Chromium is one browser with three different packaging stories on the distros people actually run. Debian builds it as a normal deb, Linux Mint compiles its own deb and keeps snapd off the system, and on Ubuntu the chromium-browser package you install with apt is only a shim that pulls in the snap. Which one you end up with decides how it updates, how much disk it takes and which folders it is allowed to open.
Below you’ll find the right command for each distro and a native deb for Ubuntu from the xtradeb PPA, pinned so it cannot swap out your Firefox. Flathub, a codec and DRM check, the default browser name each build registers and removal follow. Every command was run in October 2026 on Ubuntu 26.04, Linux Mint 22.3 and Debian 13.7 against Chromium 154 and 155.
Pick the right Chromium package
Use the package your distro builds when there is one, because it is made for that release and updates with the rest of the system. Ubuntu is the exception, since it only ships the snap, so the choice there comes down to whether you accept snapd. These are the routes we would pick:
- Debian 13: the
chromiumdeb from main - Linux Mint: the Mint-built
chromiumdeb - Ubuntu desktop: the Canonical snap
- Ubuntu without snapd: the xtradeb PPA deb, pinned
- Newest build on Mint: Flathub
Each route installed this on our test machines.
| Distro | Install command | What you get | Tested version | Download / on disk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 13 | apt install chromium | Debian deb from main | 155.0.8059.79 | 134 MB / 447 MB |
| Linux Mint 22.3 | apt install chromium | Mint-built deb, snapd blocked | 154.0.8037.97 | 131 MB / 411 MB |
| Ubuntu 26.04, 24.04 | snap install chromium | Canonical snap | 155.0.8059.79 | 1.5 GB of snaps on a snap-free server |
| Ubuntu, xtradeb PPA | apt install chromium | Third-party deb | 155.0.8059.79 | 213 MB / 743 MB on a server |
| Any distro, Flathub | flatpak install | Flatpak app plus runtime | 155.0.8059.39 | 173.9 MB / 465.6 MB plus runtimes |
Disk figures depend on what is already installed. The Debian VM already had XFCE, so it only needed 41 packages, while the PPA install landed on a bare Ubuntu server and pulled in 223. The Mint build also trailed the others by one major release on the test date. That is normal for a distro that compiles Chromium itself, so it is the main reason Mint users reach for Flathub.
Chromium is the open source base of Google Chrome, without Google’s sync service or the Widevine DRM module. Those two are what people miss most, because sync carries bookmarks and passwords between machines and Widevine is what Netflix needs. If you need either, install Google Chrome on Ubuntu instead, or Chrome on Linux Mint.
Install Chromium on Debian 13
Debian keeps Chromium in main as a regular package called chromium, so no extra repository is needed. Check what apt will install first:
sudo apt update
apt-cache policy chromium | sed -n 1,4pLook for a ~deb13u1 suffix, which marks a build Debian made for this stable release. A backport would carry ~bpo13 instead, so the suffix tells you where the package came from.
chromium:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 155.0.8059.79-1~deb13u1
Version table:Old guides tell you to install chromium-browser and chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra on Debian. Neither exists in Debian 13, and apt shows chromium-browser with no candidate at all. The packages that do exist are these. chromium-common always comes in as a dependency and the sandbox as a Recommends, while the rest are optional:
chromium, the browserchromium-common, shared resourceschromium-sandbox, the setuid sandboxchromium-driver, ChromeDriver for Seleniumchromium-l10n, language packschromium-headless-shell, the old headless shellchromium-shell, a minimal shell
Install the browser. Add chromium-l10n to the same line if your desktop is not in English, and chromium-driver if you’ll drive it from test code:
sudo apt install -y chromiumOn a machine that already runs a desktop the summary is modest, because most of the graphics libraries are already installed. A bare server pulls in far more.
0 upgraded, 41 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 134 MB of archives.
After this operation, 447 MB of additional disk space will be used.Confirm the binary and the build string. The command is chromium on Debian, not chromium-browser:
chromium --versionEach build names the distro it was built for in this line, which helps when you’re checking several machines.
