How do I get the latest (beta and development) version of Chromium?

Confronted with this issue I found that I need to run a version of Chromium that is newer then the one in the repositories in order to use an extension that I want.

Can I get a such new, even latest version?

In Windows I can use beta Chromium portable that is newer than Google Chrome.

How to get that newest Chromium here in Ubuntu?

Related:

  • How to install the latest stable version of Chromium?

By default (Using all repos) 13.04 has Chromium version: 28.0.1500.52-0ubuntu1.13.04.3

I found the following while searching the PPA list in Launchpad:

Chromium Beta Builds - https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/chromium-beta (chromium-browser version 31.0.1650.34 as of 2013-11-01)

Chromium Dev Builds - https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+archive/chromium-dev (chromium-browser version 32.0.1671.3 as of 2013-11-01)

API Keys

Warning: Google API Keys are not included with these packages as mentioned in both PPA Links. The process of creating them is quite involved and only recommended for developers!

Do not update chromium-browser from those PPAs if you haven't understood the process below!

NOTE: Some Chromium features, including Sync, require an API key, which is not included with the packages below. To use these features, please follow the 11 steps at http://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys. Then, open .profile located in your home folder (you will need to see hidden files), and add the following three lines to the end of the file (on a new line):

export GOOGLE_API_KEY=<api key>
export GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_ID=<client id>
export GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_SECRET=<client secret>

Replace what is in the angle brackets (after the '=' sign in each line) with the appropriate value. You will need to log off and log back on for Chromium to use the keys.

Installation

To add either of them do the following

Adding Beta PPA

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

Adding Dev PPA

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-dev  
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser  

If you already have it installed then simply do a sudo apt-get ugprade instead of installing the package again. Your end result should be something like this:

enter image description here

Now if you want the Trunk version, please see the answer by Radu

UPDATE - Remember to add the API Keys since when opening for the first time Chromium you will get this:

enter image description here

And basically all Google services (Like syncing for example) will not work. So follow the How To above about adding the Api-Keys. To open the profile simply type the following on the terminal:

gedit ~/.profile

And then follow what the instructions say.

Know that this PPAs only have 1 person (The same person) which means this could be a temp solution (Totally depends on the PPA Maintainer).


According with this answer, see this post to get a pre-released version of Chromium (if there is one).

Another way, to get Chromium right off the trunk, download it from this site: https://download-chromium.appspot.com/ (this site is maintained by the Chromium team). After you finished to download, to use it run next commands in terminal:

cd /download_directory
unzip chromium.zip -d /destination_dir
cd /destination_dir/chrome-linux
./chrome --disable-setuid-sandbox

More about how to run Chromium from the unzipped folder: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/LinuxSUIDSandboxDevelopment.

Proof:

trunk Chromium

As a note, you can use this version of Chromium as a portable version on more Linux systems.

And finaly, another way is to use Chromium Updater extension from Chrome Web Store.


Chromium PPA status

At this point, it appears that the builds linked off of the Chromium Browser pages on Launchpad have become inactive and out of date. The last dev, beta, and daily successful builds from this particular project were made about 65 weeks ago(over a year).

At least for the dev and daily builds Does someone know why the Chromium daily package isn't build anymore? the original build machines broke last year and were never restored(per the maintainer micahg).

As far as the ppa:a-v-shkop/chromium PPA goes, it looks like the builds had some issues back in April(?) as a result of Google changing the ToS on the use of their Google API keys that have yet to be resolved. I am waiting to hear back from the maintainer on their status.

New Chromium PPAs available

Currently, there are two new Chromium PPAs available for dev and beta. I spoke with the maintainter, yesterday on the status of his PPAs, and it appears that he kicked off some new builds within the last couple of hours.

  • Here is the dev build PPA available on Launchpad. - currently at version 29.0.1547.15
  • Here is the beta build PPA available on Launchpad. - currently at version 28.0.1500.89 (build is still pending as I write this)

Additionally, there are two Debian/Ubuntu channels(dev and beta ) provided be Google: that provide deb packages for installation. See The Chromium Dev-channel projects page for additional information. Note that these deb files are branded as Chrome and not chromium, but they do appear to following the versioning as laid out by the Development Release Calender

The most current build is available directly from the trunk runs a number of version ahead of that as laid out by the release calender. Note that this needs to be installed manually (See @Radu's answer), and reportedly will require manual updating).

Launchpad chromium-dev PPA

There is a chromium dev build(>= version 29.0.1547.0 at this time) available as a PPA here.

  • Installation from the command line:

    The latest dev PPA can be obtained by running the following commands from the terminal(Ctrl-Altt):

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-dev
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
    
  • Installation from the Synaptic Package Manager:

    • Select Settings --> Repositories --> Other Software --> Add and enter: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/saiarcot895/chromium-dev/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main

    • Select Add source. Next, select the Reload button on the menu to re-index your package list

    • In the Quickfilter field, enter "chromium" and you will see the latest versions of the packages available for installation from this project.

    • Finally, mark the packages that you are interested in, and click the Apply button.

I have not personally tested this build. Take a look at launchpad for more details on this PPA.

The last successful build (29.0.1547.15-0ubuntu0ppa3) occurred on 7.09.2013 is available for saucy, raring, quantal, precise, and oneiric.

Launchpad Chromium-Beta PPA

There is a Chromium Beta build available as a PPA here.

  • Installation from the command line:

    The latest dev PPA can be obtained by running the following commands from the terminal(Ctrl-Altt):

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saiarcot895/chromium-beta
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install chromium-browser
    
  • Installation from the Synaptic Package Manager:

    • Select Settings --> Repositories --> Other Software --> Add and enter: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/saiarcot895/chromium-beta/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main

    • Select Add source. Next, select the Reload button on the menu to re-index your package list

    • In the Quickfilter field, enter "chromium" and you will see the latest versions of the packages available for installation from this project.

    • Finally, mark the packages that you are interested in, and click the Apply button.

See here for the stable release:

  • How to install the latest stable version of Chromium?
  • Are PPA's safe to add to my system and what are some "red flags" to watch out for?

Always remember that PPAs are provided by the community, you should be aware of the possible risks before just adding a PPA.


Canonical seems to have decided to get involved in providing more recent Chromium builds, from what I can tell. Previously, keeping Chromium current was up to the Community. You can read about it here:
Fwd: Fwd: Chromium Updates and
New updates for Chromium.

Edit: my personal prejudice for a stable experience, as far as such is possible, is to stay with Chrome stable and not to experiment with Chromium builds.

Development and Beta versions of Chrome can be downloaded as .deb. files here.