Cannot run Chromium browser as user spot

September 08, 2021 — BarryK

At first, I tried one of peebee's Chromium SFSs, 64-bit, from here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/lxpup/files/Other/chromium/chromium64/slackware64/

Forum discussion here:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=458

Also tried Ungoogled Chromium, from here, converted to run as 'spot':

https://chromium.woolyss.com/

Also tried another one, from somewhere else. In all cases, startup aborts with this error message:

# chromium
crashpad_handler: --database is required
Try 'crashpad_handler --help' for more information.

What is really odd is that a Google search has only a couple of hits. Meaning, this is a problem that has (almost) only occurred to me!

Yes, I have created a wrapper script to indirectly run /usr/lib/chromium/crashpad_handler, with "--database=/tmp/chromium", but then it still aborts, asking for another parameter. Something is fundamentally wrong, that it is asking for these parameters. Running EasyOS 2.8.4.

Chromium does work when run as 'root', but of course requires the "--no-sandbox".

EDIT:
Downloaded the official Chrome 64bit DEB for Linux, it installs to /opt. Tried it:

# touch /root/spot/.Xauthority
# chown -R spot:spot /root/spot
# export XAUTHORITY=/root/spot/.Xauthority
# export XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/root/spot/.config
# export XDG_CACHE_HOME=/root/spot/.cache
# export XDG_DATA_HOME=/root/spot/.local/share
# su spot
# whoami
spot
# google-chrome-stable
crashpad_handler: --database is required
Try 'crashpad_handler --help' for more information.

...note, it is running, just don't get a window. 'ps' shows this:

9522 spot      0:00 {chrome} /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable

...that's it, just the one process running. OK, CTRL-C to kill it. As the root user:

# google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox

...works! 'ps' shows:

12468 root      0:00 {chrome} /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable --no-sandbox
12475 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/crashpad_handler --monitor-self --monitor-self-annotation=ptype=crashpad-handler --database=/root/.config/google-chrome/Crash Reports --url=https://clients2.google.com/cr/report --annotation=channel= --annotation=lsb-release=Unknown --annotation=plat=Linux --annotation=prod=Chrome_Linux --annotation=ver=93.0.4577.63 --initial-client-fd=6 --shared-client-connection
12477 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/crashpad_handler --no-periodic-tasks --monitor-self-annotation=ptype=crashpad-handler --database=/root/.config/google-chrome/Crash Reports --url=https://clients2.google.com/cr/report --annotation=channel= --annotation=lsb-release=Unknown --annotation=plat=Linux --annotation=prod=Chrome_Linux --annotation=ver=93.0.4577.63 --initial-client-fd=4 --shared-client-connection
12482 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=zygote --no-zygote-sandbox --no-sandbox --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --enable-crashpad
12483 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=zygote --no-sandbox --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --enable-crashpad
12484 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/nacl_helper --no-sandbox
12502 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=gpu-process --field-trial-handle=10176074500700838510,2841361796045834804,131072 --no-sandbox --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --gpu-preferences=UAAAAAAAAAAgAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABgAAAAAAAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQAAABgAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAAAIAAAAAAAAAAgAAAAAAAAACAAAAAAAAAA= --shared-files
12503 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=utility --utility-sub-type=network.mojom.NetworkService --field-trial-handle=10176074500700838510,2841361796045834804,131072 --lang=en-US --service-sandbox-type=none --no-sandbox --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100 --enable-crashpad
12505 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=utility --utility-sub-type=storage.mojom.StorageService --field-trial-handle=10176074500700838510,2841361796045834804,131072 --lang=en-US --service-sandbox-type=utility --no-sandbox --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100
12527 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=renderer --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --no-sandbox --field-trial-handle=10176074500700838510,2841361796045834804,131072 --lang=en-US --num-raster-threads=2 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --renderer-client-id=6 --no-v8-untrusted-code-mitigations --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100
12528 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=renderer --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --no-sandbox --field-trial-handle=10176074500700838510,2841361796045834804,131072 --lang=en-US --num-raster-threads=2 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --renderer-client-id=5 --no-v8-untrusted-code-mitigations --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100
12573 root      0:00 /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=renderer --enable-crashpad --crashpad-handler-pid=12475 --enable-crash-reporter=, --no-sandbox --field-trial-handle=10176074500700838510,2841361796045834804,131072 --lang=en-US --num-raster-threads=2 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --renderer-client-id=7 --no-v8-untrusted-code-mitigations --shared-files=v8_context_snapshot_data:100

Ha ha, took a punt on "--disable-crashpad" when try to run as spot, no effect.

Tags: easy