Install Chrome/Chromium on Jetson? Help @jwz?

So, @jwz asked for a cheap linux box to display html over hdmi. https://twitter.com/jwz/status/518903401346633728

I thought the TK1 would do it, but Firefox was crushed by the 2nd page in his example. I wonder if it is just the Firefox browser, though. So, I went to install Chrome or Chromium and found no helpful pages. The NV site sends you to a page to install x86 Chrome. Bah.

So, how can I install Chrome or Chromium on the Jetson TK1? apt-get install chrome, chromium doesn’t work. apt-cache search doesn’t give a good response either.

Help?

–Roger

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Hi Roger,

I use:

$ sudo apt-get install chromium-browser -y

Hopes this helps

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Thanks, Kangalow, but that’s not working for me…I suppose I don’t have a repository listed in some file? Ideas?

This was right after sudo apt-get update

ubuntu@muggy:~$ sudo apt-get install chromium-browser -y
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Package chromium-browser is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package ‘chromium-browser’ has no installation candidate

Hi Roger,

Try:

$ sudo apt-add-repository universe
$ sudo apt-get update

If that’s not enough, you can try to add this which is for things like proprietary codecs:

$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras
$ sudo apt-get update

Then try to load Chromium again.

Hope this helps

Hey, I found the “universe” ppas in the /etc/apt/sources.list file. Now I’m able to install the chromium-browser. Thanks, Kangalow.

Unfortunately, the 2nd web page renders just as poorly on Chromium. Very stuttery…

I wonder why this page performs so horribly? DNA Lounge: Upcoming Flyers

(our posts crossed. I’ll try the restricted extras…sounds exciting! :^)

FWIW, to install the restricted extras, I needed to do this first.

$ sudo apt-add-repository multiverse

But still…I think Firefox might actually render that page faster… Bummer.

I also get better performance from Firefox on that page.
Looking at the CPU while running I think you will be better off with the Denver version of the Jetson board if/when it becomes available. (assuming the software will work correctly on it out of the box, since ARM V8 is so new that might be a problem)

If you redesigned the page to use WebGL though it would probably run at 60FPs at 1080p on the current Jetson though.
You could of course also get a cheap x86 SBC with an Intel Bay Trail atom CPU. These have Ivy Bridge class Intel HD graphics and run up to 2.4GHz with most instruction features found on ivy bridge.
Also a webgl version of the page would still run faster on the intel CPU anyway.

Running a haswell chromebook and that second example is slow. I would look at optimizing the page frankly :)

I find chromium to be generally faster than Firefox on jetson but they both lag hard on ondemand governor.
Its installed from software center.

For Chrome you might want test with max perf:

[url]Jetson/Performance - eLinux.org

The power consumption doesn’t increase significantly even with maximum CPU clocks, if the system is otherwise idle.

EDIT: Chrome is the Google’s closed source build of the browser and Google only offers 32bit and 64bit x86 builds, so unfortunately it’s not possible to run it on ARM based devices like Jetson. Chromium is open source and it’s built by the different distros as any other package for multiple architectures.

I’m trying to run google chrome using exagear,but I need help to configure correctly the ubuntu guest.

Now comes the problem - as of today: Google deviced to revoke sync features that have been working work chromium on the jetson devices so far: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1322559/sync-chromium-with-a-google-account-does-not-work-any-more-solutions. Now, this key feature is gone. We have been keeping several jetson devices browser-synced so far. Need to look for alternatives, e.g., firefox. It’s a pity.