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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?

N0rbert
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keddad
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4 Answers4

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?

Archisman Panigrahi
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N0rbert
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    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 '19 at 20:38
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    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for PPAs using Y PPA Manager gives ppa:system76/proposed with Chromium deb package 76.0.3809.100-1pop1 which is now outdated (it means insecure).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 '19 at 21:00
  • Thanks. Was able to work around my original issue needing a chromium specific browser, but will keep it in mind for future use. – hiigaran Nov 06 '19 at 01:08
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    It might be expected: but for sure not normal, forgive me, nobody that has not read something specific about it would expect it since the apt and apt-get man pages do no mention anything about even existing snaps. – user1708042 Apr 25 '20 at 17:51
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    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: https://bugs.launchpad.net/snapd/+bug/1776873 – Munchies May 06 '20 at 10:13
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    Linux stood for freedom. Let us chose, why throw snap at our faces? – GunJack May 29 '20 at 10:46
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    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 '20 at 21:07
  • according to that blog, snap was chosen because chromium has a high frequency of stable versions = more work for ubuntu team; so snap makes less work for ubuntu team, while trampling all over the users; also, they say it is great that snap installs things continuously in the background (without user knowledge or permission) so the user does not need to bother; if you have a deb package, you can copy it to an offline computer and install it using sudo dpkg -i *.deb whereas snap ran a long time installing chromium and printed nothing, don't know how it compromised the system. – jmarina Jun 16 '23 at 07:59
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

pruflyos
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    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 '20 at 02:41
  • 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 06 '20 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

Greg
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  • 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 06 '20 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

Piotr Henryk Dabrowski
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