Gentoo Linux, a distribution focused on building software from source, has declared “last rites” for its Chromium package, effectively ending active maintenance of the open-source web browser.
According to the LWN article, Gentoo maintainer Sam James announced the decision on September 24 following a lengthy discussion in a bug report. The announcement came after repeated complaints about outdated and vulnerable Chromium builds in Gentoo’s repository.
Chromium has become notoriously difficult to maintain across Linux distributions. According to James, quoted in the bug discussion, “Chromium is horrible to maintain as a source package. It is easily the package in Gentoo that burns through maintainers the most.” The challenges stem from Chromium’s complex build system, bundled dependencies, frequent releases, and recent additions like the Go programming language as a dependency.
The specific trigger for last rites came after a user noted that Gentoo’s stable version of Chromium contained 602 known vulnerabilities. Users attempted to submit updated ebuilds (Gentoo’s source package scripts), but James explained that simply copying ebuilds from third-party overlays was insufficient. Maintainers must test all USE flags—compile-time options that change how packages are built—before committing changes. James noted that testing all possible configurations for Chromium takes 15-16 hours of compilation time per system.
Gentoo’s “last rites” process differs from how other distributions handle unmaintained packages. Rather than using the term “orphan,” Gentoo announces last rites on its gentoo-dev-announce mailing list, masking the package in its repository to prevent users from accidentally installing unmaintained software. Users with Chromium already installed receive a warning when attempting upgrades.
One community member suggested keeping the ebuild in the repository at “best effort” maintenance level, noting that removing Chromium would be “a huge loss for a Gentoo desktop.” James indicated this was not feasible given the volunteer-driven nature of Gentoo’s maintenance.
The decision reflects ongoing tension between Gentoo’s philosophy of source-based package management and the practical demands of maintaining complex software like Chromium.
Key facts
- Gentoo declared last rites for its Chromium package on September 24, effective immediately ending active maintenance
- The decision followed complaints that Gentoo’s stable Chromium version contained 602 known vulnerabilities
- Chromium’s complex build system, bundled dependencies, Go language dependency, and frequent releases make it difficult to maintain
- Gentoo maintainer Sam James stated Chromium is “easily the package in Gentoo that burns through maintainers the most”
- When masked, Gentoo users attempting to upgrade Chromium receive warnings that the package is no longer maintained