callback is executed without any problem on a mac inside popup script, when we try to run same code on linux builds of chrome and chromium then chrome.tabs.create does not execute function callback inside popup script, works perfectly fine inside background script on linux builds of chrome and chromium but it does not work inside popup script as it worked on a mac.

chrome.tabs.create(object createProperties, function callback)

Supports function callback but callback is not executed inside popup script on linux builds of chrome and chromium. 

I was forced to use message passing from popup to background to make this working on linux in one of my chrome extensions that's why filing this bug , hope this gets fixed in upcoming versions of chromium.

https://developer.chrome.com/extensions/tabs#method-create