Saturday, April 23, 2016

How to Install Google Chrome Browser on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

Trust me, it wasn't so easy to install Google Chrome on my freshly installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64bit system. Let's see what I encountered, and let me share the solution.

First, I downloaded the chrome browser install file from https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/desktop/index.html

Next, I tried to install it
$ sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb


I was getting the following error
Selecting previously unselected package google-chrome-stable.
(Reading database ... 191101 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking google-chrome-stable (50.0.2661.86-1) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of google-chrome-stable:
 google-chrome-stable depends on libappindicator1; however:
  Package libappindicator1 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package google-chrome-stable (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu5) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3~bzr0+16.04.20160415-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.59ubuntu1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 google-chrome-stable

Well, I thought I just needed to install the necessary package:
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install libappindicator1 -y

But then, this is what I got.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 libappindicator1 : Depends: libindicator7 (>= 0.4.90) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

OK, for some reason mentioned above, I couldn't do it, without forcing it. I wanted to find a way to resolve it without actually forcing it though. So, what should I do?

Well, you would probably try installing libindicator7 first, and that's exactly what I did.
$ sudo apt-get install -y libindicator7

Unfortunately, I kept getting the error
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 google-chrome-stable : Depends: libappindicator1 but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

It turns out that, the solution was simple. First, undo installation attempt of Google Chrome by
$ sudo apt-get remove -y google-chrome-stable

Interestingly, google-chrome-stable was installed on the system even if it complained with the error above. 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  google-chrome-stable
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 186 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
(Reading database ... 174822 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing google-chrome-stable (50.0.2661.86-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu5) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3~bzr0+16.04.20160415-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.59ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...

After successfully removing google-chrome-stable from the system, you can now proceed with installing libappindicator1
$ sudo apt-get install -y libappindicator1

Now, this doesn't give me any error or complaint.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libappindicator1
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 18.8 kB of archives.
After this operation, 101 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 libappindicator1 amd64 12.10.1+15.04.20141110-0ubuntu1 [18.8 kB]
Fetched 18.8 kB in 0s (29.4 kB/s)           
Selecting previously unselected package libappindicator1.
(Reading database ... 174721 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libappindicator1_12.10.1+15.04.20141110-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libappindicator1 (12.10.1+15.04.20141110-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libappindicator1 (12.10.1+15.04.20141110-0ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.23-0ubuntu3) ...

Now, you may proceed with google-chrome-stable installation again
$ sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable

It will install with no problem:
Selecting previously unselected package google-chrome-stable.
(Reading database ... 174726 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking google-chrome-stable (50.0.2661.86-1) ...
Setting up google-chrome-stable (50.0.2661.86-1) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable to provide /usr/bin/x-www-browser (x-www-browser) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable to provide /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser (gnome-www-browser) in auto mode
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable to provide /usr/bin/google-chrome (google-chrome) in auto mode
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-6ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu5) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.3~bzr0+16.04.20160415-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.59ubuntu1) ...

So, the lesson today is, if you failed to install something, you may want to remove it before trying to resolve the issues, at least for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS!

EDIT: Please refer to more recent post for an alternative solution.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks man. I have been trying this after installing ubuntu 16.04 but i can not do that. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete