Tutorial - Grafana rendering on Raspberry Pi

petero · November 26, 2019, 8:42am

Actually getting the render plugin to use your custom chromium is very simple once you figure out how.
Add this line

export GF_RENDERER_PLUGIN_CHROME_BIN="/usr/bin/chromium-browser"

just above the

node ${DIR}/build/app.js

in plugin_start_linux_arm

I actually managed to install the chromium browser just by going sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

However I am still not there as I now get the following errors in the grafana logs

t=2019-11-26T09:36:56+0100 lvl=info msg="Renderer plugin started" logger=rendering chromeBin=/usr/bin/chromium-browser ignoreHttpsErrors=false timestamp=0001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
t=2019-11-26T09:37:35+0100 lvl=eror msg="Render request failed" logger=rendering url="http://localhost:3000/d-solo/45sF64igk/air-quality?orgId=1&from=1574735848638&to=1574757448638&panelId=2&width=1000&height=500&tz=Europe%2FParis&render=1" error=map[] timestamp=0001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
t=2019-11-26T09:37:35+0100 lvl=eror msg="Rendering failed." logger=context userId=1 orgId=1 uname=admin error="Rendering failed: Error: Protocol error: Connection closed. Most likely the page has been closed."
t=2019-11-26T09:37:35+0100 lvl=eror msg="Request Completed" logger=context userId=1 orgId=1 uname=admin method=GET path=/render/d-solo/45sF64igk/air-quality status=500 remote_addr=10.13.2.11 time_ms=4095 size=1722 referer="http://10.13.0.41:3000/d/45sF64igk/air-quality?orgId=1"

UPDATE:
Maybe I should just have tried running chromium headless first which gives this error:
Failed to put Xlib into threaded mode.

shutterfreak · November 26, 2019, 9:25am

Thanks for this update!

I have the impression that puppeteer requires a specific version of the chromium browser, and that it is impossible to find as it’s not pre-built for the ARM processor architecture. In the thread I mentioned in my earlier post (https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/issues/550) it seems that some people tried to cross-compile chromium-browser so it could run on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ / 4.

However, given the RPi3 is very tight on memory (1GB), I fear that running the chromium browser from puppeteer will be very slow and will wear out the SD card in no time due to the need of swap space for running. Hence I decided to abandon this track.

You may want to try the following instructions: https://code-flow-hjbello.blogspot.com/2018/11/make-puppeteer-work-with-raspbian-vers.html

sibi · November 28, 2019, 8:52pm

That did the trick! I followed the instructions in you last link and used the added line of code from @petero
Works like a charm now in grafana. Thanks!

petero · November 28, 2019, 8:58pm

And just as I gave up and moved the rendering to a docker instance on a separate server. Kudos to you for persistence. How is the performance? Are you in Rpi 4 or 3?

sibi · November 28, 2019, 10:31pm

RPi3+ takes around 5 seconds to render, no matter about the size of the images

andre2308 · December 1, 2019, 1:32pm

Hey,
I’am had the same problems, i managed it to cross-compile the right Chrome version. The pupeteer-versions that ships with the Pluging need a specific Chrome Version.

Feel free to use my Compiled bin, you only must replace it in the Folder /var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/node_modules/puppeteer/.local-chromium/linux-686378/chrome-linux

Chromium Binary

Chrishab · December 2, 2019, 3:51pm

Hi Andre,

I tried your compiled version but unfortunately it’s not working for me (Pi 4).
How did you compile it, maybe I can compile it as well?

shutterfreak · December 2, 2019, 9:23pm

Based on your post I tried again to install the Grafana renderer plugin.

