Installing Google Chrome in Ubuntu 9.04 and enable flash

If a lack of third-party plug-in support (i.e. Flash) kept you from trying out Chrome on your Linux system, then avoid no longer. The "early developer version" now supports many plug-ins, and they seem to work pretty well.

Download Google Chrome for Ubuntu:

• Dev channel (for 32-bit systems): google-chrome-unstable_current_i386.deb
• Dev channel (for 64-bit systems): google-chrome-unstable_current_amd64.deb

Note: Installing Google Chrome will add the Google repository so your system will automatically keep Chrome up to date. If you don't want Google's repository, do "sudo touch /etc/default/google-chrome" before installing the package.

Also: Chromium is the open-source project behind Google Chrome so do not mix them.

Enabling Flash plugin for Google Chrome is similar to Chromium, create a directory named "plugins" (without the quotes) in /opt/google/chrome/ and then create a symbolic link to your flash player .so library into your /opt/google/chrome/plugins (simply copy & paste the following commands into a terminal):

sudo mkdir /opt/google/chrome/plugins/
cd /opt/google/chrome/plugins/
ln -s /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so

Then start Google Chrome like this:

/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --enable-plugins %U

You can add a shortcut to your Gnome panel by going to Applications > Internet, right click Google Chrome and select "Add to panel", then right click the panel icon, click "Properties" and then in the "Command" field, paste the above command.

From & Related

• http://webupd8.blogspot.com/2009/08/google-chrome-for-linux-adds-plug-ins.html
  
• http://www.clububuntu.com/2009/06/installing-google-chrome-in-ubuntu-904.html
• http://www.clububuntu.com/2009/08/installing-google-chrome-from-deb-file.html
• http://h3g3m0n.wordpress.com/2009/07/12/linux-chrome-flash-ext/