Just so there’s no confusion, Chromium is an open source web browser project. Google Chrome is a web browser from Google, based on the Chromium project. If you are familiar with Google Chrome in Windows, the Chromium browser looks very similar, but lacks the Google branding. Right now, there is no Google Chrome for Linux.

Here’s how I installed Chromium on Fedora 11.

Download the latest Chromium and v8 files for your OS (32 or 64 bit) from http://spot.fedorapeople.org/chromium/F11/ Save them to ~/Download or whatever location is convenient for you.

At the time of this post, these two files were
“chromium-4.0.204.0-0.1.20090827svn24640.fc11.x86_64.rpm” and
“v8-1.3.8-1.20090827svn2777.fc11.x86_64.rpm”, but they are certain to change frequently.

Open up a terminal window (Applications > System Tools > Terminal). You will probably need to switch to root for the entire installation process. To do this, type:

su

First, install two dependencies:

yum install minizip

minizip manipulates files from a .zip archive.

yum install nss-mdns

nss-mdns is a plugin for the GNU Name Service Switch (NSS) functionality of the GNU C Library (glibc) providing host name resolution via Multicast DNS (aka Zeroconf, aka Apple Rendezvous, aka Apple Bonjour), effectively allowing name resolution by common Unix/Linux programs in the ad-hoc mDNS domain .local. nss-mdns provides client functionality only, which means that you have to run a mDNS responder daemon separately from nss-mdns if you want to register the local host name via mDNS (e.g. Avahi).

Once those installs are complete, stay in the terminal window, navigate to the folder containing the Chromium and v8 downloads and then type:

rpm -ivh v8* chromium*

This will run the installer on the two downloads. If you see any other dependencies, just handle them as they come.

That’s it, you should see Chromium Web Browser under Applications > Internet.

Installing Chromium via YUM

If you want to install Chromium via YUM, you just need to add a new repository file to the /etc/yum.repos.d directory. I’m partial to gedit, so I’ll use that editor in the instructions.

Open a terminal and type:

sudo bash

This will give you root privileges for launching gedit (and other GUI apps). Launch gedit by typing:

gedit

Copy and paste the following lines into the new document:

[chromium]
name=Chromium Test Packages
baseurl=http://spot.fedorapeople.org/chromium/F11/
enabled=1 
gpgcheck=0

Save the file as chromium.repo to /etc/yum.repos.d/. (If you are running Fedora 10, change the F11 to F10 in the baseurl path.)

Back in the terminal window, type:

yum update

YUM will pick up the new chromium file. You’re now ready to install Chromium with the line:

yum install chromium