Ungoogled-chromium: Push to Debian

[micah]

Hi!

I'm happy I found your project! The only thing holding me back from using it myself is that there aren't packages available for other Debian releases.

Is there any chance you might be interested in getting your changes integrated into the debian chromium package? These sorts of privacy enhancements are things that I think would be very useful for the broader debian audience. If you don't think that will work, an alternative would be to get ungoogled-chromium into debian as its own package. You are already making packages, it seems like maybe just a little bit more effort to try and get them into debian itself.

I think that if this were made available to Debian, it would reach a lot more people!

[Eloston]

Thanks for your interest in my project!

Although I do build my own Debian packages, I actually don't know many details on what I would need to do as a maintainer, such as the proper procedures of submitting packages and source code, and providing support for the package. Plus, I'm pretty sure some of the things I do to the source code (namely the domain patcher and source cleaner, which are mostly automated and therefore somewhat unpredictable in what they can break) are things that would take more time to do if I were to follow Debian's rules.

Also, I'm currently in the process of creating a flexible and extensible cross-platform Python build system that will take care of downloading, patching, configuring, and building Chromium for a certain platform or distribution. The debian directory used for building will become pretty simple; it will just run the build command and bundle up the build artifacts into .deb packages. There are several reasons why I'm switching to this system, but one major reason is that it makes supporting other platforms such as Mac OSX and Windows easier. Perhaps Debian and other distributions would be fine with my unconventional method of building packages for their distributions, but I don't think I have the time right now to learn what I need to know to become a package maintainer.

I could just propose to include a subset of the patches that aren't too dependent on a specific build configuration, but I'm fairly certain that my patches don't meet the standards of "good" patches. Also, I haven't been able to consistently keep up-to-date with the latest stable of Chromium, so Debian may not be happy with that.

In essence, I don't have a lot of time, and I use ways of saving time that others may not like very much.

EDIT: If someone wants to maintain packages of ungoogled-chromium, go right ahead. I'll be happy to work with you.

[macandchief]

Just a remark: For less experienced users it is a bit unclear how to install this browser. I was struggling with the process (even if I studied the github description). I found some install instructions in a forum of the debian based distro called bunsenlabs helpful.

For Stretch, amd64 (one liner):
mkdir ~/src && cd ~/src && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/58.0.3029.110-1/chromium_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/58.0.3029.110-1/chromium-widevine_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/58.0.3029.110-1/chromium-shell_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/58.0.3029.110-1/chromium-l10n_58.0.3029.110-1_all.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/58.0.3029.110-1/chromium-driver_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi chromium_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi chromium-driver_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi chromium-widevine_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi chromium-l10n_58.0.3029.110-1_all.deb && sudo gdebi chromium-shell_58.0.3029.110-1_amd64.deb

This requires wget and gdebi and it downloads the packages in a folder called src and installs them. Those packages are older than the packages in the repos, so apt upgrade tries to replace them. To avoid upgrading the following command helps:
sudo apt-mark hold chromium chromium-driver chromium-l10n chromium-shell

As I mentioned this is for less experienced users but it might be helpful to point out such steps in the description. Great work btw, it's striking how less resources this browser uses when all the junk has been removed.

[Eloston]

@macandchief You make a point about package versions, but hopefully 62 comes out soon enough so that doesn't continue to be an issue. In develop, the packages have already been renamed with a ungoogled- suffix due to the inconvenience of package holding.

I don't think it is necessary to have instructions for installing Debian package files here because many other software do not post instructions either. So, methods to install should be easy to find.

[macandchief]

Ok, thank you for the details, that's great with ungoogled-. I'm looking forward to give version 62 a try.

[macandchief]

v62 got released, fantastic! If there is v58 already installed, is simply running the following a proper way to update?
mkdir ~/src && cd ~/src && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-widevine_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-shell_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-l10n_62.0.3202.94-1_all.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-driver_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-common_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-common_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-driver_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-widevine_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-l10n_62.0.3202.94-1_all.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-shell_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb

[Eloston]

@macandchief I think that installation method is fine. We should move this discussion elsewhere if you still have questions.

[macandchief]

@Eloston Yes, indeed, the part from my post might be more useful elsewhere as the topic clearly changed and does not suit to Push to Debian.

So this is how the update v58 -> v62 went:
First I run (although it might not be necessary as I removed these packages later):
apt-mark unhold chromium chromium-driver chromium-l10n chromium-shell

After that I tried the one-liner I posted, but:
This package is uninstallable Dependency is not satisfiable: ungoogled-chromium-common (= 62.0.3202.94-1)

I was thinking about installing ungoogled-chromium-common first and the package ungoogled-chromium after that, but: dpkg: error processing archive ungoogled-chromium-common_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb (--install): trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/chromium/natives_blob.bin', which is also in package chromium 58.0.3029.110-1

At this point I simply removed the installed packages (first I used this command without the chromium-shell package, but it needs to be removed. otherwise it gives an error message while installing ungoogled-chromium-shell):
apt remove chromium chromium-shell

And after that:
sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-common_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-driver_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-widevine_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-l10n_62.0.3202.94-1_all.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-shell_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb

There is an error message if chromium-shell wasn't removed, but I mentioned it already above:
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of chromium-shell: ungoogled-chromium-shell (62.0.3202.94-1) breaks chromium-shell and is installed.

If I'm not mistaken apt-mark hold is not necessary anymore.

Update done. The browser is working fine! Some extensions needs to be updated (re-installed too). Fantastic work, well done.

According to these steps I guess this is how an update v58 -> v62 should work as a one liner:

mkdir ~/src && cd ~/src && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-widevine_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-shell_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-l10n_62.0.3202.94-1_all.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-driver_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && wget https://github.com/Eloston/ungoogled-chromium-binaries/releases/download/62.0.3202.94-1/ungoogled-chromium-common_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo apt-mark unhold chromium chromium-driver chromium-l10n chromium-shell && sudo apt remove chromium chromium-shell && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-common_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-driver_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-widevine_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-l10n_62.0.3202.94-1_all.deb && sudo gdebi ungoogled-chromium-shell_62.0.3202.94-1_amd64.deb

There will be the packages left in the ~/src directory but after the update these can be also removed.

[Eloston]

Well it seems that the disable signin patch was included in Debian's 63.0.3239.40-1. That's kinda neat.

[pannous]

Please add instructions of how to add ungoogled-chromium package to Debian on main Read.me

thx

[FelipeLema]

as an alternative to adding instructions, point to https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium-debian

[pannous]

Thanks.

Is there no server which can be added to sources.list for simple apt-get usage?

[Eloston]

@pannous Nope, see #37

[mckaygerhard]

seems all of you are waste effors.. eevent works in join with debian...

[mckaygerhard]

i filled a new bug on debian to suggest use ungoogled.chromiun event chromiun itselft at https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=939406 or https://bugs.debian.org/939406.. so if both project work together can be a great benefit for both, so then winbuntu, mx-linux and mint the most popular distributions will use then thist browser as primary solution

[trymeouteh]

I would like this also. It will allow me to get the latest version easier and quicker as long as it is updated as much as other browsers are in the repo.