How to Install Google Chrome in Kali Linux? – Part 3 – Running Chrome

Continued from How to Install Google Chrome in Kali Linux? – Part 2 – Installation

Running Google Chrome in Kali Linux

You have follow choices to run Google Chrome in Kali Linux:

1. Run Google Chrome as a Standard user in Kali Linux
   • Create a Standard non-root user and run Google Chrome – See How to add remove user (standard user/non-root) in Kali Linux?
2. Run Google Chrome as Root user in Kali Linux
   • By modifying /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome file
3. Run Google Chrome as Standard User (while Logged in as root) in Kali Linux
   • Run Google Chrome using gksu
   • Run Google Chrome using sux

Of these 3 options, 1 is the secure most, but somewhat beats the purpose of using Kali Linux in the first place. Option 2 is somewhat a security risk, but then again, you’re probably running IceWeasel/Firefox/Opera and who knows what browser already while signed into your Google account.

Option 3 is probably the best way to go about it.

So let’s get on with it:

Run Google Chrome as a Standard user in Kali Linux

This is self explanatory.

1. Install Google Chrome in Kali Linux by following either of the choices from this previous post: How to Install Google Chrome in Kali Linux? – Part 2 – Installation
2. Create a Standard user by following this previous post: How to add remove user (standard user/non-root) in Kali Linux?
3. Login as your standard user and run Google Chrome in Kali Linux

Pros:

1. Secured, your standard user (as long it doesn’t have sudo access) wont be able to mess up your system.
2. You can allow a second user to Google Chrome with with arrangements.

Cons:

1. Beats the purpose of using Kali Linux, Kali was meant to be run as root user.
2. Quite annoying switching between users.
3. We have better options available.

Now you can run Google Chrome in Kali Linux as Standard user.

Run Google Chrome as Root user in Kali Linux

This is the second way of running Google Chrome in Kali Linux. Many will have different views whether it’s a good idea to run as root, but you’re probably running IceWeasel/Firefox/Opera and who knows what browser already while signed into your Google account. So I’ll leave the judgment upto you whether this is what you want to do or not!

Edit required file

leafpad /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome

Go to the end of the file and find this following line:

exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome"  "$@"

Add -user-data-dir string

Add –user-data-dir at the end of that line. So the new line would look like this:

Save and close the file.

Now you can run Google Chrome from Application > Internet > Google Chrome in Kali Linux as root user.

Run Google Chrome as Standard User (while Logged in as root) in Kali Linux

We can run Google Chrome as Standard User (while Logged in as root) in Kali Linux in two different ways:

• Run Google Chrome using gksu
• Run Google Chrome using sux

For both options we need to create a standard user.

Add a non-root standard user:

useradd -m chromeuser

Note: It is very important that you use the -m flag. It creates home directory for the new user which is required to run Google Chrome in Kali Linux. You can follow this guide for a full explanation on how to add/delete a standard user in Kali Linux: How to add remove user (standard user/non-root) in Kali Linux?

Run Google Chrome using gksu

gksu  is a frontend to su and gksudo is a frontend to sudo.  Their primary purpose is to run graphical commands that need root without the need to run an X terminal emulator and using su directly.

To run Google Chrome in Kali Linux as a Standard non-root user (while logged in as root) using gksu, type in the following command in terminal window:

gksu -u chromeuser google-chrome

and Voila! you have Google Chrome running in Kali Linux (while logged in as root).

Note: gksudo doesn’t work while logged in as root.

You’ll get this error: (gksudo:19376): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_str_has_prefix: assertion `str != NULL' failed

 

Run Google Chrome using sux

sux is a wrapper around the standard su command which will transfer your X credentials to the target user. This is a much better and cleaner option to run a program as a different user in X while logged in as another. To run Google Chrome in Kali Linux type in the following in terminal window:

sux chromeuser google-chrome

and you have Google Chrome running in root X with non-root user (chromeuser) permission.

Question: How do you know Google Chrome is running as non-root when using gksu or sux?

Excellento! Nice question!

This is how you know Google Chrome in Kali Linux is not running as root user when using gksu or sux.

Type in the following in terminal:

ps ef | grep google-chrome

See Google Chrome is running as UID 1000 in my machine, which is the new non-root user (chromeuser).

Here’s another way you can check

ps aux | grep google-chrome

As you can see we have similar outputs.

That ends this 3 series guide on How to Install Google Chrome in Kali Linux, discussion, installation and running Chrome. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading this guide as much I’ve enjoyed writing it. Please comment with feedback and thanks again for visiting us.

 

 

From comments section: Thanks to Nabil Lion.

Second solution:

Edit the following file

leafpad /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome

Find exec -a “$0″ “$HERE/chrome” “$@”
change as exec -a “$0″ “$HERE/chrome” “$@” –user-data-dir ”/root/.config/google-chrome”
Save and exit file.

 

Thanks for reading. Please share.