How do I run Google Chrome as root?

Question

I have installed Google Chrome in Ubuntu 10.10. When I try to use in normal user, it is working fine.

Now if I want to use as a root it gives the following error:

Google Chrome does not run as root

Also when I tried the following command in terminal, it opens Google Chrome:

google-chrome --user-data-dir

I need a permanent solution for this. Can anybody give me idea about this?

Just adding my 2 cents here: Overengineered crap. How in the world can it be so difficult to run a program as root? — Samson, Aug 13 '13 at 09:45

score 20 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 10 '16 at 17:15

Run from terminal

# google-chrome --no-sandbox --user-data-dir

or

Open the file opt/google/chrome/google-chrome and replace

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@"

to

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" --user-data-dir --no-sandbox

It's working for chrome version 49 in CentOS 6. Chrome will give warning also.

Snger · Answer 2 · 2018-11-01T05:50:10.307

12

First solution:
1. switch off Xorg access control: xhost +
2. Now start google chrome as normal user "anonymous" :
sudo -i -u anonymous /opt/google/chrome/chrome
3. When done browsing, re-enable Xorg access control:
xhost -
More info : Howto run google-chrome as root

Second solution:
1. Edit the file /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome
2. find exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@"
or exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$PROFILE_DIRECTORY_FLAG" \ "$@"
3. change as
exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" --user-data-dir ”/root/.config/google-chrome”

Third solution:
Run Google Chrome Browser as Root on Ubuntu Linux systems

edited Nov 01 '18 at 05:50

answered Sep 04 '12 at 06:55

Snger

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this is not a permanent solution – Rashmi Sep 04 '12 at 07:04
it doesnot allow me to use /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome when i do this it says google chrome can't run as root – Rashmi Sep 04 '12 at 07:21
@Rashmi Sorry,NOT open the file,**EDIT** the file. – Snger Sep 04 '12 at 07:30
it doesn't make any effect even not able to open or not getting any message. – Rashmi Sep 04 '12 at 07:39
@Rashmi Look at (third) video. – Snger Sep 04 '12 at 07:51
Not working . not able to find under hexaedit – Rashmi Sep 04 '12 at 08:56
1

+1: Second solution works like a charm for me – Louis Kottmann Aug 01 '13 at 20:56
1

Just upgraded from Chrome 21 to 48 on Ubuntu 12.04 (fluxbox). Second solution no longer works — just prints `Aborted`. First solution works. `gksu -wu chrome-user google-chrome` gets it done without disabling X server access control. – George Jan 30 '16 at 21:32

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited Sep 18 '15 at 23:45

8

Go to /opt/google/chrome.
Open google-chrome.
Append current home for data directory. Replace this:

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@"

With this:

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" --user-data-dir $HOME

For reference visit site this site, “How to run chrome as root user in Ubuntu.”

edited Sep 18 '15 at 23:45

Giacomo1968

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answered Jul 07 '15 at 10:14

ravi ranjan

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mention not. Can you please mark it as a correct answer ? – ravi ranjan Dec 29 '15 at 10:10
It works in Ubuntu 15.04 also.Thanks – ashishdhiman2007 Oct 26 '16 at 09:19
@ashishdhiman2007 Can you please mark it as correct answer ? – ravi ranjan Oct 26 '16 at 13:35
works in ubuntu 16.04 !!! – Jimit Shah May 11 '18 at 09:39
@JimitShah Thats great. Can you mark the answer as correct – ravi ranjan May 14 '18 at 18:39
@raviranjan : sorry , mark answer as correct is only done by the person who created / asked this question. I can't do it... – Jimit Shah May 15 '18 at 09:19

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 23 '14 at 03:56

5

i followed these steps

Step 1. Open /etc/chromium/default file with editor
Step 2. Replace or add this line 
CHROMIUM_FLAGS="--password-store=detect --user-data-dir=/root/chrome-profile/"
Step 3. Save it..

Thats it.... Start the browser...

answered Jan 23 '14 at 03:56

balaphp

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+1 it's working for chromium. but the question is for google-chrome. – gangadhars Jul 09 '14 at 05:05

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 30 '19 at 05:54

I tried this with Kali linux, Debian, CentOs 7,And Ubuntu

(Permanent Method)

Edit the file with any text editor (I used Leafpad) Run this code your terminal leafpad/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome
(Normally its end line) find exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" or exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$PROFILE_DIRECTORY_FLAG" \ "$@"
change as exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" --no-sandbox --user-data-dir

(Just Simple Method)

Run This command in your terminal

$ google-chrome --no-sandbox --user-data-dir

Or

$ google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox --user-data-dir

score 3 · Answer 6 · answered Apr 20 '16 at 05:59

3

Just replace following line

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@"

with

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" --user-data-dir

all things will be right.

answered Apr 20 '16 at 05:59

Sunil Kumar

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score 2 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 31 '16 at 02:02

It no longer suffices to start Chrome with --user-data-dir=/root/.config/google-chrome. It simply prints Aborted and ends (Chrome 48 on Ubuntu 12.04).

You need actually to run it as a non-root user. This you can do with

gksu -wu chrome-user google-chrome

where chrome-user is some user you've decided should be the one to run Chrome. Your Chrome user profile will be found at ~chrome-user/.config/google-chrome.

BTW, the old hack of changing all occurrences of geteuid to getppid in the chrome binary no longer works.

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 08 '16 at 03:39

STEP 1： cd /opt/google/chrome

STEP 2: edit google-chrome file. gedit google-chrome

STEP 3： find this line: exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@".

Mostly this line is in the end of google-chrome file.

Comment it out like this : #exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@"

STEP 4：add a new line at the same place.

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" --user-data-dir

STEP 5: save google-chrome file and quit. And then you can use chrome as root user. Enjoy it!

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 21 '13 at 05:10

Chrome can run as root (remember to use gksu when doing so) so long as you provide it with a profile directory.

Rather than type in the profile directory every time you want to run it, create a new bash file (I'd name it something like start-chrome.sh)

#/bin/bash
google-chrome --user-data-dir="/root/chrome-profile/"

Rember to call that script with root privelages!

$ gksu /root/start-chrome.sh

How do I run Google Chrome as root?

9 Answers9

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