Chromium 155.0.8059.79 built on Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)Updates arrive through the normal Debian channels, so apt upgrade keeps it current. If apt cannot find the package at all, your sources are probably missing the main component or the security suite; our guide to the official Debian repositories has the full list.
Install Chromium on Linux Mint
Mint does not use the Ubuntu snap. It builds its own Chromium deb, publishes it on packages.linuxmint.com with apt priority 700, and ships a preference file that stops apt from ever installing snapd. You can see that file on any Mint install:
cat /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.prefA pin priority below zero means apt never installs the package, so snapd stays out whatever asks for it.
# To prevent repository packages from triggering the installation of Snap,
# this file forbids snapd from being installed by APT.
# For more information: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html
Package: snapd
Pin: release a=*
Pin-Priority: -10So you install chromium on Mint and not chromium-browser. The second name still shows up in apt because Mint reuses the Ubuntu archive, but it is the Ubuntu snap shim, so it cannot work without snapd. Refresh the package index before installing, because Mint replaces old Chromium builds on its mirror and a stale index points at a file that is gone (our first attempt hit a 404, covered under Troubleshooting):
sudo apt update
apt-cache policy chromium | sed -n 1,5pLook for a linuxmint1 suffix and priority 700 on the candidate. Priority 700 beats the 500 of the Ubuntu archive, so the Mint build always wins.
chromium:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 154.0.8037.97~linuxmint1+mint22.3
Version table:
154.0.8037.97~linuxmint1+mint22.3 700Install it. Mint packs the whole browser into one package, so the summary shows a single new package:
sudo apt install -y chromiumExpect a download of about 131 MB, roughly the size of the Debian package.
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 535 not upgraded.
Need to get 131 MB of archives.
After this operation, 411 MB of additional disk space will be used.Check the build. The version string says who built it:
chromium --versionYou should see the Mint tag at the end of the line.
Chromium 154.0.8037.97 for Linux MintChromium then shows up under Internet in the Mint menu. On first launch Mint asked us to create a login keyring, which Chromium uses to encrypt saved passwords, so set a password there rather than leaving it blank. The About page (chrome://settings/help) confirms the same build:
Chromium still shows a “Sign in to Chromium?” button in the toolbar, but it will not sync your bookmarks or passwords to a Google account, for reasons covered further down. The Mint package updates through Update Manager like any other deb, so you don’t need to do anything else to keep it current.
Install Chromium on Ubuntu 26.04 or 24.04
Ubuntu stopped building Chromium as a deb years ago. Look at what apt offers on Ubuntu 26.04:
apt-cache policy chromium-browser chromium | grep -E '^[a-z]|Candidate'
apt-cache show chromium-browser | grep -E '^(Version|Pre-Depends)'There is no chromium package, and chromium-browser is a tiny “1snap1” package whose only job is to pull in snapd:
chromium-browser:
Candidate: 2:1snap1-0ubuntu4
chromium:
Candidate: (none)
Version: 2:1snap1-0ubuntu4
Pre-Depends: debconf, snapdSo sudo apt install chromium-browser works, and it installs snapd too if it is missing. Either route downloads the same base snaps, which is where the time goes: through apt it took 383 seconds on a server with no snaps installed yet, and a direct snap install on a second fresh 26.04 VM took 202 seconds. Ubuntu server and desktop images ship snapd already (on a minimal image without it, run sudo apt install snapd first), so install the snap directly:
sudo snap install chromiumA reinstall with the base snaps already cached finished in 15 seconds:
chromium 155.0.8059.79 from Canonical** installedTwo asterisks after Canonical (a check mark on a UTF-8 terminal) mark a verified publisher. Check what came with it, because the browser is not the only snap that lands on the machine:
snap listOn our server, which had no snaps before, Chromium brought in the GNOME runtime, Mesa, CUPS, the GTK themes and three base snaps:
Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes
bare 1.0 5 latest/stable canonical** base
chromium 155.0.8059.79 3559 latest/stable canonical** -
core24 20260824 2124 latest/stable canonical** base
core26 20260925 646 latest/stable canonical** base
cups 2.4.20-1 1266 latest/stable openprinting** -
gnome-46-2404 0+git.b31ceab-sdk0+git.ef6f7e9 177 latest/stable canonical** -
gtk-common-themes 0.1-81-g442e511 1535 latest/stable canonical** -
mesa-2404 25.2.8-snap288 1839 latest/stable canonical** -
snapd 2.77.1 28254 latest/stable canonical** snapdThose snap files added up to 1.5 GB, of which the Chromium snap itself was 186 MB and the GNOME runtime 617 MB. A desktop install already runs snapd and usually has some of these base snaps, so the real cost there is lower. The command is chromium, and /usr/bin/chromium-browser (if you used apt) is a shell wrapper that calls /snap/bin/chromium:
chromium --versionSnap builds end the version string with the word snap, which is the quickest way to tell which build a machine runs.
