Chromium Browser Removed From Debian Testing

Reading the Debian Planet, I stumbled upon a blog post which states that Chromium Browser has been removed from Debian Testing which means it won't be included in Debian Squeeze, the next stable Debian release.

The reason for this is the fact that the internal webkit copy in Chromium 5 is very old and has lots of security issues which are not properly fixed upstream.

This won't affect Ubuntu as it maintains its own Chromium packages, but it does bring serious concerns regarding Chromium because it means that if you want to be secure, you'll have to run the bleeding edge version of Chromium which is not included in any Linux distribution official repositories.

Dragon Player Default In Kubuntu 10.10 (Not VLC), Firefox Default In UNE 10.10 Instead Of Chromium, Ubuntu Tweak In New Queue

Dragon Player has been made default in Kubuntu 10.10 instead of Kaffeine (I'm not really up to date with what's happening in Kubuntu, but it seems Kaffeine was default in Kubuntu 10.10 until now - at least according to the changelog of the kubuntu-meta package). A while back, the Kubuntu developers said they were considering VLC to be the default media player but unfortunately this didn't work out as expected. I'm not sure what are the reasons for this (since the news came from the kubuntu-meta changelog), but most probably there were some license/legal issues so they had to go with Dragonplayer.

Chromium was made default until UNE 10.10 alpha 3 at which point a decision had to be made rather or not to stick with Chromium or go back to Firefox - since Ubuntu 10.10 alpha 3 is about to be released (in 2 days), the decision came: Firefox will stay as the default browser in Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.10, but Chromium has been moved into the main repository. The reasons include:

* We don't have a plugin installer, ie. if you go to a Flash site it sends you to Adobe's webpage instead of just installing the plugin.
* No langpacks or translations support in lp so we can't translate Chromium, we have to depend on upstream to do it in one huge thing. :(
* Doing all the xulrunner packaging changes in order to get the CD size down AND switching to chromium in one cycle is currently not feasible with the people we currently have.

You can read the whole motivation behind this @ Ubuntu Desktop mailing list.

And finally: An email on the Ubuntu MOTU mailing list points out that Ubuntu Tweak is in the "new queue" for Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat which means Ubuntu Tweak might finally be added to the official Ubuntu repositories. Until now, you had to add a PPA or manually download a .deb to be able to install Ubuntu Tweak.

Chromium Options Window Moved In A Browser Tab

It seems Google wants to move everything in the tabs - not only through its web apps, but with Chrome too.

A recent change in Chrome / Chromium removes the Options dialog as a separate window and you can now access it from a browser tab. This should make it a lot easier to implement changes to the Chrome / Chromium interface across different platforms.

I'm not sure if there are other reasons for implementing this, but I for one am very glad to be able to change the Chromium options from a tab instead of a window as it was a real pain to open the Options window on my netbook.

Here is how the options dialog used to look:

And how the new option menu in a tab looks like:

This is not yet available by default so you must use the "--enable-tabbed-options" switch to enable it (I've tested it with the latest Chromium from the Chromium Daily PPA for Ubuntu, I'm not sure if this feature landed in Chrome already).

To use the tab options menu in Chromium, either edit the Chromium shortcut or the /etc/chromium-browser/default file and add "--enable-tabbed-options".

Thanks to Noctuido!

Chrome AdBlock Can Now Block Ads Before They Are Downloaded

Ever since I started using Chrome (Chromium to be more specific), there was one thing which really annoyed me: AdBlock for Google Chrome / Chromium. AdBlock used to firstly load the ads and only then block them - something which seems very primitive to someone coming from Firefox where AdBlock Plus successfully blocks ads before they download... since forever.

But a recent change made by Apple (really!) to the Webkit engine allows AdBlock for Chrome to finally block the ads before they are downloaded. To use it, you don't even have to use the experimental Google Chrome / Chromium:

It's unclear when the "beforeload" event was added to Chrome — in part because it wasn't added by Google. Apple added it to the open source WebKit engine used by Chrome, and at some point, it made its way into the Google browser. It's now available in the latest stable version of Chrome, version 5.

This however doesn't yet work with all the ads:

Note that Chrome doesn't actually support this all the way, so a few resources might still load before AdBlock can get to them, in which case we'll remove those as usual.

Get AdBlock for Google Chrome / Chromium

[via DownloadSquad]

Chrome Web Apps Update Removes The Omnibar

Finally the Chrome web apps almost make sense: initially the Chrome web apps were just a normal pinned tab with a bigger favicon but now the Omnibar together with the menu and the bookmarks bar has been removed so you have a lot more vertical space for a web app tab than for a normal Chrome tab. This change comes in the latest build from the Chromium daily PPA (but it's probably in the latest Google Chrome dev channel too).


