Google Chrome is a secure, fast, and the most popular web browser. It is a cross-platform browser (Windows, Linux, iOS, Android, etc.) and is the default browser on Android devices. It offers plugins and smart built-in features to assist users with browsing. In Debian 12, Firefox is the default browser, and Google Chrome does not come pre-installed in Debian 12.
In this article, the installation of the Google Chrome web browser in Debian 12 (Bookworm) systems is discussed.
How to Install Chrome Browser on Debian Bookworm?
Google Chrome can be installed using the below-listed methods:
- Install Google Chrome via APT Package Manager
- Install Google Chrome via DPKG Package Manager
How to Install Google Chrome via APT Package Manager?
APT (Advance Package Tool) is Debian’s default package manager. Google Chrome can be installed using the apt package manager by the following steps:
Step 1: Launch Terminal
The terminal can be launched either by using the shortcut “Ctrl+Alt+T” or by using the Application Launcher.
All applications, system components, and files installed on the system are placed in the Application Launcher. To launch the terminal using the application launcher, press the Activities button in the left corner of the screen, then type “Terminal” in the search bar, and finally select the Terminal icon:
The following screenshot shows how the Terminal Application looks like on Debian:
Step 2: Download the .deb package
The .deb packages are used by Debian-based distributions such as Linux Mint, Ubuntu, etc. Now, we will use the command below to download the .deb package, i.e., google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb of Google Chrome:
Step 3: Install Google Chrome
The following command will be used to install the downloaded .deb package, i.e., google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb:
After the installation process is completed, Google Chrome will be added to Activity Launcher.
Step 4: Launch Google Chrome
Google Chrome can be launched by pressing the Activities button in the left corner of the screen, then by typing “Google Chrome” in the search bar and by selecting the Google Chrome icon:
We will get the following window when launching Google Chrome for the first time. We can select any option according to our wish and press “OK”:
We can also launch Google Chrome by command line by typing “google-chrome” on the terminal as follows:
Now, launch Google Chrome:
How to Install Google Chrome via DPKG Package Manager?
The dpkg is a package manager that provides low-level package management, i.e., it does not check dependencies. Google Chrome can be installed using dpkg package manager by the following steps:
Step1: Download the .deb package
We can access the Google Chrome Website to download the .deb package. This can be done by launching “Firefox” or any other browser.
Firefox can be launched by pressing the Activities button in the left corner of the screen, then by typing “Firefox” in the search bar and by selecting the “Firefox ESR” icon:
We can then open the Google Chrome website www.google.com/chrome and press the “Download Chrome” button: 
We will get the following window where we will select the type of file. As we are using Debian, we will select the 64-bit .deb (For Debian/Ubuntu) option to continue with the installation:
The .deb package (google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb) will start to download and will be automatically saved in the “Downloads” folder by default:
Step 2: Update apt Sources/Packages
After downloading the .deb package, we will update apt sources/packages. It is recommended to make sure that all existing packages are up to date before installing any software. This is to avoid dependency issues.
In order to update apt source/packages, we will launch the Terminal (as shown in Step 1 of Method 1) and run the following command as root or user with sudo privileges:
Step 3: Install Google Chrome
After the source/packages are updated, the next step is to install Google Chrome. As the .deb package is stored in the Downloads folder, we will navigate to this folder using the “cd” command with the specified folder. After that, users can display the stored file using the “ls” command as shown below:
We can then install Google Chrome by using the following command:
After installation, we will launch Google Chrome either by command line or by Application Launcher as shown in Step 4 of Method1.
How to Uninstall Google Chrome on Debian 12?
If in case, we need to completely uninstall Google Chrome from our device, we can run the following command:
Press “Y” at the prompt to continue with the uninstallation process:
From the above screenshot, we can observe that Google Chrome is uninstalled
Conclusion
To install one of the most popular Web browsers Google Chrome on the Debian 12 (Bookworm) system, use apt and dpkg package manager. Google Chrome is the default browser on Android devices. It is not pre-installed on Linux repositories. However, it can be installed manually using “apt” or “dpkg” packages. This article has discussed two methods in detail.