Chromium 155.0.8059.79 snapsnapd checks for snap updates four times a day by default and applies them on its own, so there is nothing to schedule. The trade-off is confinement: the snap can read and write your home folder, but it gets its own private /tmp and cannot open hidden folders in your home, which trips up scripts that drop files in /tmp and open them. Our snap, Flatpak and apt guide explains how the three formats coexist on 26.04.
Install a native Chromium deb on Ubuntu
If you don’t want snapd, the xtradeb applications PPA builds Chromium as a regular deb for Ubuntu 26.04 and 24.04. It is a third-party archive, not a Canonical one, so you’re trusting it with root on every upgrade. Weigh that before adding it to a machine that matters.
If you’re moving from the snap, copy your profile out before anything else. The snap keeps bookmarks, passwords and history in ~/snap/chromium/common/chromium, the deb reads ~/.config/chromium, and removing the snap with --purge deletes the snap folder with no snapshot. Close Chromium, move any existing ~/.config/chromium aside so the copy doesn’t land inside it, then copy the profile:
mkdir -p ~/.config
cp -a ~/snap/chromium/common/chromium ~/.config/Now remove the snap and the apt shim, skipping either one you never installed. Leave --purge off so snapd keeps a snapshot of the old data for 31 days, just in case:
sudo snap remove chromium
sudo apt purge -y chromium-browsersnapd confirms the snapshot when it removes the snap:
chromium removed (snap data snapshot saved)Removing the shim leaves snapd itself installed, which an Ubuntu desktop still needs for Firefox and the App Center.
Add the PPA. On 26.04 it writes a deb822 source file named after the release:
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:xtradeb/apps
ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/You should see xtradeb-ubuntu-apps-resolute.sources next to ubuntu.sources. Don’t install anything yet. The PPA carries some 240 packages, and many of them overlap the Ubuntu archive, including Firefox, FileZilla, Audacity and Calibre. With no pin in place, apt prefers the PPA builds because they carry higher version numbers. Check it yourself:
apt-cache policy firefox filezilla | grep -E '^[a-z]|Candidate|xtradeb|ubuntu.com'Both candidates come from the PPA, even though Firefox on Ubuntu is meant to be the snap.
firefox:
Candidate: 1:158.0+build2-1xtradeb1.2604.1
1:158.0+build2-1xtradeb1.2604.1 500
500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-updates/main amd64 Packages
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
filezilla:
Candidate: 3.71.1-1xtradeb1.2604.1
3.71.1-1xtradeb1.2604.1 500
500 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/universe amd64 PackagesOn a desktop, that means your next apt upgrade would replace the Ubuntu Firefox snap shim with the Firefox deb from the PPA. A pin stops that, because apt chooses the version with the highest pin priority and only compares version numbers on a tie, so the archive’s 500 beats a PPA version at 100 even when the PPA version is newer. Keep the PPA from overriding Ubuntu packages with an apt preferences file:
sudo vim /etc/apt/preferences.d/xtradeb-chromium-onlyIn this file, the first stanza drops every PPA package to priority 100, below the 500 that Ubuntu’s own archive gets, and the second lifts the Chromium packages back up:
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-xtradeb-apps
Pin-Priority: 100
Package: chromium*
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-xtradeb-apps
Pin-Priority: 500apt matches the PPA by its origin string, LP-PPA-xtradeb-apps, taken from the Release file of the PPA. Check that Firefox and FileZilla went back to the Ubuntu builds:
apt-cache policy firefox filezilla | grep -E '^[a-z]|Candidate|xtradeb|ubuntu.com'Now the PPA builds sit at 100, and both candidates come from the Ubuntu archive again.
