When Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Trusty Tahr shipped in April 2014, it came with Firefox as the default browser — a perfectly solid choice, but plenty of users preferred Google Chrome for its speed, built-in Flash support, and seamless sync with their Google accounts. The problem was that Chrome was not (and has never been) available in Ubuntu’s official repositories, so installing it required downloading a package directly and letting it configure its own update channel. It sounds simple, and it mostly is — but dependency issues, 32-bit versus 64-bit confusion, and the Chrome-versus-Chromium question tripped people up often enough that a clear walkthrough was always welcome. This guide covers every step, from download to verification, and explains what happens under the hood so you are not left guessing. For broader package management knowledge, our CLI Basics reference explains apt, dpkg, and repository concepts in detail.
Chrome vs. Chromium: Which One Do You Actually Want?
Before downloading anything, it is worth understanding what you are choosing between. Ubuntu 14.04 ships Chromium in its official repositories — you can install it with a single sudo apt-get install chromium-browser command. Chromium is the open-source base that Chrome is built on, and for many users it is functionally identical for everyday browsing.
The key differences in 2014 were:
- Media codecs. Chrome included proprietary AAC and H.264 codecs out of the box, meaning Netflix (which had just launched its Linux player), YouTube at higher resolutions, and many HTML5 video sites worked immediately. Chromium required installing
chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extraseparately. - Flash. Chrome bundled Pepper Flash, which was maintained and updated by Google. Chromium relied on the system’s Adobe Flash plugin, which Adobe had already announced would not receive feature updates on Linux (only security patches).
- PDF viewer. Chrome included a built-in PDF renderer. Chromium could use it as well, but the integration was not always present in Ubuntu’s packaged version.
- Automatic updates. Chrome’s
.debpackage sets up a Google-managed repository so the browser updates throughaptlike any other package. Chromium updates came through Ubuntu’s repositories on Ubuntu’s schedule, which could lag behind upstream.
If you needed Flash to work reliably (and in 2014, you still did for many websites) or you wanted Netflix, Chrome was the pragmatic choice. If you preferred fully open-source software and were willing to install codec packages manually, Chromium was the lighter option.
Step-by-Step Installation
Step 1: Download the Chrome .deb Package
Open Firefox (or any browser) and navigate to the Chrome download page. Select the 64-bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu) option. The file will be named something like google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb and will land in your ~/Downloads directory.
Important: If you are running a 32-bit installation of Ubuntu 14.04, the download page will not offer a 32-bit
.debfor Chrome versions beyond 48. Check your architecture withuname -m— if it saysx86_64, you are on 64-bit and good to proceed.
Step 2: Install the Package with dpkg
Open a terminal and run:
cd ~/Downloads
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
This installs the Chrome package directly. However, dpkg does not resolve dependencies automatically — if Chrome needs a library that is not already installed, dpkg will report an error and leave Chrome in a half-installed state. This was extremely common on minimal Ubuntu installs.
Step 3: Fix Dependencies
If dpkg reported dependency errors, run:
sudo apt-get -f install
This tells apt to fix broken dependencies by downloading and installing whatever packages Chrome needs. Common dependencies that were missing on minimal installs included libappindicator1, libindicator7, and various libgconf packages. After this command completes, Chrome should be fully installed.
Step 4: Verify the Repository Was Added
The .deb package automatically creates a repository file for future updates. Verify it exists:
cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
You should see a line like:
deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
Also verify the signing key was imported:
apt-key list | grep Google
If the key is present, you will see an entry for “Google, Inc. Linux Package Signing Key.” If it is missing (rare, but possible), import it manually:
wget -q -O - https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
Step 5: Launch Chrome
You can now launch Chrome from the Dash (search for “Chrome”), from the application menu, or from the terminal:
google-chrome-stable
On first launch, Chrome will ask whether you want to set it as the default browser and whether you want to send usage statistics. Make your choices and proceed.
Step 6: Set Chrome as the Default Browser (Optional)
If you want Chrome to handle all web links system-wide:
sudo update-alternatives --set x-www-browser /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable
sudo update-alternatives --set gnome-www-browser /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable
You can also set this in System Settings > Details > Default Applications if you are using Unity.
Keeping Chrome Updated
Because the .deb installation configured the Google repository, Chrome updates arrive through the standard apt process:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
Chrome will be included in the list of upgradable packages whenever Google publishes a new stable release — which happens roughly every six weeks. No manual downloading required.
Common Pitfalls
“dpkg: dependency problems” on first install. This is the single most common issue and it is not a Chrome problem — it is how dpkg works. It installs only the specific .deb file you give it and does not fetch dependencies. Always follow dpkg -i with sudo apt-get -f install to let apt resolve the missing packages. Better yet, use gdebi which handles dependencies in one step:
sudo apt-get install gdebi
sudo gdebi google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
Chrome opens but looks garbled or has no window decorations. This occasionally happened on Ubuntu 14.04 with Nvidia proprietary drivers or with desktop environments other than Unity. The usual fix was to disable hardware acceleration temporarily: launch Chrome with google-chrome-stable --disable-gpu and then go to Settings > Advanced > System and toggle “Use hardware acceleration when available” off. If that resolved the rendering issue, it indicated a GPU driver compatibility problem.
“Package is of bad quality” warning in Ubuntu Software Centre. If you double-clicked the .deb file to install via the Software Centre, Ubuntu sometimes displayed a warning that the package “is of bad quality.” This was a misleading message triggered by minor packaging differences between Google’s .deb format and Debian packaging best practices. It did not indicate malware or an actual quality problem — it was safe to click “Ignore and install.”
Chrome repository conflicts after Ubuntu upgrade. If you later upgraded from Ubuntu 14.04 to 16.04, the Chrome repository usually continued to work. However, the repository file sometimes needed the architecture specification ([arch=amd64]) updated if it was not already present. Symptoms included apt-get update warnings about “binary-i386” packages. Edit /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list and ensure the deb line includes [arch=amd64].
Profile migration from Chromium. If you were switching from Chromium to Chrome and wanted to bring your bookmarks and history, the simplest method was to export bookmarks from Chromium (via the Bookmark Manager’s “Export bookmarks” option, which saves an HTML file) and import them into Chrome. Direct profile copying between ~/.config/chromium and ~/.config/google-chrome sometimes worked but was not officially supported and could cause extension compatibility issues.
A Note on Chrome’s Linux Support Timeline
Google maintained Chrome for Ubuntu 14.04 through Chrome 60 (August 2017). Chrome 61 dropped support for Ubuntu versions older than 16.04 due to library requirements (specifically glibc 2.17 and newer GCC runtime libraries). If you were still running 14.04 after that point, Chrome would stop updating and eventually become a security risk. The practical path forward was upgrading to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or switching to Firefox ESR, which continued to receive security updates for longer.