Hey folks, I’m stuck with a Puppeteer issue. It works fine on my computer when I run it with headless: false, but it’s acting up on my server. I get this weird error about failing to launch Chrome and something about a NaCl helper process.
It runs okay in headless mode, but I really need it to work with the browser visible. Any ideas what might be causing this? I’m pretty sure it’s something to do with my server setup, but I’m not sure where to start looking. Help would be awesome!
yo, have u tried using a VNC server? it’s like a remote desktop thing that lets u see the browser even on a headless server. i’ve used it before and it works pretty good. just install VNC, set it up, and connect to it when u run ur script. might be worth a shot if other stuff ain’t workin for ya
From my experience, the problem with running Puppeteer in non-headless mode on a server is that the environment typically lacks a graphical user interface. A common solution is to use a virtual display, like Xvfb, which essentially creates the necessary environment for the browser to render. You can install Xvfb on your server, start it before you run your Puppeteer script, and set the DISPLAY environment variable appropriately. Although this introduces some complexity, it has worked for me when a visible browser was required.
I’ve encountered similar issues when trying to run Puppeteer in non-headless mode on servers. The root cause is often the lack of a proper display environment on most server setups. While Xvfb is a potential solution, I’ve found that it can be resource-intensive and sometimes unreliable.
Instead, I’d recommend considering alternatives that achieve the same goal without requiring a visible browser. For instance, you could use Puppeteer’s built-in screenshot and PDF generation capabilities to verify page rendering. If you need to interact with the page, Puppeteer’s evaluation methods can help simulate user actions and extract data without visibility.
If you absolutely must have a visible browser, you might want to explore using a cloud-based service that provides browser automation with visual feedback. These services often offer more robust solutions for scenarios where direct browser visibility is crucial.