Brave-browser: CentOS/RHEL7 Brave support

[seonadh]

Description

Unable to install Brave browser on CentOS/RHEL 7 following corresponding instructions on: https://brave-browser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing-brave.html#linux

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install the latest version of Centos7
2. rpm --import https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc
3. Add the brave-browser-release repo
4. yum install brave-keyring brave-browser

Actual result:

The above will error out with a dependency error:

Error: Package: brave-browser-0.63.48-1.x86_64 (brave-browser-release)
Requires: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.18)(64bit)
You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

Expected result:

The latest version of RHEL/CentOS is 7, this is built with glibc2.17, to support the lastest RHEL/Centos there should not be a glibc2.18 dependency.
RHEL 8 beta has glibc2.18, no release of Centos8 is available currently

Reproduces how often:

Everytime

Brave version (brave://version info)

brave-browser-0.63.48-1.x86_64

[NsCDE]

Hello,

Is there any plans to recompile latest stable release for CentOS/RHEL? Or at least provide source rpm to do it myself.

It is a bit misleading to have exact instructions on BRave's page which are not working because they are linking to Fedora 29+ version of the Brave rpm.

Thanks in advance ...

[truatpasteurdotfr]

https://brave-browser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing-brave.html#linux for CentOS is misleading,
Following the instructions

CentOS/RHEL

sudo rpm --import https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc

cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/brave-browser-release.repo
[brave-browser-release]
name=Brave Browser Release Channel repository
baseurl=https://brave-browser-rpm-release.s3.brave.com/x86_64/
enabled=1
EOF

sudo yum install brave-browser

yields:

Error: Package: brave-browser-0.66.99-1.x86_64 (brave-browser-release)
           Requires: libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.18)(64bit)

It is not clearly stated that only version v0.62.51 is the last supported version for glibc-2.17 as stated in the previous comment.

[Zoktog]

This problem is still relevant, is there any solution to this problem? Does someone do it at all?

[bsclifton]

@Zoktog I believe because of the limitations, we're going to drop support for Cent7

cc: @jseidl for comment

[Zoktog]

very sorry. I think in 2019 this is the wrong policy. New young browser to abandon one of the platforms is to show attitudes towards users. Today it is centos7, tomorrow it will be another platform.

[DeveloperMCD]

Isn't there some workaround? Would manually compiling the Brave source code be a good solution? Or would that cause a lot of trouble and conflicts on the system, having > 1 version of Glibc floating around?

[truatpasteurdotfr]

I am using a singularity container with fedora30 and brave inside (/usr/bin/brave-browser
--disable-metrics --no-first-run --no-sandbox )

[jseidl]

@DeveloperMCD glibc is a very sensitive library. Having more than one version installed can cause a lot of issues.

Apparently a dependency on Chromium codebase creeped up bumping the required glibc version a while ago thus breaking compatibility with CentOS 7. It isn't something super straightforward to bump back. Individual package maintainers are responsible for fixing that glibc dependency that apparently is automatically added by the linker during build time.

We're still not sure if that's the case or something with our build system. We're currently evaluating the amount of work needed to remove this dependency thus enabling distros as CentOS 7 that are still on glibc 2.17.

We'll keep this issue updated when he have further information on this matter.

[hugobuddel]

I am using a singularity container with fedora30 and brave inside (/usr/bin/brave-browser
--disable-metrics --no-first-run --no-sandbox )

Going to try this @truatpasteurdotfr. I'm new to singularity, so this is a good reason to try it. Maybe for Dropbox too, which also doesn't support Centos7. Do you have a image that we can pull?

How well does it integrate with the rest of your system? E.g. can you save files outside the singularity container etc?

Another issue I have is not having local root access, so can't install Brave through yum etc. Running it in a container would solve that too, doesn't it?

FWIW, I think it's fine with Brave dropping support for Centos 7 etc. Centos 8 should be out soon, and Brave has to move quickly to become the nr. 1 browser.

[truatpasteurdotfr]

Going to try this @truatpasteurdotfr. I'm new to singularity, so this is a good reason to try it. Maybe for Dropbox too, which also doesn't support Centos7. Do you have a image that we can pull?

I have uploaded at library://tru/default/f30-brave, you can use is as is if you want to share your $HOME inside the container
singularity run -B /run library://tru/default/f30-brave

How well does it integrate with the rest of your system? E.g. can you save files outside the singularity container etc?

singularity allows you to choose what is accessible from within the container, by default you have full access to your $HOME from the host.

Another issue I have is not having local root access, so can't install Brave through yum etc. Running it in a container would solve that too, doesn't it?

yes, but you need to be root to install singularity (from sources, or with yum from EPEL).

[jseidl]

Just to update the community on this topic, we're still investigating this issue. We created a full CentOS build environment to make sure it is linked to the correct GLIBC but we've encountered some steps on our build process that are failing on this environment.

Our team is working hard to solve it and we'll keep you posted as soon as we have any new updates.

[fmarier]

Note: Brave works fine on CentOS 8, which has just been released.

Simply follow the official installation instructions.

[fmarier]

Given that CentOS 8 is now out and that we do not currently have the resources to do the work necessary to fix the glibc and the keysigning issues specific to CentOS/RHEL 7, we have decided not to support that version at this time and to instead allocate our time to the Linux distros which are currently working.

[NoX1De]

@fmarier @hugobuddel Someone should REALLY update these posts above and on the Brave forum to make an obvious note and stop recommending that people install the "latest release that installs cleanly on CentOS/RHEL 7" is a serious risk from a security perspective. It is very sad that CentOS/RHEL 7 is no longer supported as it's utilization is far higher than CentOS/RHEL 8, CentOS/RHEL 7 will continue to be heavily used for years...

This is even more relevant now with this latest Chromium 0-day vulnerabilty, Brave version 0.62.51 is likely vulnerable to this and certainly to whatever other security issues/vulnerabilities have been addressed/patched since version 0.62.51 was released. Maybe stop recommending that people install insecure older versions.

[fmarier]

@NoX1De I've removed the links from this issue. Do you have a link to the forum post that needs to be updated?

[daphil19]

I was able to get Brave running on CentOS 7 by installing the community-maintained snap https://snapcraft.io/brave

Currently, that version is 1.1.23, which still isn't quite up-to-date, but is much newer than 0.62.51, and at least creates the potential for future updates for those on CentOS 7.

[st1905]

This is to inform people who are having hard time installing/running Brave on Centos 7.

It works fine. Latest nightly or stable versions, all of them work using this method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iLmueoq1d0

https://pastebin.com/vqjnw7tH