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Parto
Asked: 2016-01-22 22:26:25 +0800 CST

No more updates for Google Chrome 32-bit

  • 772

I am using Google Chrome 48.0 32-bit. Today when I launched Google Chrome, I got this message: 

This computer will soon stop receiving Google Chrome updates because
this Linux system will no longer be supported

I thought Ubuntu 14.04 is supported for five years, what's exactly happening here?

And on 64-bit Ubuntu, I get an error from Update Manager and apt-get update:

Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release 
Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-i386/Packages' in Release file
(Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)  
Some index files failed to download.  
They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
apt

7 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Important information on how to install Chrome in Ubuntu 16.04 and 17.04 at the bottom !

    This message is valid for Linux 32 bit systems only, 64 bit systems of course will stay supported. When you have the 32 bit version of Ubuntu installed, Google Chrome will not receive updates, starting from March 2016 - this already was announced by Google back on December 1st 2015.

    Google: We will end support for Google Chrome on 32-bit Linux, Ubuntu Precise (12.04) ...

    When you want to receive Chrome updates - you should switch to the 64 bit version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS and Ubuntu 15.10 are recommended to download in 64 bit flavour anyway. The next Ubuntu LTS edition 16.04 Xenial Xerus will be released in April 2016, install it in 64 bit.

    In the time frame from March to April you can use the pre-installed Firefox web browser instead. Alternatively you can install chromium-browser or epiphany-browser from Ubuntu repositories. Or you can install the 64 bit version of Ubuntu 14.04, but is this worth the effort? ... you decide ...

    The five year support for Ubuntu LTS editions covers the system including official repositories. Google Chrome is not available in the official Ubuntu repositories and that is the reason why there is no five year LTS support for Chrome provided from the Canonical/Ubuntu developers.

    Update information 2016-03-03: Google has removed the 32 bit version from their repository !

    As you can see on the Google Chrome website, there is no 32 bit Linux edition offered anymore.

    Running sudo apt-get update gives the following error: 

    Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release 
Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-i386/Packages' in Release file
(Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)  
Some index files failed to download.  
They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

    As a workaround set the repositories specifically for 64 bit: 

    sudo sed -i -e 's/deb http/deb [arch=amd64] http/' "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list" "/opt/google/chrome/cron/google-chrome"

    Reference: Fix "Failed to fetch" Google Chrome repository

    Update information 2016-03-09: Google seems to have fixed the issue in version 49.0.2623.87 !

    /opt/google/chrome/cron/google-chrome file now has these architecture relevant entries: 

    # sources.list setting for google-chrome updates.
REPOCONFIG="deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main"
REPOCONFIGREGEX="deb (\[arch=[^]]*\bamd64\b[^]]*\][[:space:]]*)?https?://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main"

    /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list file shows this architecture relevant entry: 

    ### THIS FILE IS AUTOMATICALLY CONFIGURED ###
# You may comment out this entry, but any other modifications may be lost.
deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

    Update information 2016-04-21: How to install the Google Chrome browser in Ubuntu 16.04

    There currently is an issue to install Google Chrome by downloading from Google website. When clicking on the .deb file Ubuntu Software opens, but nothing happens when you click on Install. Install Google Chrome properly this way - open a terminal and execute the following commands: 

    echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list  
wget -q -O - https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -  
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

    There is little new "weak signature" issue when updating the repositories - but it can be ignored: 

    W: http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release.gpg: Signature by key 4CCA1EAF950CEE4AB83976DCA040830F7FAC5991 uses weak digest algorithm (SHA1)

    Update information 2017-04-13: How to install the Google Chrome browser in Ubuntu 17.04

    The commands given above for Ubuntu 16.04 are still valid and the best working solution to install Google Chrome successfully. Note : the command apt can be used instead of apt-get as well.

    • 128

  2. What's happening is that the word "supported" in this message does not mean what you think it means. When Google says "this system will no longer be supported", what they say is "we will stop providing Chrome update for this system". On the other hand, when Canonical says "Ubuntu 14.04 will be supported for five years", what they say is "packages in the official repositories will receive upgrades for five years". Because the Chrome packages are not in the official Ubuntu repositories, there is no contradiction between the two.

    • 29

  3. EDIT: It appears as though Google has added the correct changes to the updates. So, simply fixing the repository line, then running the update should be good from now on.

    Google stopped 32bit Chrome support for Linux. Interestingly enough, on Google Chrome download site, they still have the link to the 32bit version.

    To fix it, make the following changes:

    (Optional) First, remove Google Chrome and the repository file: Don't worry, your settings should still be safe.

    sudo apt-get remove google-chrome-stable
sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list*

    Then update the system:

    sudo apt-get update

    Next, fix the Google Chrome repository file following commands:

    Add the key: Only if this is a first time installation.

    wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

    Then add the changes to the repository:

    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list'

    If Google Chrome is already installed:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

    If it is not installed:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable

    Hope this helps!

    • 20

  4. Switch to Chromium - it is virtually identical (it even lets you log into Google the same as Chrome), fully open source, and provided by Ubuntu repositories.

    For Flash support with Chromium, follow these instructions.

    • 13

  5. Please read https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/chromium-dev/FoE6sL-p6oU

    From there:

    To provide the best experience for the most-used Linux versions, we will end support for Google Chrome on 32-bit Linux, Ubuntu Precise (12.04), and Debian 7 (wheezy) in early March, 2016. Chrome will continue to function on these platforms but will no longer receive updates and security fixes.

    We intend to continue supporting the 32-bit build configurations on Linux to support building Chromium. If you are using Precise, we’d recommend that you to upgrade to Trusty.

    • 6

  6. On Ubuntu 64-bit, type the following commands:

    sudo sed -i -e 's/deb http/deb [arch=amd64] http/' "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list"

    And

    sudo sed -i -e 's/deb http/deb [arch=amd64] http/' "/opt/google/chrome/cron/google-chrome"

    Update package: sudo apt-get update

    According to webupd8 On 64 bit OS you need to edit the following two files:

    /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list

    Change line #3 from:

    deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

    to:

    deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

    Edit /opt/google/chrome/cron/google-chrome

    Change REPOCONFIG and SSLREPOCONFIG from:

    REPOCONFIG="deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main"
SSLREPOCONFIG="deb https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main"

    To 

    REPOCONFIG="deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main"
SSLREPOCONFIG="deb [arch=amd64] https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main"

    Update August 3,2016 :

    To install the latest version of Google chrome 50 (64bits) on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS via PPA with a good signatures:

    Download the Google Public Key:

    wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -

    Add Google Chrome Repository:

    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'

    Repository update:

    sudo apt update

    or 

    sudo apt-get update

    Install Google Chrome:

    sudo apt install google-chrome-stable

    or

    sudo apt-get install google-chrome-stable
    • 4

  7. According to http://www.webupd8.org/2016/03/fix-failed-to-fetch-google-chrome_3.html, do the following from the command prompt:

    sudo sed -i -e 's/deb http/deb [arch=amd64] http/' "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list"

sudo sed -i -e 's/deb http/deb [arch=amd64] http/' "/opt/google/chrome/cron/google-chrome"

    Note that per the source above, "this file is changed on each Google Chrome update and it looks like there's no way around that (changing /opt/google/chrome/cron/google-chrome or /etc/default/google-chrome doesn't affect this) so until Google changes this in its package, you'll need to apply the fix above after every Google Chrome update.... A workaround would be to make the .list file immutable, so it can't be changed by any Google Chrome updates, by using "sudo chattr +i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list" (which can be reversed using: "sudo chattr -i /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list") but this is not ideal and you should change this file back once Google fixes this on their end."

    • 1