Installing headless chrome on Ubuntu.

install-chrome-headless.sh

#!/bin/bash
# from https://chromium.woolyss.com/
# and https://gist.github.com/addyosmani/5336747
# and https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/lkgr/headless/README.md
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-chromium-builds/stage
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install chromium-browser 
chromium-browser --headless --no-sandbox http://example.org/

uninstall previous chrome sudo apt-get purge chromium-browser

re-install the new stable chrome headless

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y libappindicator1 fonts-liberation
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome*.deb

I used these commands in a non-alpine based Dockerfile to setup LightHouse. At first it seemed to work great, but I encountered errors with the Debian package dependencies. After using gdebi-core as an alternative for dpkg, I discovered that the URL given by @putuoka is actually outdated (it's from 2018), so I used the current official URL to download Chrome Headless.

You can refer to my Dockerfile below for references.

FROM node:16
#RUN yes | npm install -g [email protected]
RUN npm install -g lighthouse
RUN apt update
RUN apt-get install -y libappindicator1 fonts-liberation
RUN wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
RUN apt install -y gdebi-core
RUN gdebi --non-interactive google-chrome*.deb

I've successfully installed it. For additional references, you can view the answer by @LoganGray

Thanks to all.

@alexkuc
@Kcharle

This ppa repository (https://launchpad.net/~phd/+archive/ubuntu/chromium-browser) was moved (phd.re -> phd):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phd/chromium-browser
Since this gist is easily googleable when looking for alternative chromium ppa, could you please update the above in your comments?

Also you will need apt-pinning, as occasionally the original snap package may have higher version than the one in this ppa:

echo '
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-phd-chromium-browser
Pin-Priority: 1001
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/phd-chromium-browser

this one works on debian 11

FROM node:14-bullseye

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y fonts-liberation
RUN wget -q -O - https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add -
RUN sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google.list'
RUN apt update && apt install -y google-chrome-stable

@u007 you are a hero, it also works on Ubuntu 20.04

sorry i also found it somewhere, lost track of it haha

I am on a ubuntu ...

and i cant make it work :(

npx lighthouse --chrome-flags='--headless' --quiet --no-update-notifier --no-enable-error-reporting --output=json --throttle --stop --preset=desktop --output-path=\nytimes_com\2022_05_15_01_32_43_R_1_nytimes_com_desktop.json https://www.nytimes.com/
Unable to connect to Chrome

are you running in docker?

@phd I am more than happy to update my comment. Would you mind providing me a full command so that I can copy & paste as I won't be able to test it anymore?

@alexkuc

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phd/chromium-browser

echo '
Package: *
Pin: release o=LP-PPA-phd-chromium-browser
Pin-Priority: 1001
' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/phd-chromium-browser

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y chromium-browser

@phd Done, thank you!

thanks

Do yourselves a favour and switch to Microsoft Edge, Chromium underneath and a proper deb package

@ktechmidas oh man... That's hilarious, thanks for the great advice!

The only difficulty I had with installing Microsoft Edge + WebDriver into a CI docker — it wasn't easy to contain the primal laughter of me doing such a fun thing — otherwise, it actually went silky smooth! 🤣

Way smoother than dealing with google's utterly borked apt repos, at any rate.

FROM python:3.10

#-- Add Microsoft's deb package signing key -- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/linux/packages
RUN wget https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc -O - \
    | gpg --no-default-keyring --keyring /etc/apt/keyrings/microsoft-packages.gpg --import -

#-- Add APT package repository
RUN echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/microsoft-packages.gpg] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/edge stable main' \
    > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-edge.list

#-- Refresh index, install latest stable Microsoft Edge
RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends microsoft-edge-stable

#-- Install WebDriver -- matching version as Edge we just installed
RUN set -x; \
    EDGE_VERSION=$(dpkg-query --showformat='${Version}' --show microsoft-edge-stable | sed s/-1$//) && \
    WEBDRIVER=https://msedgedriver.azureedge.net/127.0.2651.107/edgedriver_linux64.zip && \
    echo "Edge version $EDGE_VERSION" && \
    echo "WebDriver $WEBDRIVER" && \
    wget $WEBDRIVER -O /tmp/webdriver.zip && \
    unzip /tmp/webdriver.zip msedgedriver -d /usr/local/bin/ && \
    rm -vf /tmp/webdriver.zip && \
    ls -l `which msedgedriver`

#-- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/webdriver-chromium/

[...]

Also easy to find more pedestrian guides, here's one https://linuxcapable.com/how-to-install-microsoft-edge-on-debian-linux/

... This is so cool, ⭐ https://github.com/microsoft/linux-package-repositories

Anyway, awesome tip, thanks again!