Google Chrome crashes for student users

[Chris_Keller]

I am working on getting the latest version of Google Chrome working in our labs before the new school year starts up but am having issues. I have version 20.0.1132.57 installed. I believe its Google's version of Flash that is crashing as the browser just displays "Aw, Snap!". I can launch it without issues when logged in as the local admin, but when I log in as a test student I get the error messages:

 

"You don't have permission to use te application "Chrome Helper."

"You don't have permission to use te application "Chrome Helper EH."

"You don't have permission to use te application "KSAdmin."

 

I use Work Group Manager to control which apps students have access to and it show for Google Chrome that access is allowed for the apps. I even tried dragging the 3 apps to allow them independently and still no luck. We really depend on Google Chrome as we are a Google School and Google Apps just work better with Google Chrome. Can anyone shed some light on what's going on here. Had not issues last year with older versions. Might have to roll back but that's a security risk!

 

iMacs with 10.6.8 with all applied updates

[Chris_Keller]

Well I rolled back to version 19 and it fixed the issue. Just a warning that Google must have made some major changes in version 20. I need to find a change-log. So if you use Workgroup Manager to control what apps students or faculty use then version 20 may cause an issue for you and giving permission to the apps within Google Chrome. If anyone manages to dig-up anything on this issue please share.

[stevehp]

I had to switch to Chromium for our 1:1 deployment. During testing Chrome would popup endless errors complaining about ksadmin, ksfetch, etc... I had opened up just about everything Google I could find yet it still nagged me. Chromium honors our managed mcx prefs, and has the same look and feel as Chrome so I don't anticipate any issues.

[Chris_Keller]

Chrome installs a folder in /Library/Google that had their update software causing most of those messages. Changing permission to deny everyone from the Google folder works but now version 20 complains about the built in flash apps. According to research version 21 will fix this issue as long as the fixes make the final bill, otherwise version 22 will have then for sure. But that is another month or two down the road, school starts in 3 Weeks. So I also have tested chromium but it seems to ignore a special policies file I created & placed in the /Library/Google/ folder. According to Chromium/Chrome documentation it should work the same but does not so I am contacting Chromium developers to find out what's different. Probably going to go with Chromium as it at least runs for students instead of rolling back to an older version because of security risk. Mac is no longer as safe as it once was!

[stevehp]

Chromium ignores the Master Preferences file placed in /Library/Google . I had the same issue in that I couldn't get those policies to set at first run. MCX of course took over once it was run once. It's the only downside, but it beats the heck out of having ksadmin or ksfetch annoying me or my students every other minute.

 

Issue 106686 - chromium - master_preferences file settings doesnt gets reflected on the application - An open-source browser project to help move the web forward. - Google Project Hosting