How to Install Google Chrome on Debian 10/11

Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers among users. You are most likely to find Google Chrome installed on someone's browser due to its ease of usability and compatibility to many of Google's applications.

In this tutorial, we learn how to install Google Chrome on Debian 10/11. Here we download the latest google chrome deb file and install using the apt command from the command line.

Prerequisites

Before we set sail, ensure you have the following

1. An instance of Debian OS 10/11
2. Sudo user with root privileges

Step 1. Download Google Chrome

To start off, press the combination Ctrl + Alt+ T on the keyboard to launch the terminal.

Once the terminal is launched update the system repositories by running:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

Download Google Chrome's Debian package .deb file from Google's official repository using the wget command.

$ wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

With Google Chrome's Debian package already installed, let us now install Google Chrome.

Install Google Chrome on Debian 10/11

To install Google Chrome alongside all the dependencies, run the command:

$ sudo apt install ./google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

This should only take between 3-4 minutes depending on the speed of your internet connection.

You may notice google repository will be automatically added to the source list. This helps to update google chrome.

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

Output:

### 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

Launching Google Chrome

With Google Chrome installed, You can launch it by clicking on Activities > Google Chrome.

Alternatively, you can head out to your terminal and execute the command:

$ google-chrome

When launching Chrome for the first time, a pop-up notification below will be displayed asking you whether you want Google Chrome to be your default browser and if you would wish to automatically send crash reports to Google.

Make a choice according to your preference and click the OK button.

This will open Google Chrome's browser default page as shown

From there you can click on 'Sync Now'. This will require you to Sign In using your Google's account and from there, you will have a smooth ride.

Update Google Chrome

We saw earlier the installer already added google's repository, now only needs to run the following commands to update google chrome.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

Removing Google Chrome

If Google Chrome is not your piece of cake and you'd rather use another browser instead, uninstall Google Chrome using the command

# sudo apt purge google-chrome-stable

Next, run

# sudo apt autoremove

The second command clears away any residual packages after the uninstallation of Google Chrome and helps free space.

Conclusion

In this article, we learned how to install Google Chrome on Debian 10/11. Give it a try and give us your experience. Thank you for your time.