Puppeteer/Chromium fails to launch: “Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ‘)’)” on Laravel Forge

[jonaspauleta]

Hello,

As it is suggested on the Browsershot documentation, I did the following to setup my Laravel Forge server for Browsershot.
`
Check if node and npm are installed
node -v && npm -v

Install puppeteer
sudo npm install -g puppeteer

Install chromium
npx puppeteer browsers install chrome

Install dependencies
sudo apt update
sudo apt install libx11-xcb1 libxcomposite1 libasound2t64 libatk1.0-0 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libcairo2 libcups2 libdbus-1-3 libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libgbm1 libgcc1 libglib2.0-0 libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libstdc++6 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1 libxcb1 libxcomposite1 libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxrandr2 libxrender1 libxss1 libxtst6 `

And this is the error I am getting

[2025-04-30 10:08:26] debug.ERROR: Error generating PDF: The command "PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin NODE_PATH=npm root -g` node '/home/forge/********/vendor/spatie/browsershot/src/../bin/browser.cjs' '{"url":"file:///tmp/1096787838-0270654001746007705/index.html","action":"pdf","options":{"path":"/tmp/1712407904-0257426001746007705/*******.pdf","args":[],"viewport":{"width":800,"height":600},"displayHeaderFooter":false,"format":"a4","printBackground":true}}'" failed.

Exit Code: 1(General error)

Working directory: /home/forge/*******

Output:

Error Output:

Error: Failed to launch the browser process!
/home/forge/.cache/puppeteer/chrome-headless-shell/linux_arm-135.0.7049.95/chrome-headless-shell-linux64/chrome-headless-shell: 35: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")")

TROUBLESHOOTING: https://pptr.dev/troubleshooting

at Interface.onClose (/home/forge/*******/node_modules/@puppeteer/browsers/lib/cjs/launch.js:325:24)
at Interface.emit (node:events:530:35)
at Interface.close (node:internal/readline/interface:530:10)
at Socket.onend (node:internal/readline/interface:256:10)
at Socket.emit (node:events:530:35)
at endReadableNT (node:internal/streams/readable:1698:12)
at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:90:21)

`

The AWS EC2 instance ia a t4g.small, so it is ARM
Running Ubuntu 24.04
Node v22.15.0
NPM 11.3.0

Any ideas?
Any work arrounds?

Thanks in advance.

[ksimenic]

I am getting the similar error on ARM architecture. Works fine on non-arm servers.

The command "PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/opt/homebrew/bin NODE_PATH=`npm root -g` node '/home/forge/xxxxxxx/vendor/spatie/browsershot/src/../bin/browser.cjs' '{"url":"file:\/\/\/tmp\/1624974929-0560849001746176022\/index.html","action":"pdf","options":{"path":"\/tmp\/2016527417-0496291001746176022\/xxxxxx.pdf","args":["--no-sandbox"],"viewport":{"width":800,"height":600},"displayHeaderFooter":false,"format":"a4","landscape":true,"printBackground":true}}'" failed.

Exit Code: 1(General error)

Working directory: /home/forge/xxxxxxx

Output:
================


Error Output:
================
Error: Failed to launch the browser process!
/home/forge/.cache/puppeteer/chrome-headless-shell/linux_arm-136.0.7103.49/chrome-headless-shell-linux64/chrome-headless-shell: 14: Syntax error: Unterminated quoted string

Chrome version which fails

chrome@136.0.7103.49 /home/forge/.cache/puppeteer/chrome/linux_arm-136.0.7103.49/chrome-linux64/chrome

Chrome version which works fine

chrome@135.0.7049.114 /home/forge/.cache/puppeteer/chrome/linux-135.0.7049.114/chrome-linux64/chrome

[bdlowery]

you can pick a forge server to not run on arm? How did you get around this