103 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
103 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
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---
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name: chromedp-alpine-container
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description: |
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Fix Chrome/Chromium startup failures in Alpine Linux containers when using chromedp
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(or similar CDP tools). Use when: (1) chromedp fails with "websocket url timeout reached",
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(2) Chrome crashes with "ZINK: vkCreateInstance failed" or "eglInitialize SwANGLE failed"
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or "glx: failed to create drisw screen", (3) running Chrome non-headless on Xvfb in
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Alpine containers, (4) Chrome starts but DevTools connection times out. Root causes:
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missing mesa software GL drivers, missing dbus, and chromedp's default WSURLReadTimeout
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being too short for containers with GL fallback overhead.
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author: Claude Code
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version: 1.0.0
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date: 2026-02-21
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---
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# Chrome/Chromedp in Alpine Containers
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## Problem
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Chrome/Chromium fails to start or chromedp times out connecting to DevTools when running
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in Alpine Linux containers, especially when running non-headless on Xvfb for screen capture.
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## Context / Trigger Conditions
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- `websocket url timeout reached` from chromedp
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- `MESA: error: ZINK: vkCreateInstance failed (VK_ERROR_INCOMPATIBLE_DRIVER)`
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- `glx: failed to create drisw screen`
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- `eglInitialize SwANGLE failed with error EGL_NOT_INITIALIZED`
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- `Initialization of all EGL display types failed`
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- `Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket`
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- Chrome works in headless mode but fails non-headless on Xvfb
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## Solution
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### 1. Install required Alpine packages
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```dockerfile
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RUN apk add --no-cache \
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chromium nss freetype harfbuzz ttf-freefont \
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mesa-dri-gallium mesa-gl \
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dbus \
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xvfb-run xorg-server
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```
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Key packages:
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- `mesa-dri-gallium` — software GL rasterizer (llvmpipe/softpipe) Chrome needs
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- `mesa-gl` — OpenGL library
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- `dbus` — Chrome queries dbus for accessibility/services; without it, startup is slow
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### 2. Start dbus before Chrome
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```go
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exec.Command("mkdir", "-p", "/var/run/dbus").Run()
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exec.Command("dbus-daemon", "--system", "--nofork").Start()
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```
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### 3. Increase chromedp WSURLReadTimeout
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Chrome takes longer to start in containers due to GL fallback attempts. The default
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chromedp timeout is often too short:
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```go
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opts := append(chromedp.DefaultExecAllocatorOptions[:],
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chromedp.Flag("headless", false),
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chromedp.Flag("no-sandbox", true),
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chromedp.Flag("disable-gpu", true),
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chromedp.Flag("disable-software-rasterizer", true),
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chromedp.Flag("disable-dev-shm-usage", true),
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chromedp.WSURLReadTimeout(30 * time.Second), // default is too short
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)
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```
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### 4. Required Chrome flags for containers
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```
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--no-sandbox # Required when running as root
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--disable-gpu # No hardware GPU available
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--disable-software-rasterizer # Avoid SwANGLE failures
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--disable-dev-shm-usage # /dev/shm is only 64MB in k8s by default
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```
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## Verification
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Test Chrome starts and DevTools listens:
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```sh
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Xvfb :50 -screen 0 1280x720x24 -ac -nolisten tcp &
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sleep 2
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DISPLAY=:50 chromium-browser --no-sandbox --disable-gpu \
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--disable-software-rasterizer --remote-debugging-port=9222 about:blank 2>&1
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# Should see: DevTools listening on ws://127.0.0.1:9222/devtools/browser/...
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```
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## Notes
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- GL errors like `ZINK: vkCreateInstance failed` are warnings, not fatal — Chrome
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still runs after fallback, but fallback takes time (causing the timeout)
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- `--disable-gpu` alone is NOT sufficient — Chrome still tries to initialize GL
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for compositing even with GPU disabled
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- The dbus errors are non-fatal but cause Chrome to retry connections repeatedly,
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slowing startup
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- Default k8s `/dev/shm` is 64MB; use `--disable-dev-shm-usage` or mount a larger
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emptyDir at `/dev/shm`
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- `chromedp.Flag("headless", false)` removes the `--headless` flag that
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`DefaultExecAllocatorOptions` includes by default
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