firefox:
Candidate: 1:1snap1-0ubuntu9.1
1:158.0+build2-1xtradeb1.2604.1 100
100 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute-updates/main amd64 Packages
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
filezilla:
Candidate: 3.69.6-1
3.71.1-1xtradeb1.2604.1 100
100 https://ppa.launchpadcontent.net/xtradeb/apps/ubuntu resolute/main amd64 Packages
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu resolute/universe amd64 PackagesPackages that exist only in the PPA stay installable at 100. The pin only stops PPA builds from beating the archive. Now install Chromium. The package name is chromium, the same as on Debian:
sudo apt install -y chromiumOn a minimal server this pulls in the whole graphics and font stack. A desktop needs far less:
0 upgraded, 223 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Need to get 213 MB of archives.
After this operation, 743 MB of additional disk space will be used.Confirm it is the deb and not a snap:
chromium --version
dpkg -S /usr/bin/chromiumHere the version line says Ubuntu and dpkg owns the binary, so this is a plain deb.
Chromium 155.0.8059.79 built on Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS
chromium: /usr/bin/chromiumFrom here Chromium updates with apt upgrade, as fast as the PPA maintainer publishes, and no confinement applies. The same steps work on 24.04, where the source file is named after noble instead.
Install Chromium from Flathub
On Flathub, org.chromium.Chromium is built from Chromium’s source and runs in a Flatpak sandbox. It is community-maintained and not marked as verified on Flathub, so it carries the same third-party trust question as the PPA. Mint ships Flatpak with Flathub already set up as a system remote. On Debian or Ubuntu, add both first with the commands from Flathub’s setup page:
sudo apt install -y flatpak
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepoMenu entries for Flatpak apps appear after your next login. Check what you’re about to pull:
flatpak remote-info flathub org.chromium.Chromium | grep -E 'Ref|Download|Installed|Runtime|Date'Expect it to need the freedesktop 25.08 runtime, which Flatpak installs alongside it if it is not there yet.
Ref: app/org.chromium.Chromium/x86_64/stable
Download: 173.9 MB
Installed: 465.6 MB
Runtime: org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/25.08
Date: 2026-10-09 19:53:20 +0000A system-wide install needs polkit authorisation. From an interactive terminal flatpak handles that itself, but a scripted SSH command with no terminal has nothing to prompt on and fails with “Deploy not allowed for user”. Running it with sudo works in every case:
sudo flatpak install -y --noninteractive flathub org.chromium.ChromiumOn Mint the install took 78 seconds and pulled in the codecs extension, GL drivers, locale data and the Mint GTK theme along with the app:
Installing runtime/org.chromium.Chromium.Codecs/x86_64/stable
Installing runtime/org.chromium.Chromium.Locale/x86_64/stable
Installing runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default/x86_64/25.08
Installing runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default/x86_64/25.08-extra
Installing runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale/x86_64/25.08
Installing runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.codecs-extra/x86_64/25.08-extra
Installing runtime/org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Mint-Y-Aqua/x86_64/3.22
Installing runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/25.08
Installing app/org.chromium.Chromium/x86_64/stableRun it through flatpak to confirm the version:
flatpak run org.chromium.Chromium --versionFlathub was a major release ahead of the Mint deb on the same day, which is the main reason to use it there.
Chromium 155.0.8059.39Update it with sudo flatpak update, or let the Mint Update Manager do it, since it handles Flatpaks too. Keep only one Chromium on a machine unless you have a reason, because two builds with the same name in the menu is how people end up with two profiles and lose track of their bookmarks.