Note that the Omnibar / bookmarks toolbar has only been remove for the web apps tabs, the rest of the tabs still have everything in place.

But the major feature for Chrome web apps has yet to come: built-in notifications.

See how to use Chrome web apps for Google Chrome / Chromium.

Chrome Web Apps Come To Linux Too

Google Chrome got web apps a few days ago, which initially only worked for Windows - but starting today they're available for Linux too. These are basically just pinned tabs but with a bigger (and .png instead of .ico) favicon which looks cool but doesn't do anything extra from what I can tell after testing it for about 10 minutes or so.

The 3 default web apps only come in the latest Google Chrome dev channel, but you can use them in Chromium too (from the Chromium daily ppa), as long as you have Google Chrome installed. Also, you can use some extra Chrome web apps (link at the end of the post) in Chromium without installing Google Chrome.

Once you install Chrome/Chromium, customize its shortcut by adding "--enable-apps" and alternatively also add "--apps-panel" for a floating panel (but this doesn't seem to work for Linux yet).

Then, in Chromme/ium type "chrome://extensions", enable the developer mode by pressing the "+" sign next to "Developer mode" in the right:

Then a new button called "Load unpacked extension" should be available - click it and browse for "/opt/google/chrome/resources/" and choose from the 3 available web apps (no, not the ones in the screenshot but Gmail, Google Docs and Google Calendar) - these are only available if you installed Google Chrome. For more Web Apps, you'll find a huge list on Downloadsquad.

You should then be able to access the Chrome Web Apps by opening a new blank tab:

How To Enable The New "Unified" Wrench Menu In Chromium

Google is testing a new "unified" menu for Chromium which combines the options and wrench menus into a single menu to save space. What I find very interesting about this "unified" menu is that it uses buttons for cut, copy and paste as well as for the zoom controls.

To use the unified menu in Chromium in Ubuntu, all you have to do is install the latest Chromium build from the daily PPA, then edit the Chromium shortcut and add "--new-wrench-menu" to the run command, so basically the command looks like this:

chromium-browser --new-wrench-menu

See also: How To Enable (Encrypted) Password Sync In Chromium / Google Chrome

How To Enable (Encrypted) Password Sync In Chromium / Google Chrome

After getting encrypted passwords in Linux, Chromium users can finally synchronize passwords across multiple computers.

All you have to do is install Chromium from the Chromium Daily PPA and then launch it with the "--enable-sync-passwords" option (and of course, also use the encrypted passwords option!!).

WebUpd8 reader Nikola writes:

BUT, there is one more thing: it's important to get it work - you must stop the previous synced account and to set it again. It's the only way I made it work here. So here is my Chromium code I use to start it:

/usr/lib/chromium-browser/chromium-browser --password-store=gnome --enable-sync-extensions --enable-sync-passwords --sync-url=https://clients4.google.com/chrome-sync/dev

Many thanks to Nikola for the tip and screenshot. For some reason his email ended up in the spam folder in Gmail so if we don't reply to your email, blame it on Gmail!

Chromium Finally Gets Encrypted Passwords (Linux Only)

A message on the Chromium dev group points out that the Chromium Linux builds got encrypted passwords which use GNOME Keyring or KDE KWallet. Until now, Chromium / Google Chrome used to store the passwords unencrypted which combined with the fact that Chromium doesn't use a master password can be seen as a major security flow.

The passwords have always been encrypted on Mac and Windows, so now it's time for Linux to get this feature too.

To use the new feature, you need the latest Chromium daily build (r50475) and then run Chromium using:

--password-store=gnome
--password-store=kwallet
--password-store=detect

The last option ("detect") will try to autodetect if Chromium should use GNOME Keyring or KDE KWallet and this will eventually be the default option:

For now, without the flag, we will continue to use the built-in unencrypted store. With the flag, we will now try to use the requested store (or autodetect one, and use that) to store passwords, and we will migrate existing passwords to this store. This requires GNOME Keyring > 2.22 (which rules out Ubuntu 8.04) or KDE 4. In the event of failure to initialize the encrypted store, we fall back on the built-in store.

In my tests using Ubuntu 10.04 with GNOME and the latest Chromium from the Chromium Daily builds PPA, the passwords are still not encrypted. To check if Chromium encrypts your passwords, run this in a terminal:

cat ~/.config/chromium/Default/Login\ Data

Does the new Chromium password encryption work for you?

[Thanks to Download Squad!]

How To Sync Extensions In Chromium Browser

The Chromium developers have been working on extensions sync for some time, but this feature only became functional today. However, it is not available by default for now so you must manually enable it. Here is how to extensions sync in Chromium.

