How to install Chromium without snap?

I just discovered that chromium will only be released as a snap package.

How can I continue to get chromium, without snap? Is this possible without building from source?

Notes:

Please let's keep to the question as stated - not "what do you have against snap?"
I'm not asking how to remove snap - just how to use chromium as it is now, a deb.

Update

No, this is not a duplicate of that linked question. I don't need to know "why it's a snap". I want to know how to use it without snap.

Right now there is building from source, and some random PPA mentioned below. I hope someone can advise us of trustworthy alternatives.

13 Answers

You can use Chromium from the Debian "buster" repository.
For example, if your Ubuntu release is Eoan (19.10):

Remove Ubuntu chromium packages:

sudo apt remove chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Add Debian "buster" repository. Create a file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list with the following content:
```
deb buster main
deb buster-updates main
deb buster/updates main
```

Add the Debian signing keys:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys DCC9EFBF77E11517
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 648ACFD622F3D138
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys AA8E81B4331F7F50
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 112695A0E562B32A

Configure apt pinning. Create a file /etc/apt/preferences.d/chromium.pref with the following content:

# Note: 2 blank lines are required between entries
Package: *
Pin: release a=eoan
Pin-Priority: 500
Package: *
Pin: origin "deb.debian.org"
Pin-Priority: 300
# Pattern includes 'chromium', 'chromium-browser' and similarly
# named dependencies:
Package: chromium*
Pin: origin "deb.debian.org"
Pin-Priority: 700

Install Chromium again

sudo apt update
sudo apt install chromium

This should install the latest chromium from the debian-security repository and look like this:

$ sudo apt install chromium
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed: chromium-common chromium-sandbox libjpeg62-turbo libminizip1 libre2-5
Suggested packages: chromium-l10n chromium-shell chromium-driver
The following NEW packages will be installed: chromium chromium-common chromium-sandbox libjpeg62-turbo libminizip1 libre2-5
0 upgraded, 6 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
Need to get 56,6 MB of archives.
After this operation, 202 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 eoan/universe amd64 libminizip1 amd64 1.1-8build1 [20,2 kB]
Get:2 buster/main amd64 libjpeg62-turbo amd64 1:1.5.2-2+b1 [134 kB]
Get:3 eoan/universe amd64 libre2-5 amd64 20190801+dfsg-1 [162 kB]
Get:4 buster/updates/main amd64 chromium-common amd64 79.0.3945.130-1~deb10u1 [257 kB]
Get:5 buster/updates/main amd64 chromium amd64 79.0.3945.130-1~deb10u1 [55,9 MB]
Get:6 buster/updates/main amd64 chromium-sandbox amd64 79.0.3945.130-1~deb10u1 [141 kB]

As you can see, only Chromium related packages are fetched from the Debian repository, but all others like libminizip1 still come from your Ubuntu repository.

For the time being, the chromium-beta PPA also works fine & does not require snap:

To add this PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-beta
sudo apt-get update

If you can live with Chrome instead of Chromium, you can use the officially provided Debian package from Google:

wget
apt install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

You can get the download URL from the normal Chrome download page, then scroll to the very bottom of the page and select "other platforms". The URL is not directly displayed but you can see it in your download history.

apt instead of dpkg also takes care of installing all dependencies – which snap is not one of.

From reading a few files in that package, I have the impression that it installs a cron job that automatically updates the Chrome installation, just like we know it from Windows. So this looks like a pretty solid solution to me, without tinkering with package sources from other distributions or even personal PPAs. And it might even be available for longer, no need for procedure updates with a new distro version.

I've installed this in Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and it works for me, but I'm only using it headless on a web server. The package includes config files for graphical desktop environments, too, though.

Chromium is now available in Flatpak packaging format on Flathub:

Although Flatpak is similar to Snap, I think it matches the freedom standards that many Linux users are usually looking for, much better than Snap.

For completeness: Another option is to use nix:

# Install nix
curl -L | sh
. /home/$USER/.nix-profile/etc/profile.d/nix.sh
nix-env --install chromium
chromium

Unfortunately, for getting chromium into your launcher, you'll need to execute whereis chromium and, supposed the outcome is /nix/store/bpmjh6lpsfn3fwrkqx9kp1013x4hqk2y-user-environment/bin/chromium, create ~/.local/share/applications/chromium.desktop (e.g. by gedit ~/.local/share/applications/chromium.desktop) like

[Desktop Entry]
Name=chromium
Exec=/nix/store/bpmjh6lpsfn3fwrkqx9kp1013x4hqk2y-user-environment/bin/chromium
Comment=
Terminal=false
Icon=gnome-panel-launcher
Type=Application

While this basically works, chromium sometimes hangs with this solution, I have no clue why. So if you are ok with the Debian-solution, stick to it.

