It took a bit longer than usual to come up with packages for the recently released Chromium 84. Google’s “Stable Channel” blog for Chrome announced the version 84.0.4147.89 just over a week ago, but as I was traveling at the time (without computer) new packages needed to wait.
And just when I uploaded these packages to the mirror server I discovered that Google already released an update yesterday: 84.0.4147.94. That will have to wait since again I am busy at the moment. Enjoy the first 84 release though!
Chromium 84 sees a lot of bugs fixed, of which 38 are security fixes. There’s also the usual UI and engine improvements but there’s really not much visible on the User Interface side. With one exception: the ‘spam’ notification popups which some web sites bothered you with are now hidden by default under a button in the URL bar. By clicking that button you can decide to show the blocked popups (or not). This feature was implemented earlier by Mozilla in their Firefox browser where it was highly valued by its users.
Under the hood, the most notable change is that Google has removed support for the insecure TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 ciphers. Web servers which still use these for their HTTPS content will be blocked by default and you’ll see an error.
Slackware packages for Chromium 84.0.4147.89 are in my package repository already. They are available as 64bit versions for both Slackware 14.2 and -current and a 32bit version only for Slackware-current.
There is no new 32bit package for Slackware 14.2 unfortunately, because I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to compile the package. Let’s hope future releases allow me to compile the 32bit package for 14.2 again…
Note that because of the changed status of the Widevine library (which is now automatically downloaded and kept updated by the browser), a separate “chromium-widevine-plugin” package containing the Widevine DRM library is no longer required. Widevine is a Content Decryption Module (CDM) used by companies like Netflix and Disney+ to stream video to your computer in a Chromium browser window.
Also note (to the purists among you): even though support for Widevine CDM plugin has been built into my chromium package, that package is still built from Open Source software only. If you do not want theWidevine DRM library to be downloaded at all, you will have to recompile the chromium package after setting “USE_CDM=0” in the chromium.SlackBuild script. This can not be disabled at run-time.
Chromium packages: https://slackware.nl/people/alien/slackbuilds/chromium/ (rsync://slackware.nl/mirrors/people/alien/slackbuilds/chromium/)
Enjoy! Eric
Thanks Eric! Thanks for creating a Slackbuild of QMPlay2 and a build of it for me! You’ve made my day!
I’ve installed it, and it’s working fine. It seems a little faster than the 83 version, and actually allows me to sign in to Google! (I was still investigating why I couldn’t when I saw you post about the update)
Running Slackware 14.2 – 64
Am I the only one that can’t open Developer Tools in the new version of Chromium?
I can confirm.
Looking at this Debian bug report, I may be compiling Chromium with a version of nodejs which is too old: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1873996
I use nodejs 13.12.0 but 14.6.0 is the most recent version.
Hi Eric, thanks! So far it’s working OK here.
I have uploaded packages for the latest Chromium 84.0.4147.94.
I am including the 32bit package for Slackware 14.2 again. The use of a newer nodejs version fixed both the compilation on 32bit Slackware 14.2 as well as the broken Developer Tools (reported by Aleksandar higher up on this page).
Now it works fine. Thanks Eric!
Thanks a lot!
Hello Eric
Thank you for chromium: updated to 85.0.4183.83 for Slackware 14.2 and -current.
The 14.2 versions seem to have acquired a dependency on wayland – but wayland is not included in 14.2…………
Thanks
peebee
Hi peebee
I think something is wrong on your end. The packages for Slackware 14.2 and -current are actually the same, and have been built on Slackware 14.2 – without Wayland installed.
I am running the 64bit package on my Slackware 14.2 system, where Wayland is also absent, and it works as expected.
My sincere apologies – it was my fault – the wayland dependency comes in from gtk3 not chromium and I was using the wrong version. VERY SORRY!
Why does chromium-85.0.4183.83-x86_64-1alien remember some sites’ passwords but not accounts.google.com’s?
And no passwords are listed at chrome://settings/passwords, despite some being saved.
Try deleting all cache/history folders, then start Chromium and login to your Google account?
Works as advertised here…