Firstly, make sure you have the latest Chromium from the dev channel installed. Ubuntu users can install it via the Chromium daily PPA.

Then, to enable extensions sync, you must create a new desktop or panel shortcut and in the command field, enter this:

chromium-browser --enable-sync-extensions --sync-url=https://clients4.google.com/chrome-sync/dev

Then start Chromium using this new shortcut. And of course, do the same for the second computer to sync the extensions.

Then simply enable it via Chromium menu > Set up sync > Customize sync...

Important note: this feature is experimental for now so you will probably find bugs or it might not work at all.

Set The Minimum Font Size In Chromium [Linux]

To set the minimum font size in Chromium (Linux), you must edit the ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences file:

gedit ~/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences

Look for this inside the file you just opened:

  },
"webkit": {
"webprefs": {
"default_fixed_font_size": 15,
"default_font_size": 16,
"fixed_font_family": "Monospace",
"sansserif_font_family": "Droid Sans",
"serif_font_family": "Liberation Serif"
}
}
}

And add this two lines under "webprefs": {

 "minimum_font_size": 16,
"minimum_logical_font_size": 16,

Thanks to Mahdi for the tip!

Latest Chromium Build Converts User Scripts Into Extensions

The latest Chromium build adds a new feature that converts user script into extensions, so you no longer need to copy the scripts into a folder.

Simply go to userscripts.org, click on a user.js file and an installation dialog will pop up, asking you if you want to install it:

Since the user scripts are installed as extensions, they are of course available in chrome://extensions/:

This is only available for Chromium, but Google Chrome dev channel should also add it really soon.

You can download the latest version of Chromium from HERE.

Enable The Bookmarks Toolbar In Google Chrome [How To]

It doesn't matter if you are using Google Chrome or Chromium and it actually works from version 2.x up to 4.x: you can enable the bookmarks toolbar (like the one in Firefox for instance) in Google Chrome by using a simple shortcut trick.

Basically, all you have to do (no matter if you are using Linux or Windows) is right click your Chrome shortcut and select "Properties", and then in the "Target" field ("Command" for Linux users), at the end of the line, add:

--bookmark-menu

(do not edit anything else).

Here's what you'll get:

That's about it. Now go to Google Chrome Bookmark Manager and add some bookmarks to your "Bookmarks bar" folder. Or just hit "Ctrl + D" on your keyboard and bookmark a new page. The option to save it to your bookmarks toolbar will be displayed by default.

[via techie-buzz]

Inline Translate Extension For Chromium / Google Chrome

Bubble Translate is an extension for Google Chrome / Chromium which you can use to translate text inline. The translated text will then be displayed in a stylish bubble:

Basically, to use this extension, you just have to select the text to translate and click the Toolstrip Icon or by using using your keyboard: Crtl + Select text (this can be change through Bubble Translate settings).

Bubble Translate does what it's supposed to and works like a charm for translating text inside webpages (inline), by using Google Translate with multi-language support. But please note that you need the latest dev build of Chromium / Google Chrome for using this extension.

You could also try Sunday Morning jQuery bookmarklet for a similar effect (works for most browsers), but without installing anything.

Download Bubble Translate | via blogsdna

How to Install 64bit Chromium / Google Chrome in Ubuntu

In case you don't know: Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome so do not mix them.

Google Chrome 64bit for Ubuntu

Before downloading, remember that installing Google Chrome will result in also adding the Google repository.

Download Google Chrome 64bit Ubuntu .deb

Chromium

If you wish, you can install Chromium 64bit instead of Google Chrome:

* The amd64 package is no longer using ia32-libs. It contains *native* 64bit debs.

1. Add the Chromium PPA repository:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/chromium-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"

Or, if you don't use Jaunty, replace it with your current Ubuntu version.
2. Add the GPG key:

sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com 4E5E17B5

3. Install Chromium:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

The same PPA also works for the 32bit version of Chromium!

To enable Flash support, you should follow the steps here: Chromium or Google Chrome (almost the same way).

Chromium Reaches v4, Google Chrome to Reach Version 4.0 Before Firefox?

Technical Program Manager Anthony LaForge posted a note to the Chromium-dev board announcing that they released version 4.0.202.0 to reflect the code freeze on Chrome v3. "There is still a bit of work that needs to be done for 3.0 in terms of stability and fixes," he wrote. "To that end we will be pulling changes into the 195 branch (what will become the stable release)."

While it's just a number, it means, of course, Chrome will likely hit v4 long before Firefox ever does. Other than the version number, I haven't seen any changes.

This isn't the first quick version-to-version jump Chrome has seen. Chrome 3 hit the dev channel less than a week after Chrome 2's release back in May.

Image credits: download squad