The Chrome Web Store doesn't support Chromium on Debian "Squeeze" or other very old Chrome versions. What's the workaround?

Question

I'm running Debian Linux "Squeeze" 6.0.6. Squeeze is stable but changes very slowly. It includes Chromium (similar to Google Chrome) 6.0. The Chrome Web Store doesn't show the "Add to Chrome" button unless you're running Chromium 8.0 or higher.

If I write a long blog entry and something goes wrong, I don't want to lose it all. I want to install a Web-form-saver extension.

How can I install extensions from the Chrome Web Store on Chromium 6.0?

_{Keywords: 4.x, 4.0, 4.1, 5.x, 5.0, 6.0, Debian, Squeeze, Debian 6.0, Debian 6.0.6.}

Answer 1

I have adapted the following steps from emb1995's answer to a related question.

1. On the Chrome Web Store website, visit the extension's detail page. For Lazarus, that's <https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/lazarus-form-recovery/loljledaigphbcpfhfmgopdkppkifgno?hl=en>.

2. Copy the extension's ID from Chromium's address bar to the clipboard. Lazarus's ID is loljledaigphbcpfhfmgopdkppkifgno.

3. Visit https://clients2.google.com/service/update2/crx?response=redirect&x=id%3Dinsert_the_extension_ID_here%26uc, but replace "insert_the_extension_ID_here" with the actual ID.

4. Click the "Continue" button.

5. Enjoy using the extension.

_{Lazarus 3.0.5 now works fine for me on Chrome 6.0.472.63.}

_{Lazarus stores copies of all sorts of data, including private emails. So don't forget to enable Lazarus's encryption feature.}