To install Headless Chromium on your system, you'll need to follow different steps depending on your operating system. Headless Chromium is a way of running the Chrome browser in a headless environment without the full browser UI. It's especially useful for automated testing and server environments where you do not need a visible UI shell.
For Linux:
You can install headless Chrome on Linux by using your package manager to install the google-chrome package or by downloading it directly from Google.
Using the package manager (on Ubuntu/Debian):
# Install wget if it's not already installed
sudo apt-get install wget
# Download the Google Chrome deb package
wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
# Install the package using dpkg
sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
# If you encounter any errors during installation, run the following to fix missing dependencies
sudo apt-get install -f
You can then run headless Chrome using the command line:
google-chrome --headless --disable-gpu --remote-debugging-port=9222 https://example.com
For macOS:
You can install Google Chrome using Homebrew Cask, which will include support for running in headless mode.
# Install Homebrew if it's not already installed
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
# Install Google Chrome using Homebrew Cask
brew install --cask google-chrome
After installation, you can run Chrome in headless mode using the terminal:
/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --headless --disable-gpu --remote-debugging-port=9222 https://example.com
For Windows:
Download and install Google Chrome from the official website. Once installed, you can run headless Chrome from the Command Prompt or PowerShell.
Using Command Prompt or PowerShell:
# Navigate to the directory where Chrome is installed, usually:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application"
# Run Chrome in headless mode
.\chrome.exe --headless --disable-gpu --remote-debugging-port=9222 https://example.com
Remember to replace https://example.com with the URL you want to access in headless mode.
Docker
Alternatively, you can use Docker to run Headless Chrome in a container. Google maintains a Docker image that includes Headless Chrome and the ChromeDriver.
# Pull the Docker image
docker pull selenium/standalone-chrome
# Run a container with the image
docker run -d -p 4444:4444 --shm-size="2g" selenium/standalone-chrome
This command will start a container with Headless Chrome listening on port 4444.
Note: When running headless Chrome, you may need to use additional command-line flags depending on what you're trying to achieve. For instance, flags to ignore certificate errors, set window size, specify user agent, etc., can be useful in different scenarios. Always refer to the official Chrome DevTools Protocol documentation for the most up-to-date and comprehensive information on flags and usage.
