# Installing Google Chrome on FreeBSD



## spython01 (Aug 20, 2018)

Is there a way to install Google Chrome (not Chromium) on FreeBSD?  I need to attend a lot of meetings via WebEx which does not seem to work with Firefox and the Cisco WebEx Extension.  I thought I could try it with Chrome since that seems to work on my Ubuntu machine.  I couldn't find any packages or ports for Chrome.

Thanks!


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## drhowarddrfine (Aug 20, 2018)

No. Chromium is it. Why don't you want to use Chromium?


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## kpa (Aug 20, 2018)

Google doesn't support FreeBSD directly when it comes to Chrome, they don't offer binary packages fior Chrome like they do for example Ubuntu and other popular Linux distributions. Chrome is a closed source product and to run it you must get it in binary form from Google.


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## spython01 (Aug 22, 2018)

drhowarddrfine said:


> Why don't you want to use Chromium?



I am trying to use WebEx which is what my company uses for conference calls and videoconferences.


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## drhowarddrfine (Aug 22, 2018)

spython01 Are you sure it doesn't work on Chromium? I don't know anything about WebEx.


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## spython01 (Aug 22, 2018)

drhowarddrfine said:


> Are you sure it doesn't work on Chromium?


Unfortunately, yes.  I get the "Your browser, browser version, or operating system is currently unsupported" error when I try to join a meeting.



> I don't know anything about WebEx.


I envy you.


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## rigoletto@ (Aug 22, 2018)

Have you tried changing the user agent to something it is known to support?


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## spython01 (Sep 11, 2018)

lebarondemerde said:


> Have you tried changing the user agent to something it is known to support?


Sorry for the delayed response.  I did try setting both `general.useragent.override` and `general.useragent.overridepreference` to `Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/65.0.3325.181 Safari/537.36` but neither worked.


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## PaddyMac (Sep 14, 2018)

I suspect the problem is more likely that WebEx doesn't support FreeBSD. Even the Linux version of WebEx doesn't have full feature support: https://www.webex.co.uk/support/support-system-requirements.html


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## aht0 (Sep 27, 2018)

PaddyMac said:


> I suspect the problem is more likely that WebEx doesn't support FreeBSD. Even the Linux version of WebEx doesn't have full feature support: https://www.webex.co.uk/support/support-system-requirements.html


I see this link stating

```
Linux support
WebEx will support any Linux distribution as long as it meets the following minimum requirements:
Kernel: 2.6 or later
..
```
Have you tried running the Chrome for Linux on FreeBSD using Linux ABI?


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## PaddyMac (Sep 28, 2018)

I have tried running the Linux version of Google Chrome on FreeBSD. Even after manually installing the CentOS libraries not provided by the linux-c7 package which Chrome requires, it still doesn't run. I suspect there are deficiencies in FreeBSD's Linux emulation which must be resolved before the Linux version of Google Chrome will run on FreeBSD.

One thing I've not tried yet is installing the binary plugins from the Linux version of Google Chrome for use with the natively compiled Chromium on FreeBSD. But that may be a path worth exploring.


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## drhowarddrfine (Sep 28, 2018)

PaddyMac Chromium, by itself, is a huge complicated beast that FreeBSD devs have trouble wrangling. Adding Google's code to it, that makes it Chrome, complicates it even further  and Google is never any help. Then it changes three months later.


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## rufwoof (Sep 28, 2018)

OpenBSD seem to suggest that Chrome (chromium) is better structured code than Firefox. In 6.4 (-current) they've included unveil ... which I believe adds pledge like controls for Chrome (which limits what programs can see/do in memory (unveil is for filesystem access controls)). Trying that along with a google block /etc/hosts file entries as per the Answers section hosts file additions in this post https://superuser.com/questions/1135339/cant-block-connections-to-google-via-hosts-file, in addition to https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts host file entries, and it's really quick. For instance yahoo news pages that previously dragged for me, load/show quickly.


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## xk2600 (Jan 6, 2020)

Not to bring life to a dead thread, but in case someone has run into this issue... I just wanted to note my fix for this:

Most of the "this is not supported in your browser" messages generated by corporate/enterprise targeted web applications are in relation to the user agent string presented by chrome or firefox. I just add "Chrome UA Spoofer" to my plugins in chromium. Then I set the useragent to the relevant "linux" version of the install. This tells the server, just pretend I'm coming from a supported linux in xorg host and quit complaining that my useragent says "FreeBSD"

My current useragent as follows:
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/61.0.3163.79 Safari/537.36

This works for everything I use on a regular basis for enterprise web apps... except for sadly google earth. Notable applications that this has alleviated most of my frustrations with:

Webex Teams (Previously Cisco Spark)
Webex Meetings
Microsoft Office 365 Web Applications
Hotmail (live.com/outlook.com)
Sharepoint
Citrix Portal
Zoom Video
Gotomeeting

Also, specific to webex, I believe there is a Webex plugin for Chrome in the "Chrome Web Store"


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## russelld (Apr 27, 2021)

xk2600 said:


> Not to bring life to a dead thread, but in case someone has run into this issue... I just wanted to note my fix for this:
> 
> Most of the "this is not supported in your browser" messages generated by corporate/enterprise targeted web applications are in relation to the user agent string presented by chrome or firefox. I just add "Chrome UA Spoofer" to my plugins in chromium. Then I set the useragent to the relevant "linux" version of the install. This tells the server, just pretend I'm coming from a supported linux in xorg host and quit complaining that my useragent says "FreeBSD"
> 
> ...


thanks for the heads up on this workaround!
with regard to plugins for UA spoofing in Chrome, be sure to read the privacy policy as some collect user data.
User-Agent Switcher doesn't collect data.
cheers


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## scottro (Apr 27, 2021)

In case web searches bring people to this thread, note that there is now a how to for using chrome for those things that chromium can't do. 
This is for brave, but has links to the author's chrome howto. 








						[Linuxulator] How to install Brave (Linux app) on FreeBSD 13.0+
					

Important notes: 1) This guide is for FreeBSD 13.0 and newer only!! For FreeBSD 12, please see: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/linuxulator-how-to-run-google-chrome-linux-binary-on-freebsd.77559/ 2) This method should be valid for installing any other Chromium-based web browser (Google...




					forums.freebsd.org


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