Check codec and DRM support
Old advice to install an “ffmpeg extra” package for H.264 video does not apply any more. Every build above reports it can play H.264, AAC and MP3, and none of them can play DRM video. You can check any browser with a small test page instead of trusting a forum post. Create it in your home folder, not /tmp, because the snap has its own private /tmp:
vim ~/codec.htmlPaste this in. It asks the browser which codecs it can decode, then asks for a Widevine key system, which is what Netflix and the Spotify web player use:
<html><body><pre id="out"></pre><script>
var v=document.createElement('video');var t={'H.264 (avc1)':'video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E"','HEVC (hvc1)':'video/mp4; codecs="hvc1.1.6.L93.B0"','VP9':'video/webm; codecs="vp9"','AV1':'video/mp4; codecs="av01.0.05M.08"','AAC':'audio/mp4; codecs="mp4a.40.2"','MP3':'audio/mpeg','Opus':'audio/ogg; codecs="opus"'};
var o='';for(var k in t){o+=k+': '+(v.canPlayType(t[k])||'no')+'\n';}
var out=document.getElementById('out');out.textContent=o+'Widevine: checking\n';
var cfg=[{initDataTypes:['cenc'],videoCapabilities:[{contentType:'video/mp4; codecs="avc1.42E01E"'}]}];
navigator.requestMediaKeySystemAccess('com.widevine.alpha',cfg).then(function(){out.textContent=o+'Widevine: available\n';},function(e){out.textContent=o+'Widevine: unavailable ('+e.name+')\n';});
</script></body></html>Open it in a browser window, or run it headless so it works over SSH too. Change chromium to flatpak run --command=chromium org.chromium.Chromium for the Flathub build:
chromium --headless --virtual-time-budget=5000 --dump-dom file://$HOME/codec.html 2>/dev/null | sed -n '/<pre id="out">/,/<\/pre>/p' | sed 's/<[^>]*>//g'All five builds printed the same result: the Debian deb, the Mint deb, the snap, the PPA deb and the Flatpak.
H.264 (avc1): probably
HEVC (hvc1): no
VP9: probably
AV1: probably
AAC: probably
MP3: probably
Opus: probably
Widevine: unavailable (NotSupportedError)As a control we installed Google Chrome on the same Debian VM and ran the same page. Its codec lines were identical, HEVC “no” included, but the last line read Widevine: available, because Chrome ships the Widevine module in /opt/google/chrome/WidevineCdm. So YouTube and any plain H.264 site play fine in Chromium, but a DRM streaming service will not, and you’ll need Chrome or Firefox for those.
Make Chromium the default browser
Each build registers a differently named desktop file, and xdg-settings needs the exact name. These are the names we found on the test machines:
| Build | Desktop file |
|---|---|
| Debian deb, xtradeb PPA deb | chromium.desktop |
| Linux Mint deb | chromium-browser.desktop |
| Snap | chromium_chromium.desktop |
| Flathub | org.chromium.Chromium.desktop |
On Mint, the guessed name chromium.desktop fails quietly with exit status 2 and leaves Firefox as the default. The correct name works:
xdg-settings set default-web-browser chromium-browser.desktop
xdg-settings get default-web-browserReading the setting back shows the new default.
chromium-browser.desktopRun it as your desktop user, not with sudo, because it is a per-user setting. You can also click “Make default” under Settings, Default browser inside Chromium, which writes the same thing. On Ubuntu, the chromium-browser shim from apt also registers itself as an x-www-browser alternative, which terminal tools fall back to, and on our server with no other browser it became the default in auto mode. The Mint deb does not register that alternative at all.
Run Chromium headless
Headless mode runs the full browser engine with no window, so it works on a server with no desktop and no extra package. It is the same binary with a flag, and the flags you’ll use most are these:
--screenshotfor a PNG of the page--print-to-pdffor a PDF--dump-domfor the rendered HTML
Take a screenshot of a page to check it works:
cd ~
chromium --headless --screenshot=$HOME/shot.png --window-size=1280,800 https://example.comChromium prints the file size on the last line when it’s done.
