I'm trying to run node apps that use the npm package Puppeteer to scrape websites, using VPSes that use root as the default user I login as.
It never works. I always have to spend half an hour googling to find the solution... well no more.
Do this:
0. Run sudo apt update
1. Install libx stuff
sudo apt-get install libpangocairo-1.0-0 libx11-xcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxi6 libxtst6 libnss3 libcups2 libxss1 libxrandr2 libgconf-2-4 libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libgtk-3-0
2. Set --no-sandbox argument in the launch() part of your Puppeteer app (only required if you are running as root/root's cron)
const browser = await puppeteer.launch({headless: true, args: ['--no-sandbox']})
E: as Niko pointed out, --no-sandbox opens your server to a malicious attack from a website the scraper visits. It looks like there are some StackOverflow questions elsewhere that post alternatives that aren't awful to implement. I like David's answer here which seems to suggest that even in 2021 --no-sandbox is still a necessary evil in some cases.
E2: See answer below. It looks like in 2021 we also have to install libgbm-dev