Cant Launch Chrome 18 After Installation

Hello to all,

I am new to Linux and rather not skilled at using the Terminal application.
I chose openSuse after I reading many reviews claiming it is the best distribution for laptop users.
I am currently testing on VirtualBox before I go ahead and switch OS.

Let me now cut to the chase:
I downloaded and installed Chrome 18 in 3 different ways so far but when I try to launch, no joy.
Bouncy Chrome ball appears next to my cursor for a while and after a while it disappears.

I Googled for answers and fixes and I bumped into libpng12-0.
Now, as I mentioned, I am really new to Linux and the use of Terminal.
Reading about having to install libpng12-0 or reading through a list of not so accurate Terminal commands has not proved to be of any help so far.
My desperate effort of using the Terminal gave no results due to what I feel was me not understanding instructions.
Well, my fail was related to reading a message stating that libpng12-0 is already installed.
So maybe libpng12-0 is not even the answer I was looking for.

Excuse my lack of knowledge.
I’d really appreciate all the help I can get on this one and I am terribly sorry if this is an old and resolved issue that I did not manage to find before posting.
Thanks in advance to all.

Hi, welcome to the forums.

  • Open Yast - Software - Repository Manager
  • Click Add, enter the URL below

[Index of /repositories/network:/chromium/openSUSE_12.1](http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/chromium/openSUSE_12.1/)

and enter “Contrib” in the name field.

  • Click OK, you will be asked to trust a key, click Trust
  • Click “Finish” , or OK to leave the software manager

Now start Yast - Software - Softwaremanagement

  • Click View - Repos
  • Tick the Contrib repo
  • Click “Switch systempackages …”
  • Click “chromium” for install of not yet selected for updating (green mark), accept the extra packages to be installed.
  • Accept the changes, let the installer do it’s job and you should end up with the latest Chrome.

Another thing you can do to test, is to open a terminal window (Programs - System - Terminal - konsole) and do:


chromium

Thank you very much Knurpht!
Your instructions where accurate and easy to follow.
I got Chromium now working, bookmarks synced and everything’s good.
For the record, I did not use the Click “Switch systempackages …” part cause there was no such option at least for me.
The repositories thing is quite interesting and new to me.
Thanks to you, I know how to add SW repositories but how do I learn about them?
Where to look, which ones to add, what they contain and so on.
Is there a place where I can learn about repositories?

Now, as far as I know Chromium is the base project used for Google Chrome but are there any differences I should be aware of?
Stuff that I wont be able to use for example which I am used to using with Google Chrome?

Finally, am I pushing my luck if I told you I am having the exact same problem with Skype?
It is installed but it will not launch.

Again, thank you for all the help, it’s greatly appreciated.
Love the looks and feel of openSUSE with KDE and love even more the Linux philosophy so I am eager to learn more.
I promise this is the last addition to this thread!

Chromium is indeed not as “stable” as Chrome and although rare there are indeed problems I’ve run into that were not problems in Chrome.

But, Chrome 18 is also not to be recommended yet.

The current stable version is v 17.0.963.46

HTH,
TS