APT now installs SNAPS ?

[Shibblet]

This all started in a different thread for different reasons:
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2461000

This ultimately led me to a completely different question...

Maybe I don't understand APT that well, but it always thought it was it's own package manager.
The other day I attempted to add a PPA for a Development branch of Chromium (as noted in the previous thread).

When I went to install it, even using APT, and after putting in the PPA... it launched SNAP to install Chromium!!!
So, I went to remove snap, and all of it's subsidiaries... and when I went to install Chromium again, it downloaded Snap on it's own and then installed the Chromium SNAP!!!

This is noted in this article at the bottom under "Gotcha."
https://www.kevin-custer.com/blog/di...-ubuntu-20-04/

So... to the Questions...

• Why would APT force a SNAP install?
• Aren't they different package managers?
• Is this just the direction Ubuntu is going?
• Everything has to be Snaps whether you like them or not?

[Shibblet]

Apparently this has caused some division...

From the below listed article:

"Ubuntu is planning to replace the Chromium [Google's open-source browser and foundation for Chrome] repository package with an empty package, which installs the Chromium Snap. In other words, as you install APT [Debian's program for installing and managing DEB files] updates, Snap becomes a requirement for you to continue to use Chromium and installs itself behind your back. This breaks one of the major worries many people had when Snap was announced and a promise from its developers that it would never replace APT.

A self-installing Snap Store which overwrites part of our APT package base is a complete NO-NO. It's something we have to stop and it could mean the end of Chromium updates and access to the Snap store in Linux Mint."

https://www.zdnet.com/article/linux-...s-ubuntu-snap/

[Frogs Hair]

This is how chromium is listed in synaptic which I thought was a GUI for apt. It does show that it is a snap in the description and does install the snap.

[Shibblet]

This is how chromium is listed in synaptic which I thought was a GUI for apt. It does show that it is a snap in the description and does install the snap.

Yup. I watched it happen in the terminal, and then went to Muon to look it up...
The problem is even if you uninstall SNAP, the Chromium-Browser will re-install SNAP in order to install itself!!!

[CelticWarrior]

If you're using the development branch PPA then it shouldn't.

[Frogs Hair]

The only way to get chromium is via snap or flatpack AFIK. There was a ppa at one time just to keep chromium up to date, but it's dead.

https://launchpad.net/~chromium-dail.../ubuntu/stable

[CelticWarrior]

I emant this one: https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+...u/chromium-dev

[Shibblet]

If you're using the development branch PPA then it shouldn't.

I agree, it shouldn't.

I emant this one: https://launchpad.net/~saiarcot895/+...u/chromium-dev

Yep. Try installing that PPA, and then go to install Chromium-Browser. You will get the SNAP no matter what.

It's almost like watching "West Side Story..." You know, where one gang attempts to establish dominance with SNAPS.

[CelticWarrior]

Yep. Try installing that PPA, and then go to install Chromium-Browser. You will get the SNAP no matter what.

No, been there, done that and no, it didn't. But I uninstalled the previous (snap) Chromium.

[CatKiller]

It's not new.

They're dogfooding Chromium as a snap for these reasons. In prior releases they had random things as snaps, like Gnome's calculator.

The deb in the repositories has to pull in the snap for the dogfooding test to actually take place.

If the PPA you're using has a newer version of Chromium then you'll get a traditional package from the PPA; if the version in the Ubuntu repositories is newer, you'll get that, which pulls in the snap. That's just how the package manager works.

Lots of people enjoy getting in a huff.