You can download latest official .deb build for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal), 21.04 (Hirsute) and 21.10 (Impish) here:

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.

Another option would be fetching from Linux mint repository, as they have build their own Chromium as opposed of using snap, and you can install it right away.

[Downloads]$ apt-cache policy chromium
chromium: Installed: 96.0.4664.45~linuxmint1+uma Candidate: 96.0.4664.45~linuxmint1+uma Version table: *** 96.0.4664.45~linuxmint1+uma 100 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 90.0.4430.212-1~deb10u1 500 500 buster/updates/main amd64 Packages 89.0.4389.114-1~deb10u1 500 500 buster/main amd64 Packages

Manually install

Go to →
Download package with uma in filename, it's the latest Mint releases.
Wait for it to finish the download.
Open up a terminal, and run following command.
```
cd ~/Downloads
sudo apt install ./chromium_96.0.4664.45~linuxmint1+uma_amd64.deb
```
This assume your download directory is /home/user/download.

Install from terminal

This snippet is valid as of today (28 November, 2021). If newer version has been released, you have to change the command accordingly.

wget
sudo apt install ./chromium_96.0.4664.45~linuxmint1+uma_amd64.deb

The only drawback of this method is that you have to install it manually if a newer chromium version has been released, you can however opt in using their ppa, so you can receive update automatically.

There is no reason to get crazy with flatpak, adding repositories, and other weird stuff. There are official Chromium binaries.

Just download the binary directly from the source and run it.

Unzip in to your $HOME/bin directory or /opt or /usr/local/ whatever you want. The binary can be run from chrome-linux/chrome.

The only better option is simply to use something other than Ubuntu so you don't have snap and get automatic updates.

Chromium browser is available in deb for Ubuntu 16.04 (xenial) and 18.04 (bionic).

Ubuntu offers chromium in snap packages only for 19.x and 20.x versions.

That said, you should normally find chromium updates in Ubuntu repos for xenial and bionic.

Normally? It seems that the updated version is available several days (weeks!) before it appears in repos. Today 18 April, the chromium version in bionic repos is 89.4389.90, while versions 89.4389.114, 89.4389.128 and 90.4430.72 are available here:

Click on the url of the version you want corresponding to your distribution and processor; then download chromium-browser, language pack and one of the codecs deb. Open your downloads directory in a terminal session, then sudo dpkg -i *.deb.

For Ubuntu versions 19.x and 20.x, you have two solutions:

download chromium-browser from debian buster repos (see former answers),
or download an ungoogled-chromium-browser for debian buster from here: . Enjoy! (answer done using amd64 build of chromium-browser 90.0.4430.72-0ubuntu0.18.04.1 from Linux Mint 19.3 Mate).

Part One: Download Available Dependencies.

Download these:

sudo apt install libgcc1 libmpx2 gcc-8-base

Part Two: Get .deb files of Chromium

Install VirtualBox
Run Ubuntu 18.04 in it
Download Chromium (and dependencies) with the download-only flag IN 18.04!

sudo apt-get --download-only install chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

Go to /var/cache/apt/archives and the .deb files will be there.
Copy the deb files into a shared folder between the guest and the host OS.
Download and install the packages. ON 20.04!!!

Part 3: Disable Updates in Update Manager or other Update Software

Running

sudo apt-mark hold chromium-browser

will disable the Updates.

You Can Also Get the .deb's from archive.ubuntu.com.

Go to
Use CTRL+F to search for:
1. chromium-browser_[version]-0ubuntu0.18.04.2_amd64.deb
2. chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra_[version]-0ubuntu0.18.04.2_amd64.deb
3. chromium-browser-l10n_[version]-0ubuntu0.18.04.2_all.deb
Download Them and Install
Run sudo apt-mark hold chromium-browser to prevent it from updating to snap version.

Get rid of snap:

sudo snap remove chromium
sudo apt purge snapd

Use the official beta Chromium PPA (from the Chromium team):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chromium-team/beta
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install chromium-browser

You'd use a PPA.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:system76/pop
sudo apt update
sudo apt install chromium

And that's all.

Without getting into the why, what you're asking for is someone, somewhere to maintain the deb of Chromium. There is a time and resource commitment to do that work, providing the build for you. There's a couple of options.

You specified a way of getting Chromium without building from source. So you're after binary packages which are not packaged as a snap. One option is to get the builds from the upstream Chromium project themselves via

Another would be to use an older release of Ubuntu - such as Ubuntu 18.04 LTS - which still ships a binary deb of Chromium. At the time of writing 18.04 has Chromium 79 - the same as the version in 16.04, and is the latest.