Transition to Chrome new headless mode

[BrendonChau]

Per https://developer.chrome.com/docs/chromium/new-headless

Note: Passing the --headless command-line flag without an explicit value still activates the old Headless mode, but we intend to change this default. We intend to remove the old Headless from the Chrome binary and stop supporting this mode in Puppeteer in 2024. Simultaneously, we'll make old Headless mode available as a standalone binary for users who can't upgrade yet.

[pmacg]

Chrome version 132 seems to have finally removed support for the old headless mode. See here.

On linux, I've just hit an issue with a newly installed chromium-browser, I get an error when rendering a quarto document.

❯ chromium --version
Chromium 132.0.6834.83 snap

The error I see when rendering with quarto is

ERROR: Couldn't find open server.
Chrome process error: Old Headless mode has been removed from the Chrome binary. Please use the new Headless mode (https://developer.chrome.com/docs/chromium/new-headless) or the chrome-headless-shell which is a standalone implementation of the old Headless mode (https://developer.chrome.com/blog/chrome-headless-shell).

I will try to install an older version of chromium as a workaround in the meantime.

Edit: workaround for reference

I did manage to workaround the error by installing chromium 131. What worked for me on Ubuntu was

wget --no-verbose -O /tmp/chrome.deb https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/pool/main/g/google-chrome-stable/google-chrome-stable_131.0.6778.264-1_amd64.deb
sudo apt install -y /tmp/chrome.deb --allow-downgrades

[mcanouil]

@pmacg Which version of Quarto were you using for this?

[pmacg]

1.6.40

[cderv]

Wow thanks ! That was faster than I expected !!

We'll do the necessary update for new chrome or maybe directly use the new headless binary 🤔

[cderv]

BTW in the meantime this can help:

• QUARTO_CHROMIUM_HEADLESS_MODE=new can be set so that --headless=new is passed. If that does not work
• QUARTO_CHROMIUM_HEADLESS_MODE=none so that --headless only is passed.
• QUARTO_CHROMIUM can be used to specified which version of quarto to use.

Old chrome version can be installed from https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/chrome-for-testing#json-api-endpoints

[benkeks]

I ran into the same problem today (using Quarto 1.7.11, Debian Testing, Google Chrome 132.0.6834.83). QUARTO_CHROMIUM_HEADLESS_MODE=new quarto render --to all indeed worked as a workaround.