chromium Update plugin. It doesn't auto install or anything but I have quick access to the latest zip which I simply extract to the current location (in my case ~/opt/).

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  • The Chromium updater plugin downloads a mini_installer.exe on my system which contains the windows version of the browser.
    – To Do
    Jun 15, 2014 at 14:25
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    Chromium Update plugin is broken
    – Rahil Wazir
    Aug 27, 2014 at 9:33
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    Is there any reason that there is no official update page just like the one for Google Chrome?
    – Alex
    Dec 26, 2014 at 12:56
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GUI method

I remember that one of the first things that I made after I installed a fresh version of Ubuntu 13.04 it was to install Chromium browser Install Chromium browser. And I installed it from Ubuntu Software Center without to add any ppa repository or to download it from somewhere. Also, I remember that just a few days ago Software Updater announced me that there is a new version of Chromium to update.

So it's sure that Canonical have decided to provide the most recent Chromium versions and you don't need to think anymore what is easier way to install Chromium or how to stay up to date with current Chromium releases. And here is the official Ubuntu package of Chromium browser on Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser.

Proof:

USC - chromium install

As you can see from above image, you can also to install Unity Webapp extension once with Chromum Browser.

Comand-line method

Open a terminal and run next command:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Proof:

terminal - chromium install

As a note, it seems that Chromium Likely to Replace Firefox As Default Browser in Ubuntu 13.10.

If you are interested somehow by other versions of Chromium browser from Personal Package Archives (PPAs), here is a complete list with all of these (some of them have been abandoned): https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ppas?name_filter=chromium-browser. And keep in mind that these PPAs are considered by Canonical unsupported and unsecured.

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  • do note that Software Center is typically out of date from the current stable release... For me, the version on SC is 53.0.2785.143 (which I currently have) while the current stable release is 54...
    – Tcll
    Jan 6, 2017 at 23:48
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I had the exact same problem, and had come to the conclusion that Chromium had been abandoned. In any case, when the Unity Webapps Preview was released I installed it right away, and it updated both FireFox and Chromium. After FireFox moving so slowly it hurt, I moved back to Chromium and decided I could live with it being outdated... Lo and behold! It had been updated!

To install the Webapps Preview:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webapps/preview
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-webapps-preview



Wait for everything to install, and Chromium should be fully updated: Chromium 20.0.1132.47

If you don't want to use the Webapps, then you can just go to Chromium's extension page and select to disable the add-on: Disable Webapps extension


If you want to uninstall Webapps:

sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:webapps/preview


N.B. Using ppa-purge removes all the packages that were installed or upgraded by the ppa you added: this means that Chromium and FireFox (as well as other applications) will be downgraded. If you use Chromium's sync function, this will cause an error when you start the program telling you that your profile is from a newer version of Chromium, and that you should upgrade or change profiles.

Hope this helps!

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  • @Bill O'Dwyer, so what version number of Chromium do you have now? How often do updates of Chromium occur (or are offered)?
    – user25656
    Jul 30, 2012 at 6:38
  • @vasa1 - as you can see in the screenshot, I'm running version 20.0.1132.47. I'm not entirely sure how often it'll get updated. I think I had an update two or three days ago, but again, I'm not entirely sure... Watch this space and I'll try to nail it down.
    – 0d_billie
    Jul 30, 2012 at 7:22
  • @BillO'Dwyer How to get this update on natty?
    – Khurshid Alam
    Jul 31, 2012 at 13:59
  • @KhurshidAlam Please see my second answer for instructions.
    – 0d_billie
    Aug 1, 2012 at 16:45
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Currently, the only way to get it that I can think of is by getting the source code and building it yourself. The packages in the chromium stable ppa failed to build. That was a week ago and I have already wrote an email to the maintainer of that ppa trying to make him aware of that problem but he would not write back…

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Just add this repository to your software sources by entering the command below in the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T).

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-daily/stable
sudo apt-get update

Then:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

Right now this will not give you the latest Chromium, but the latest in the PPA which is 18.0.1025.x.

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  • Says this PPA is dead as of Nov 2019 when I try to run the add-apt-repository.
    – Volomike
    Nov 4, 2019 at 22:49
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According to this page: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/LinuxChromiumPackages

Chad Miller is the contact of Chromium builds for Ubuntu. He has a PPA with Chromium, but he adds in the description that it's better to use this: https://launchpad.net/~canonical-chromium-builds/+archive/ubuntu/stage

Right now this PPA offer Chromium version 35, but is very likely that they update it.

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  • The PPA description says: "You shouldn't use this."
    – wranvaud
    Apr 6, 2017 at 19:00

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