77481 bytes written to file /home/josphat/shot.pngWith the snap, keep both input and output files inside your home folder and out of hidden directories, or you’ll hit the errors listed under Troubleshooting. For HTML to PDF in scripts, --print-to-pdf renders modern CSS the way the browser does, which older converters built on WebKit never managed.
Expect no Google account sync
Since 15 March 2021, Google has blocked third-party Chromium builds from Chrome Sync and other private Google APIs, as announced on the Chromium blog. Every build in this guide is third-party in that sense, including the Canonical snap and the Mint deb. Bookmarks, passwords and history stay local to the profile in ~/.config/chromium (or inside the snap or Flatpak data folder), so back that folder up or export bookmarks if you care about them.
If you want sync without Chrome, browsers like Brave and Opera are built on Chromium and run their own sync services. Both use the same engine, so sites behave the same way. Brave installs extensions straight from the Chrome Web Store, while Opera runs its own add-on store. Pick one only if you’re happy with that vendor holding your data, because sync stores it on their servers.
Remove Chromium
Use the command that matches how you installed it. The profile folder is not removed by apt, so delete ~/.config/chromium yourself if you want a clean slate. Keep it if you plan to reinstall, because a new install of the same build picks the profile up again with your bookmarks and settings.
sudo apt purge -y chromium
sudo apt autoremove -yThose two commands cover Debian, Mint and the PPA deb. For the PPA, also drop the repository and the pin file so they do not linger:
sudo add-apt-repository -y --remove ppa:xtradeb/apps
sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/xtradeb-chromium-onlyFor the snap, remove it and then the apt shim if you installed through apt. The --purge flag deletes ~/snap/chromium, profile included, and skips the snapshot, so drop it if you might want the data back:
sudo snap remove --purge chromium
sudo apt purge -y chromium-browserWithout --purge, snap saved lists the snapshot and sudo snap restore with its set number brings the data back for 31 days.
For Flathub, uninstall the app and then the runtimes nothing else uses:
sudo flatpak uninstall -y org.chromium.Chromium
sudo flatpak uninstall -y --unusedIf you’re setting up a fresh machine instead, our Ubuntu 26.04 install guide walks through the desktop install before any of this.
Troubleshooting
These are the errors we hit while testing, each with the fix that worked.
404 Not Found for chromium on Linux Mint
Our Mint VM had a package index from before Mint published a newer Chromium, so apt tried to download a build that had already been removed from the mirror:
Err:1 http://packages.linuxmint.com zena/upstream amd64 chromium amd64 148.0.7778.178~linuxmint1+zena
404 Not Found
E: Failed to fetch http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/upstream/c/chromium/chromium_148.0.7778.178%7elinuxmint1%2bzena_amd64.deb 404 Not FoundRun sudo apt update and install again. The candidate moved to the current build and the install went through. Mint had already removed the old build from its mirror, so a machine whose index is a few weeks old can hit the same error.
Flatpak system operation Deploy not allowed for user
You’ll see this when a system-wide flatpak install runs without sudo and without a terminal to ask for authorisation on, as in a scripted SSH command. Run it with sudo, or from an interactive terminal where flatpak can prompt.
ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND or ERR_ACCESS_DENIED with the snap
Snap confinement gives Chromium a private /tmp and can’t read hidden folders in your home directory. A page copied to /tmp/x/codec.html returned ERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND, and the same page in ~/.hidden/ returned ERR_ACCESS_DENIED, while the copy in ~/ opened fine. Move the file to a normal folder under your home, or switch to the deb from Debian, Mint or the PPA if your workflow depends on those paths.
Command requires the chromium snap to be installed
On Ubuntu, /usr/bin/chromium-browser is a wrapper script that checks for /snap/bin/chromium and prints this message when the snap is gone, which happens if you removed the snap but left the apt shim behind. Either reinstall with sudo snap install chromium, or purge chromium-browser if you’ve moved to another build.
