Chromium is not working in Ubuntu 12.04

Question

This is the error I get at command line:

/usr/lib/chromium-browser/chromium-browser: error while loading shared libraries: libatomic.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

But when clicking on the chromium icon at the left menu it is exiting automatically rather opening it.

Solution 1

There are several steps to get the very latest chromium-browser package running on Precise Pangolin, but I have succeeded and so should you!

1. Install from PPA:

This PPA is not recommended for general use but worked well on my Precise Pangolin system:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-chromium-builds/stage
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

chromium-browser will not work out of the box as you have experienced until a few other issues are attended to...

2. Missing libatomic:

You will see an error when loading chromium-browser from the command line: a missing library libatomic.so.1. You can search for this missing file by using the great utility apt-file:

sudo apt-get install apt-file
apt-file update

(This creates a local index rather than a system one, use sudo apt-file update if you want a system index.)

You will be prompted to download file indices and you should accept this prompt and allow the download. Then search for the missing file:

andrew@ithaca:~$ apt-file search libatomic.so.1
gcc-mozilla: /usr/lib/gcc-mozilla/lib/libatomic.so.1
gcc-mozilla: /usr/lib/gcc-mozilla/lib/libatomic.so.1.0.0
gcc-mozilla: /usr/lib/gcc-mozilla/lib32/libatomic.so.1
gcc-mozilla: /usr/lib/gcc-mozilla/lib32/libatomic.so.1.0.0
andrew@ithaca:~$ 

You can see that it is part of the gcc-mozilla package which you can install as follows:

sudo apt-get install gcc-mozilla

Note that shared libraries are not sourced from the gcc-mozilla installation location as demonstrated here:

andrew@ithaca:~$ ldconfig -v 2>/dev/null | grep -v ^$'\t'
/usr/local/lib:
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa-egl:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa:
/lib32:
/usr/lib32:
/lib:
/usr/lib:
andrew@ithaca:~$

So we add an extra path for chromium-browser with a slight variation of the technique demonstrated by @Renaud:

sudo touch /etc/ld.so.conf.d/chromium-browser.conf
echo "/usr/lib/gcc-mozilla/lib" | sudo tee -a /etc/ld.so.conf.d/chromium-browser.conf
sudo ldconfig

And you will now see the added search path:

andrew@ithaca:~$ ldconfig -v 2>/dev/null | grep -v ^$'\t'
/usr/lib/gcc-mozilla/lib:   <------------- Here!
/usr/local/lib:
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa-egl:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa:
/lib32:
/usr/lib32:
/lib:
/usr/lib:
andrew@ithaca:~$ 

Note: If you try the aptitude build-dep chromium-browser method this step (adding the LD path) will still need to be followed...

But still more errors:

3. Missing libXss.so.1:

You will then get an error message:

error while loading shared libraries: libXss.so.1:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 

Once again apt-file will locate the appropriate package:

andrew@ithaca:~$ apt-file search libXss.so.1
libxss1: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXss.so.1
libxss1: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXss.so.1.0.0
libxss1-dbg: /usr/lib/debug/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXss.so.1.0.0
andrew@ithaca:~$

And then install this library as follows:

sudo apt-get install libxss1

And that should do it as chromium-browser has no problem finding the library once installed!

4. Running the browser:

Running nicely here:

andrew@ithaca:~$ chromium-browser --version
Chromium 52.0.2743.116 Built on Ubuntu , running on Ubuntu 12.04
andrew@ithaca:~$ 

And the obligatory screenshot:

Click for full sized image....

And have fun :)

References:

• Debian Wiki: apt-file
• SO: How to print the ld(linker) search path

Solution 2

I had the same issue after upgrading. I installed the "gcc-mozilla" package, then updated LD so that it loads the library, as described below:

$ sudo -i
# apt-get install gcc-mozilla
# echo "/usr/lib/gcc-mozilla/lib" > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/chromium-browser.conf
# ldconfig
# exit

Chromium should now load gracefully.

Solution 3

Use aptitude build-dep to install dependencies before installing chromium-browser

$ aptitude -v -V build-dep chromium-browser
..
The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

     Upgrade the following packages:                                         
1)     gtk2-engines-pixbuf [2.24.10-0ubuntu6 (now, precise) -> 2.24.10-0ubunt
2)     libgail-common [2.24.10-0ubuntu6 (now, precise) -> 2.24.10-0ubuntu6.3 
3)     libgail18 [2.24.10-0ubuntu6 (now, precise) -> 2.24.10-0ubuntu6.3 (prec
4)     pciutils [1:3.1.8-2ubuntu5 (now, precise) -> 1:3.1.8-2ubuntu6 (precise
Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] y

See this Answer at How to install latest package version of a ppa?

Comments

[dufte]

Is libatomic installed? At least in 16.04 there is a package called libatomic1

[Apologician]

What method did you use for installing Chromium?

[user993616]

Actually I was going to update the chromium version initially which I was using in 12.04 LTS. But certainly I can't assure what was happened during the installation. Since then my chromium was not even opening. After clicking on the icon itself chromium is becoming invisible. Now whenever I am running through the terminal I get this error message in console. How can I search for libatomic ? Can anybody helps me in this regard ?

[Pilot6]

New versions of Chromium do not work on 12.04.

[guest271314]

@Pilot6 "New versions of Chromium do not work on 12.04." Can you provide further details? Version 51 from launchpad.net/~canonical-chromium-builds/+archive/ubuntu/sta‌​ge did load and run; though just tried to install version 52.0.2743.116-0ubuntu0.12.04.1.1015 where same error OP details occurred. See also askubuntu.com/questions/828443/….

[user993616]

Is there any better tutorial to understand ubuntu command and about the OS ? How could you find that ?

[user993616]

username@username-PC:~$ chromium-browser /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chromium-browser: error while loading shared libraries: libXss.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[user993616]

The above was the error when running chromium from the terminal

[guest271314]

Have you tried aptitude build-dep approach? Should return same result, yes?

[andrew.46]

@guest271314 I have not tried the build-dep approach although google and Ask Ubuntu shows that several have used this approach successfully. I prefer the 'cleaner' approach that I have demonstrated in my answer where specific packages are searched out and installed. It is a matter of choice :)

[andrew.46]

@guest271314 For the sake of completion I used the aptitude method on a clean VM and found the same libatomic error message which required the fix as illustrated above. After this all ran smoothly though....

[andrew.46]

I tested this method and encountered the same issue with libatomic not appearing in the LD path. Fix was simple, as illustrated in 2 of the other posts in this Q&A...

[guest271314]

Interesting. Curious why using aptitude build-dep appeared to install necessary dependencies, here?

[andrew.46]

@guest271314 It is really used when you wish to re-compile a package rather than drag in missing run-time requirements...

[guest271314]

Tried apt-file update at drive having low disk space, had to CTRL-C as available disk space approached 0.

[andrew.46]

@guest271314 If you load the cache to your $HOMEdirectory it will be in ~/.cache/apt-file and will take up close to 100 MB...

[guest271314]

@andrew.46 "I tested this method and encountered the same issue with libatomic not appearing in the LD path." Interesting. Received error described at Question before using aptitude build-dep. Used aptitude build-dep chromium-browser, and am now composing this comment at chromium 52, without any errors being logged.

[guest271314]

Perhaps at a disk with greater space apt-file would be an applicable solution. aptitude build-dep chromium-browser returned expected result, here, without consuming remainder of available disk space.

[guest271314]

See also How to update chromium daily builds manually