Get Chromium on Ubuntu To Play mp4, H.264, MP3 & view PDF files natively

By , Published November 21, 2010

Google ChromeOS will do many wonderful things – the free and open-source version ‘Chromium OS’ sadly won’t.

Many of these ‘features’ can, given the nature of what Chrome/iumOS is, be enabled easily in both – including in the current browser versions of Chrome/ium.

Mp3 playback

Wondering whether ChromeOS will be able to play back music files? Well, Yeh-uh! Except unlike traditional desktop media players this one will be embedded in the browser.

Due to licensing issues with many of the codecs required for MP3 playback the open-source version of ChromeOS – ChromiumOS – will lack this support. We see this situation with many Linux distributions too, so it’s nothing shocking.

You can, however, re-enable it at your own discretion in the browser by installing the ‘chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra’ package from the Chromium PPA of your choice (Stable, Beta, Dev or Daily).

chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra (Click to install)

MP4 & H.264 Playback

As with MP3 playback, certain video formats are also restricted in Chromium. Again, one package soon fixes that: -

chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-nonfree (Click to install)

Built in PDF

Finally Chrome comes with a very neat (emphasis on the very there kids) built in PDF viewer. No more need to download then open in Acrobat etc., just click > view.

The procedure to install this is a little bit more complex and Chrome Story have the steps summed up perfectly. Redirect yourselves to chromestory.com/2010/11/how-to-enable-chromes-inbuilt-pdf-plugin-in-chromium-ubuntu/ and follow along.

Related posts:

  1. Download the default ChromeOS wallpaper and view the default screensaver
  2. Use Google Chrome's Native PDF reader in Chromium
  3. UDS-M: Chromium to be default browser in Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition
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  • Anonymous

    Especially the build in PDF would be nice. I will try in short notice =D

    • http://www.twm-kd.com/ BigWhale

      No success here, if I open a PDF from disk all I get is a dark browser window and no error messages. Plugin was there and it was disabled and I had to enable it. Didn’t help. :)

  • http://twitter.com/appelboor Appel Boor

    Joey, is this about Chromium (as the title says) or ChromiumOS?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Both due to the nature of ChromeOS being, essentially, just a browser with some cool plugins.

  • http://twitter.com/kurtisharms Kurtis Harms

    At some point, I think we have to ask ourselves: what’s the point? Honestly, we all know that Chrome consists of 98% of the Chromium source code, so in choosing Chromium for “open source” reasons, missing 2% of the code seems pretty minor. Also, any tracking/branding that Google adds to Chrome can be easily removed. In other words, I think it’s easier to install Chrome and disable some functionality (if you really feel it is necessary) than it is to do all these workarounds. The FS movement is great; don’t get me wrong. However, we shouldn’t be such extremists that we erase all practicality from our decisions.

    • Anonymous

      Well, if my memory serves me right, you’ve also got to sign some EULA which has some nasties in them. How would you go about that? =D

    • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

      Chromium is just better to run because it’s newer and it comes in a ppa which updates daily. Also I prefer it’s cooler-toned icon than the colourful google one.
      Installing chromium from the ppa with a few extra packages isn’t more difficult for me, it’s more convenient, and bleeding edge, which in my experience with chromium vs chrome you’re always better off with the newer code in terms of bugs.

      • Anonymous

        That icon is just a personal preference. I for instance prefer the colorful icon of Chrome, instead of the bland Chromium one.

    • Anonymous

      Even if it is just 1% of the code, I want it all to be free.
      I am showing this by using Chromium.

      If you are not into free software but rather open source:
      The day you want to make a small hack on Chrome, you’ll have to switch to Chromium anyway. You might as well switch now.

    • https://launchpad.net/~david4dev david4dev

      Chromium is for people who want a super fast browser but don’t want to be spied upon.

      • https://launchpad.net/~ethana2 ethana2

        Chrome identifies as Linux.
        Chromium identifies as Ubuntu.

        That’s why I’ve been using Chromium.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_KLJYO7GT7LH4SAYI7NV5ZMMWTQ Arab

    chromium = google chrome -non free codecs
    chromium + non free codecs = google chrome
    so if u don’t like the free chromium install google chrome instead !! that’s will be more easier

    • http://twitter.com/om26er omer akram

      you are on target but there is a problem there is no daily build for chrome ;)

      • Anonymous

        you are on target but there is a problem there is no promise of stability in the daily build for chromium ;)

    • http://twitter.com/mvklingeren Milco van Klingeren

      you forgot about a privacy part……….

      • aperson

        Which can be turned off in either regardless. Tinfoil hats not needed guys.

  • Anonymous

    This is very out of date info as far as the codecs are concerned. If you install Chromium from the PPA all you have to do is install the chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra package to play all the patent encumbered formats. There is no need for any lib swapping.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Didn’t know that, I’ll update. thanks.

      • Anonymous

        Right on, glad I could help.

        • http://zamanian.myopenid.com/ Victor

          Yes, I was just about to comment on this. The -nonfree package is the same as the -extra package and can be removed after installing.

  • http://twitter.com/TheAxeR Lucas David-Roesler

    I have done this stuff before, especially the pdf reader. But Every other update would break the pdf reader in chromium. And it was not an issue of making sure the lib was overwritten or anything like that. For some reason chromium would see and load the library but consistently say “missing plugin” whenever I tried to read a pdf. I gave up and just use Chrome now.

  • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

    apturl links don’t work in chromium, unless there is some ubuchrome plugin everyones using that I missed somehow.

    • Anonymous

      They work perfectly here. No plugin installed afaik

      • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

        well the only way I can see if you don’t have a plugin for chrome is if somehow xdg-open knows to open apt: hyperlinks using the apturl commandline program on your system, but not on mine.
        Can you try “xdg-open apt:chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra” in the terminal and see if it works?

        • Anonymous

          xdg-open apt:chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra

          Works very well. Says package is already installed here.

          • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

            Thanks, now to figure out why it works for you and not for me.

          • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

            I found a solution to my problem which I will share here for anyone else who may come across it.
            /usr/share/applications/defaults.list
            Provides a system wide set of default application associations for opening file types.
            However if a user has this file present:
            ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
            The entire system wide file is ignored. I had it present and it contained one assocation, that chromium was my default browser and nothing else. Chromium must have incorrectly used this method of making itself the default browser at some point while I was using the daily ppa, and then not cleared up it’s mess.
            Long story short delete ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list There are very few situations it would be desirable to have it present.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LRX5GQBWAZZH3XWEVDSHURUXK4 Walter

    I don’t know if the pdf trick works currently. I trie it, the plugin comes up on about:plugins but clicking a pdf file just gives missing plugin. I read the two comments on the pdf article you cited and they both complained of this same problem.

    Did you actually do this yourself?

  • https://launchpad.net/~aurelien-chabot-gmail Trishika

    chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-nonfree is useless… This is a transitional package so chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-nonfree usersget chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra on upgrade. It can be safely removed.Install chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra and you will have mp3 and h264 !Update the post and check the package description next time…

  • http://nerdcantina.blogspot.com/ punk

    hello how can i make chromium to open ftp// irc// and xdg-op apt links?

  • http://www.yallstore.com/mp4-players-c-1183_1303.html MP4 Players

    I want to buy a mp4.

 
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