Google Chrome repository defaults to 32-bit

The i386 version of the Google Chrome directory is searched for by default causing errors when updating the APT database:

  apt update
  Ign http://extras.ubuntu.com trusty InRelease
  Ign http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk unstable InRelease
  Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net precise InRelease
  ...
  Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/multiverse Translation-en
  Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/restricted Translation-en
  Hit http://security.ubuntu.com trusty-security/universe Translation-en
  Fetched 4,357 kB in 8s (538 kB/s)
  W: Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release Unable to find expected entry 'main/binary-
  i386/Packages' in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)

  E: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

The "google-chrome-stable" package installs an update script that updates the source list:

  /etc/cron.daily/google-chrome

This script reads "/etc/default/" and updates the APT list once on installation or upgrade, but the package can never be upgraded if the entry is incorrect. The work-around is to 'fake' an upgrade:

  --- ./.old/google-chrome.201602192326 2016-02-19 23:26:34.014962970 +0000
  +++ google-chrome 2016-04-08 11:23:43.857313469 +0100
  @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
  -repo_add_once="false"
  +repo_add_once="true"
   repo_reenable_on_distupgrade="true"

Then, run the update script:

  /etc/cron.daily/google-chrome

This will correct the APT sources list:

  diff -Naur google-chrome.list.save google-chrome.list
  --- google-chrome.list.save 2016-03-22 21:57:14.751417979 +0000
  +++ google-chrome.list 2016-04-08 11:11:01.409333455 +0100
  @@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
   ### THIS FILE IS AUTOMATICALLY CONFIGURED ###
   # You may comment out this entry, but any other modifications may be lost.
  -deb http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
  +deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

[The APT sources list could just be edited by hand at present, but Google may change the URL in future]

HTH,

  Tony.