Install Google Chrome Web Browser Chrome on 32
and 64 bit Debian Lenny and Squeeze/Sid Linux
I've decided to write a short post on how to install in a quick
manner Google Chrome on Debian GNU/Linux.
There are few reasons why you would consider installing Chrome,
however the most obvious one is is the browser speed.
I should admit the browsing experience with Chrome looks and feels
far better compared to Iceweasel (e.g. Firefox) on Debian.
It could be that web loading speed performance with
Epiphany
or
Opera is similar to Chrome in terms of velocity, apart
from the faster browser experience with Google Chrome, I've seen
reports online that sometimes Google Chrome behaves better when it
comes to multimedia audio and video streams online.
Another thing I notice in
Google Chrome is that it's
generally much lighter and loads the base browser times faster than
Iceweasel.
The most accurate way to install Chrome on Debian Linux is using
Google
Linux repositories
So to install add to your
/etc/apt/sources.list the
following google linux repo
# Google software repository
deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/ stable non-free
main
e.g.
debian-deskop:~# echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/deb/
stable non-free main" >>
/etc/apt/sources.list
Then update your repositories list with apt-get:
debian-desktop:~# apt-get update
Next choose your google chrome preferred release between the
available (beta, stable and unstrable) version.
I've chose to install the
Google Chrome stable release
apt-getting it like shown below
debian-desktop:~# apt-get install
google-chrome-stable
Now the google chrome will be ready to use to start using it either
start it up from the Gnome / KDE Menus or exec the command:
debian-desktop:~$ google-chrome
So far so good, you will have now a gnome browser, however what is
really irritating is the default behaviour of the
chrome
install by default it tampers with the default browser
configured for my whole Linux desktop system in other words it
automatically links:
/etc/alternatives/gnome-www-browser to ->
/usr/bin/google-chrome as well as,
/etc/alternatives/x-www-browser to ->
/usr/bin/google-chrome
Well I wasn't happy with that unwarranted install behaviour of
Google Chrome therefore I decided to reverse my default Gnome and
System Browser back to Epiphany.
First I removed the links to
/usr/bin/google-chrome
debian-desktop:~# rm -f
/etc/alternatives/gnome-www-browser
debian-desktop:~# rm -f /etc/alternatives/x-www-browser
And thereafter I linked it back to Epiphany
debian-desktop:~# ln -sf /usr/bin/epiphany
/etc/alternatives/gnome-www-browser
debian-desktop:~# ln -sf /usr/bin/epiphany
/etc/alternatives/x-www-browser