Title: www-client/chromium slotted installation
Author: Matt Jolly <[email protected]>
Posted: 2026-03-15
Revision: 1
News-Item-Format: 2.0
Display-If-Installed: www-client/chromium
www-client/chromium is now available as a slotted package, allowing multiple
versions to be installed simultaneously.
The new slots are:
* www-client/chromium:stable - the latest 'stable' channel release
* www-client/chromium:beta - the latest 'beta' channel release
* www-client/chromium:unstable - the latest 'dev' channel release
Upstream are inconsistent with `dev` channel naming, so we've gone with
'unstable' to match www-client/google-chrome* packaging.
The biggest change to end-users is that various Chromium versions will no longer
share a single profile directory, instead each slot (channel) will have its own
profile directory as e.g. the various www-client/google-chrome packages work
now.
This change is particularly useful for developers who need to test their
applications against different versions of Chromium, and protects against
incompatible profile downgrades when switching between versions.
Users on stable should not expect to see any major change, however any
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) may need to be "reinstalled" after the
upgrade to update the desktop files.
Users on ~arch may wish to select a specific slot to use, as due to the nature
of Chromium releases, the latest ~arch version will switch between the stable
and beta slots depending on where we are in the release cycle.
The same advice applies to users of the dev/unstable channel (unkeyworded) as
well - they may end up unexpectedly upgraded to beta if the dev channel is
delayed during a promotion.
Impacted users should explicitly select the appropriate slot(s) to use, e.g. by
selecting www-client/chromium:stable or www-client/chromium:beta:
emerge --deselect www-client/chromium
emerge --noreplace www-client/chromium:stable
