Debian User Forums

Hello everyone! I am currently using debian 9.1 and i was wondering how do other debian users keep their browsers up to date (if they do). Currently chromium is quite recent (61) but I believe the update was pushed to fix a security issue (https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3985). So in case no further security issues appear, is debian going to push any updates to chromium? If not what is the suggested approach for maintaining a recent version? (I thought of backporting it myself or apt pin it)

Chromium is what they call a "leaf" package, which means updates will be pushed to the stable repo as long as possible.

How familiar are you with backporting Chromium from the source? That's a beast to build.

I use Firefox-esr for a web browser so...

I use an alias command: "update"

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russel@NUC-G:~$ update
[sudo] password for russel:
Ign:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch InRelease
Get:2 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates InRelease [62.9 kB]
Get:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-updates InRelease [91.0 kB]
Get:4 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main i386 Packages [176 kB]
Hit:5 http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch Release                               
Get:6 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 Packages [175 kB]     
Get:7 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main Translation-en [81.0 kB]   
Fetched 586 kB in 0s (803 kB/s)                                                         
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
4 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
  firefox-esr ghostscript libgs9 libgs9-common
4 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 53.7 MB of archives.
After this operation, 36.9 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 firefox-esr amd64 52.4.0esr-1~deb9u1 [46.4 MB]
Get:2 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 ghostscript amd64 9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1 [97.8 kB]                                                                           
Get:3 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 libgs9 amd64 9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1 [2,068 kB]                                                                               
Get:4 http://security.debian.org stretch/updates/main amd64 libgs9-common all 9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1 [5,160 kB]                                                                           
Fetched 53.7 MB in 50s (1,061 kB/s)                                                                                                                                                     
Reading changelogs... Done
(Reading database ... 164963 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../firefox-esr_52.4.0esr-1~deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
Leaving 'diversion of /usr/bin/firefox to /usr/bin/firefox.real by firefox-esr'
Unpacking firefox-esr (52.4.0esr-1~deb9u1) over (52.3.0esr-1~deb9u1) ...
Preparing to unpack .../ghostscript_9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking ghostscript (9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1) over (9.20~dfsg-3.2) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libgs9_9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libgs9:amd64 (9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1) over (9.20~dfsg-3.2) ...
Preparing to unpack .../libgs9-common_9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1_all.deb ...
Unpacking libgs9-common (9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1) over (9.20~dfsg-3.2) ...
Setting up libgs9-common (9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.60) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.23-1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u1) ...
Setting up firefox-esr (52.4.0esr-1~deb9u1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.6.1-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.13.3-9) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.15-1) ...
Setting up libgs9:amd64 (9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1) ...
Setting up ghostscript (9.20~dfsg-3.2+deb9u1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.24-11+deb9u1) ...
 ___________________
< Updates are done. >
 -------------------
        \   ^__^
         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
                ||     ||
9.1
4.9.0-3-amd64
Partition: ID-1: / size: 20G used: 5.7G (31%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1
           ID-2: /home size: 110G used: 83G (79%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-3: /media/russel/16G_storage size: 15G used: 14G (95%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sdc1
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 10.20GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb2


I put the alias "update" in ~/.bash_aliases

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alias update='sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade && cowsay "Updates are done." && cat /etc/debian_version && uname -r && inxi -p'

ghostbladder, i'm not sure i understand the question.
isn't package management keeping the browser up-to-date?
i recently installed wheezy (!) on a laptop, and after apt-get update & upgrade, i had the latest firefox esr! i guess it's part of the security updates.

debiman wrote:ghostbladder, i'm not sure i understand the question.
isn't package management keeping the browser up-to-date?
i recently installed wheezy (!) on a laptop, and after apt-get update & upgrade, i had the latest firefox esr! i guess it's part of the security updates.

I understood the question the same way - update through

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apt

, but stevepusser makes a good point: you can also update by building the latest code yourself. Problem with that is it may not be in sync with any other changes the Debian maintainers have made to package dependencies, plus as he mentions, it is a beast to build. I would hope the package maintainers include as many security fixes as they can, as soon as they can so those of us using "stable" can benefit.

My question to put it simply was if debian stable will receive chromium (or firefox) updates a little while after upstream releases them, or only in cases of serious/security issues. From what i understand from your replies, debian stable *will* receive somewhat regular browser updates, so there is no need to learn how to build/backport it myself (unless i got it all wrong).

ghostblader wrote:My question to put it simply was if debian stable will receive chromium (or firefox) updates a little while after upstream releases them, or only in cases of serious/security issues. From what i understand from your replies, debian stable *will* receive somewhat regular browser updates, so there is no need to learn how to build/backport it myself (unless i got it all wrong).

Correct - the only way to get absolutely recent updated software is to use a distro that updates packages immediately after they are released upstream. I think most mainstream distros are pretty good about fixing security updates.

No need to build it yourself, unless you enjoy compiling code

ghostblader wrote:[...]Currently chromium is quite recent (61) but I believe the update was pushed to fix a security issue (https://www.debian.org/security/2017/dsa-3985).[...]

One of my computers, with Chromium installed, just updated today (I hadn't fired up this particular computer for several days.):

Version 61.0.3163.100 (Developer Build) built on Debian 9.1, running on Debian 9.1 (64-bit)

Even on on oldstable (currently Jessie), Firefox ESR is well maintained. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be true for Chromium. People who are still on Jessie should consider installing Google Chrome or Slimjet instead.

Debian -- Package Search Results -- chromium

Phil

I don't know about Chromium, I don't use it, but Firefox ESR is indeed well maintained.

The latest update for Firefox ESR (now 52.4.0) has been released by Mozilla on 28-09-2017.
It has been available in the Stretch repositories a day later, on 29-09-2017.

Cheers,
Gaius