Installing an Older Chrome Version on Ubuntu

I needed Chrome 136.0.7103.92 for testing a CVE, but Google's repo only keeps the latest stable. Here's how I got it running alongside my regular Chrome install. Writing this down for next time, but maybe it'll help someone else too.

Warning: Old browsers have security vulnerabilities. Only use for testing, never for normal browsing.

Getting the .deb file

Google stores old builds at https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/. You can grab version numbers from the Chrome releases blog and build the URL:

https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/google-chrome-stable_136.0.7103.92-1_amd64.deb

Extract without installing

Don't use dpkg -i - that'll downgrade your system Chrome. Instead, just extract the files:

export CHROME_DIR="$HOME/opt/chrome-136"
mkdir -p "$CHROME_DIR"

wget -O /tmp/chrome.deb \
  https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/google-chrome-stable_136.0.7103.92-1_amd64.deb

sudo dpkg -x /tmp/chrome.deb "$CHROME_DIR"

Fix the sandbox

Chrome's sandbox needs root ownership and setuid bit, or it won't start:

sudo chown root:root "$CHROME_DIR/opt/google/chrome/chrome-sandbox"
sudo chmod 4755      "$CHROME_DIR/opt/google/chrome/chrome-sandbox"

If your home is mounted with nosuid, you'll need to move this somewhere else like /opt.

Run it

"$CHROME_DIR/opt/google/chrome/google-chrome" \
    --user-data-dir="$HOME/.config/chrome-136" \
    --disable-component-update

The separate user data directory keeps your profiles from getting mixed up. The component update flag stops Chrome from trying to update itself.

If the sandbox setup doesn't work, add --no-sandbox but understand you're disabling security features.

Cleanup

When you're done testing:

rm -rf "$CHROME_DIR" "$HOME/.config/chrome-136"

That's it. Works fine for reproducing bugs or testing against specific Chrome versions without messing up your main install.