v3.11.4 : it has been failing to build images with an HTTP 500 error

[hamelg]

What happened:
with v3.11.4 the image render plugin doesn't build the images and returns a http 500 error.
v3.11.3 works fine.

How to reproduce it (as minimally and precisely as possible):
Generate a report

Anything else we need to know?:
The logs when it fails

{
  "level": "error",
  "message": "::ffff:10.1.21.17 - - [05/Sep/2024:17:18:39 +0000] \"GET /render?deviceScaleFactor=2.000000&domain=grafanae&encoding=&height=280&renderKey=9tqp9T7WEDDVDKLVBlA8oD6CrzIsk0XU&timeout=10&timezone=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgrafanae%3A3000%2Fd-solo%2FTk8-WD2Zz%2Fcarbon%3Ffrom%3D1725535117000%26panelId%3D26%26theme%3Dlight%26timezone%3Dbrowser%26to%3D1725556717000%26var-Cache%3Dweya0075-graphite-maina%26var-DS%3DGRAPHITE-MAR%26render%3D1&width=392 HTTP/1.1\" 500 96 \"-\" \"Grafana/10.4.8\"\n"
}
{
  "level": "error",
  "message": "Request failed",
  "stack": "Error: Failed to launch the browser process!\nchrome_crashpad_handler: --database is required\nTry chrome_crashpad_handler --help for more information.\n\n\nTROUBLESHOOTING: https://pptr.dev/troubleshooting\n\n    at Interface.onClose (/usr/src/app/node_modules/puppeteer-core/node_modules/@puppeteer/browsers/lib/cjs/launch.js:310:24)\n    at Interface.emit (node:events:529:35)\n    at Interface.close (node:internal/readline/interface:534:10)\n    at Socket.onend (node:internal/readline/interface:260:10)\n    at Socket.emit (node:events:529:35)\n    at endReadableNT (node:internal/streams/readable:1400:12)\n    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:82:21)",
  "url": "/render?deviceScaleFactor=2.000000&domain=grafanae&encoding=&height=280&renderKey=Sbr41ISO2s9CxqgEtFUIpcT6GfgQAM6N&timeout=10&timezone=&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgrafanae%3A3000%2Fd-solo%2FTk8-WD2Zz%2Fcarbon%3Ffrom%3D1725535117000%26panelId%3D27%26theme%3Dlight%26timezone%3Dbrowser%26to%3D1725556717000%26var-Cache%3Dweya0075-graphite-maina%26var-DS%3DGRAPHITE-MAR%26render%3D1&width=392"
}

Environment:

• renderer is running in a docker container as remote rendering service
• Docker image docker.io/grafana/grafana-image-renderer:3.11.4
• Grafana version: 10.4.8

[b-neufeld]

Same issue, Grafana version, same environment as you. I reverted to 3.11.1 because it was I had installed before the attempted update.

[evictorero]

The error message seems to be the same as this. Can you try adding this?
On the other hand, I have a docker container with 3.11.4 running as a standalone service and working as expected.
Can you provide more details of your configuration?

[hamelg]

Setting these environment variables did the trick :

            - name: XDG_CONFIG_HOME
              value: /tmp/.chromium
            - name: XDG_CACHE_HOME
              value: /tmp/.chromium

I have no explanation as to why these variables are needed with 3.11.4 ...

[giuliomagnifico]

3.11.5 same

Sep 13 21:06:44 DietPi systemd[1]: Started grafana-image-renderer.service - grafana-image-renderer.
Sep 13 21:06:46 DietPi node[1016058]: {"level":"info","message":"HTTP Server started, listening at http://localhost:8081"}
Sep 13 21:06:57 DietPi node[1016058]: [2.4K blob data]
Sep 13 21:06:57 DietPi node[1016058]: {"level":"error","message":"::ffff:192.168.1.6 - - [13/Sep/2024:19:06:57 +0000] \"GET /rende
r?deviceScaleFactor=1.000000&domain=192.168.1.6&encoding=png&height=500&renderKey=YilU1wLHeGCY6AFPsXKu4AuqxL3oQC5S&timeout=60&time
zone=Europe%2FRome&url=http%3A%2F%2F192.168.1.6%3A3001%2Fd-solo%2FFGioSdO4z31m%2Fcasa-summary%3ForgId%3D1%26refresh%3D1m%26from%3D
1726168023780%26to%3D1726254423780%26panelId%3D87%26width%3D1000%26height%3D500%26scale%3D1%26tz%3DEurope%252FRome%26render%3D1&wi
dth=1000 HTTP/1.1\" 500 96 \"-\" \"Grafana/11.2.0\"\n"}

[Seokyun-Ha]

I encountered the same chrome_crashpad_handler: --database is required error with version 3.11.6. After reverting to 3.11.0, the issue was resolved 🙏

[enricojonas]

Hi, facing same issue using the Docker image up to 3.11.6. Rolling back to 3.11.2 "solves" the issue.

[enricojonas]

I have now upgraded to 3.11.6 docker image and the following is required to make it work so it would be nice to get it incorporated into the docker image itself:

          env {
            name  = "XDG_CONFIG_HOME"
            value = "/tmp/.chromium"
          }

          env {
            name  = "XDG_CACHE_HOME"
            value = "/tmp/.chromium"
          }

          env {
            name  = "BROWSER_TZ"
            value = "Europe/Stockholm"
          }

plus capture_timeout = 30s in grafana.ini and more CPU, it seems the performance is much worse with later release or the default timeout has changed in Grafana to 10s, not sure.

[muffl0n]

Workaround contained in the helm chart since 8.8.1, see grafana/helm-charts#3487