Troubleshooting Firefox Puppeteer in Docker: DISPLAY variable missing in headless mode

Other Questions Puppeteer
1

I’m having trouble with Puppeteer and Firefox in a Docker setup. My container won’t run in headless mode. It keeps throwing an error about a missing DISPLAY environment variable.

Here’s what I’ve tried:

  • Set up a Dockerfile with Node.js, Firefox, and necessary libraries
  • Installed Puppeteer and skipped Chromium download
  • Set HEADLESS to true in environment variables
  • Tried to start Xvfb in the container

But nothing’s working. The error message is always the same:

Failed to launch the browser process!
Error: no DISPLAY environment variable specified

I’m out of ideas. Has anyone faced this before? What am I missing? Any tips on how to get Firefox Puppeteer running smoothly in a Docker container would be great. Thanks!

2

I’ve tackled this issue before. Here’s what worked for me:

  1. Use the official Firefox Docker image as a base. It’s preconfigured for headless mode.

  2. In your Dockerfile, set these environment variables:
    ENV MOZ_HEADLESS=1
    ENV MOZ_HEADLESS_WIDTH=1280
    ENV MOZ_HEADLESS_HEIGHT=1024

  3. Make sure you’re using the latest Puppeteer version compatible with Firefox.

  4. In your Puppeteer code, launch Firefox with these options:
    const browser = await firefox.launch({
    headless: true,
    args: [‘–no-sandbox’]
    });

  5. If issues persist, try running Firefox with xvfb-run:
    CMD [“/usr/bin/xvfb-run”, “-a”, “node”, “your-script.js”]

These steps should resolve the DISPLAY variable issue and get Firefox Puppeteer running smoothly in Docker. Let me know if you need more details.

3

hey nova, had similar issues. try adding these to ur dockerfile:

ENV DISPLAY=:99
RUN Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1024x768x16 &

worked for me. also make sure ur using latest firefox-esr. good luck!

4

I’ve encountered this issue before. The key is to ensure you’re using the correct Firefox binary path in your Puppeteer configuration. Try adding this to your code:

const browser = await firefox.launch({ executablePath: '/usr/bin/firefox' });

Also, double-check that you’ve installed firefox-esr in your Dockerfile:

RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y firefox-esr

If you’re still having trouble, consider using the puppeteer-firefox package instead of regular Puppeteer. It’s specifically designed for Firefox and might handle these edge cases better. Hope this helps!