5

This is either a misunderstanding on my part and I am missing something obvious, or this will be only a rant.

Why is it that if packages are being moved to snap, that we now have to deal with permissions issues? Example: Chromium. I download anything, it gets put in a directory owned by root. I then have to open a terminal and chown the files and move to them to the destination I wanted in the first place. Am I missing an obvious solution to this problem?

If this is intended, since by design using snaps inherently isolates apps, and thus uses traditional users/groups, then this is a step backwards in the overall goal of usability of a linux desktop.

I am all for security, I work in IT Security. But this is not an acceptable change to break functionality to the users. It really is frustrating to me.

I am on 19.10, and if I understand correctly, Chromium will now only be released as snaps, no longer as debs. Please tell me if I am wrong.

Binar Web
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Nowell Morris
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2 Answers2

1

Although the Chromium devs have announced their intent to go snap only eighteen months ago, they're not there yet. "In most cases, Chromium is directly available in the official repository of each Linux distribution."

You can still install the Chromium Browser without snap with sudo apt update && sudo apt install chromium chromium-l10n and you can still download the binaries to compile it yourself.

Why Snaps?

"Snaps, and the tool for using them, snapd, work across a range of Linux distributions (which use systemd), allowing distribution-agnostic upstream software packaging" per https://snapcraft.io/ .

Since the snap is a compressed file containing all dependencies , it's easier on developers as well as users. Since developers write neat stuff which make running Linux worthwhile, they like it.

K7AAY
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0

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/call-for-testing-chromium-browser-deb-to-snap-transition/11179/22 lead me to https://snapcraft.io/docs/snap-confinement and

lad ~$ snap info --verbose chromium
name:    chromium
summary: Chromium web browser, open-source version of Chrome
health:
  status:  unknown
  message: health has not been set
publisher: Canonical✓
contact:   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bugs?field.tag=snap
license:   unset
description: |
  An open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all
  Internet users to experience the web.
commands:
  - chromium.chromedriver
  - chromium
notes:               
  private:           false
  confinement:       strict
  devmode:           false
  jailmode:          false
  trymode:           false
  enabled:           true
  broken:            false
  ignore-validation: false
base:         core18
snap-id:      XKEcBqPM06H1Z7zGOdG5fbICuf8NWK5R
tracking:     beta
refresh-date: 12 days ago, at 15:43 MST
channels:
  stable:    78.0.3904.97  2019-11-08 (937) 160MB -
  candidate: 78.0.3904.108 2019-11-19 (949) 160MB -
  beta:      79.0.3945.29  2019-11-08 (939) 155MB -
  edge:      80.0.3962.2   2019-11-11 (945) 155MB -
installed:   79.0.3945.29             (939) 155MB -
lad ~$ snap connections chromium
Interface                 Plug                               Slot                            Notes
audio-playback            chromium:audio-playback            :audio-playback                 -
audio-record              chromium:audio-record              -                               -
browser-support           chromium:browser-sandbox           :browser-support                -
camera                    chromium:camera                    :camera                         -
content[gtk-3-themes]     chromium:gtk-3-themes              gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes  -
content[icon-themes]      chromium:icon-themes               gtk-common-themes:icon-themes   -
content[sound-themes]     chromium:sound-themes              gtk-common-themes:sound-themes  -
cups-control              chromium:cups-control              :cups-control                   -
desktop                   chromium:desktop                   :desktop                        -
gsettings                 chromium:gsettings                 :gsettings                      -
home                      chromium:home                      :home                           -
mount-observe             chromium:mount-observe             -                               -
mpris                     -                                  chromium:mpris                  -
network                   chromium:network                   :network                        -
network-bind              chromium:network-bind              :network-bind                   -
network-manager           chromium:network-manager           -                               -
opengl                    chromium:opengl                    :opengl                         -
password-manager-service  chromium:password-manager-service  :password-manager-service       manual
personal-files            chromium:chromium-config           :personal-files                 -
pulseaudio                chromium:pulseaudio                :pulseaudio                     -
removable-media           chromium:removable-media           -                               -
screen-inhibit-control    chromium:screen-inhibit-control    :screen-inhibit-control         -
u2f-devices               chromium:u2f-devices               :u2f-devices                    -
unity7                    chromium:unity7                    :unity7                         -
upower-observe            chromium:upower-observe            :upower-observe                 -
x11                       chromium:x11                       :x11                            -
lad ~$ 

lad ~$ snap help refresh
<read this>
<in order to refresh, get an updated version or downgraded version>
lad ~$ sudo snap refresh --edge --classic chromium
<this did not work, you have to remove and re-add, losing settings and data>
lad ~$ sudo snap remove chromium
chromium removed
lad ~$ sudo snap install --edge --devmode chromium
lad ~$ snap info --verbose chromium
name:    chromium
summary: Chromium web browser, open-source version of Chrome
health:
  status:  unknown
  message: health has not been set
publisher: Canonical✓
contact:   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bugs?field.tag=snap
license:   unset
description: |
  An open-source browser project that aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all
  Internet users to experience the web.
commands:
  - chromium.chromedriver
  - chromium
notes:               
  private:           false
  confinement:       strict
  devmode:           true
  jailmode:          false
  trymode:           false
  enabled:           true
  broken:            false
  ignore-validation: false
base:         core18
snap-id:      XKEcBqPM06H1Z7zGOdG5fbICuf8NWK5R
tracking:     edge
refresh-date: today at 12:14 MST
channels:
  stable:    78.0.3904.97  2019-11-08 (937) 160MB -
  candidate: 78.0.3904.108 2019-11-19 (949) 160MB -
  beta:      79.0.3945.29  2019-11-08 (939) 155MB -
  edge:      80.0.3962.2   2019-11-11 (945) 155MB -
installed:   80.0.3962.2              (945) 155MB devmode
lad ~$ 
<breath fresh air again, no longer tied down>```
Nowell Morris
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