How to Install Google Chrome Using Ubuntu Terminal and WINE

This article is one of the older articles on Bright Hub. Chrome for Linux is now available here. Therefore using Chrome in Wine isn't necessary any more.

Google Chrome is an open source web browser developed by Google. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or “chrome”, of web browsers.Chromium is the name of the open source project behind Google Chrome, released under the BSD license.

Wine 1.1.4 has been released, and includes fixes for running Chrome. You need to make sure you have the wine version 1.1.4 installed.

A new version of WINE arrives every two weeks; the version in Ubuntu 8.04’s repository is already out-of-date. To be able to run Windows applications as well as possible, you should stay with the latest WINE releases.

Open the command terminal by selecting Applications > Accessories > Terminal

It is not enough if you have Wine installed with Synaptic via the usual Ubuntu repositories (including via Synaptic), you need to have the latest version of Wine installed (1.1.4 or higher). In order to install this version of Wine:

Open Terminal by going to Applications > Accessories > Terminal and run the following commands (for Ubuntu Hardy Heron only, if you're not running Hardy Heron check http://www.winehq.org/site/download-deb ):

wget -q http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/387EE263.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

sudo wget http://wine.budgetdedicated.com/apt/sources.list.d/hardy.list -O /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq.list

sudo apt-get update

Install wine by using the following command:

sudo aptitude install wine

Google’s net-installer for Chrome doesn’t work in Wine. Instead, use the standalone installer.You can download it from here (http://gpdl.google.com/chrome/install/149.27/chrome_installer.exe).

Now, you need to open a terminal and change the directory you downloaded the installer to by using the "cd" command (e.g. the command "cd ~/Desktop" will move you to the Desktop subdirectory inside your home directory). Run the installer with Wine using the following command:

wine chrome_installer.exe

The fonts can be improved by using winetricks, install winetricks using the following commands:

wget http://www.kegel.com/wine/winetricks

chmod +x winetricks

./winetricks corefonts tahoma

Now you can run Google Chrome using the following command in Terminal (this is one line only!):

wine "$HOME/.wine/drive_c/windows/profiles/$USER/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Chrome/Application/chrome.exe" --new-http --in-process-plugins

Unfortunately, you will need to run the above command each time you start Google Chrome in Ubuntu Linux, unless you edit your desktop icon: Right-click on the Google Chrome icon, select Properties and go to the Launcher tab. In the Command field, change the following code (this too is one line only!):

Exec=env WINEPREFIX="/home/mimir/.wine" wine "C:\\windows\\profiles\\mimir\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe"

into:

Exec=env WINEPREFIX="/home/mimir/.wine" wine "C:\\windows\\profiles\\mimir\\Local Settings\\Application Data\\Google\\Chrome\\Application\\chrome.exe" --new-http --in-process-plugins

and click on Close to save it. You can now use your desktop icon to start Google Chrome in Ubuntu Linux!