Eventually I managed to run chrome but I first had to set the executable bit on the binary (trivial with chmod +x chrome) and then I had to install some missing shared libraries:

# apt install libxcomposite1
# apt install libxcursor1
# apt install libxdamage1
# apt install libxi6
# apt install libxtst6
# apt install libxrandr2
# apt install libpangocairo-1.0-0
# apt install libatk-bridge2.0-0
# apt install libgtk-3-0

Now I am able to run chrome and display the version:

#./chrome --version
Chromium 70.0.3508.0

However, after restarting the Grafana service, I still get a server error. In the logs I see the following error:

Rendering failed: Error: Failed to launch chrome!
Received signal 11 SEGV_MAPERR 000000000000
#0 0x000001ea2160 <unknown>
#1 0x000001ea20d6 <unknown>
#2 0x000075ba3130 <unknown>
#3 0x000001e93970 <unknown>
#4 0x0000010c6f66 <unknown>
#5 0x0000010c54ec <unknown>
#6 0x000000ee850e <unknown>
#7 0x000000ee6798 <unknown>
#8 0x0000011264c6 <unknown>
#9 0x000000ee637c <unknown>
#10 0x000000ee8e86 <unknown>
#11 0x0000048c0ff0 <unknown>
#12 0x000001b8b4d0 <unknown>
#13 0x000001baf032 <unknown>
#14 0x000001b8a0fc <unknown>
#15 0x00000423aa2e <unknown>
#16 0x00000423aa70 <unknown>
#17 0x000001badd2e <unknown>
#18 0x0000008d9966 ChromeMain
#19 0x000075b8d718 __libc_start_main
[end of stack trace]
Calling _exit(1). Core file will not be generated.


TROUBLESHOOTING: https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer/blob/master/docs/troubleshooting.md

So I’m not there yet…

It appears that when running chrome without arguments, it tries to invoke other binaries which are also ELF (so unusable for ARM architecture). The first one is nacl_helper_bootstrap:

# ./chrome --no-sandbox
/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/node_modules/puppeteer/.local-chromium/linux-686378/chrome-linux/nacl_helper_bootstrap: 1: /var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/node_modules/puppeteer/.local-chromium/linux-686378/chrome-linux/nacl_helper_bootstrap: ELF: not found
/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/node_modules/puppeteer/.local-chromium/linux-686378/chrome-linux/nacl_helper_bootstrap: 2: /var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/node_modules/puppeteer/.local-chromium/linux-686378/chrome-linux/nacl_helper_bootstrap: Syntax error: "(" unexpected
[23041:23041:1202/224016.893634:ERROR:nacl_fork_delegate_linux.cc(314)] Bad NaCl helper startup ack (0 bytes)

(chrome:23039): Gtk-WARNING **: 22:40:16.899: cannot open display:

By the way, running ./chrome --headless --no-sandbox also yields the same stack trace:

# ./chrome --headless --no-sandbox
Received signal 11 SEGV_MAPERR 000000000000
#0 0x000001e48160 <unknown>
#1 0x000001e480d6 <unknown>
#2 0x000075b59130 <unknown>
#3 0x000001e39970 <unknown>
#4 0x00000106cf66 <unknown>
#5 0x00000106b4ec <unknown>
#6 0x000000e8e50e <unknown>
#7 0x000000e8c798 <unknown>
#8 0x0000010cc4c6 <unknown>
#9 0x000000e8c37c <unknown>
#10 0x000000e8ee86 <unknown>
#11 0x000004866ff0 <unknown>
#12 0x000001b314d0 <unknown>
#13 0x000001b55032 <unknown>
#14 0x000001b300fc <unknown>
#15 0x0000041e0a2e <unknown>
#16 0x0000041e0a70 <unknown>
#17 0x000001b53d2e <unknown>
#18 0x00000087f966 ChromeMain
#19 0x000075b43718 __libc_start_main
[end of stack trace]
Calling _exit(1). Core file will not be generated.

andre2308 · December 4, 2019, 5:38pm

Hey,

I used these Links and a Ubuntu VM to Cross-Compile

Build on Linux https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/linux_build_instructions.md#Get-the-code
Build Old Version https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/building_old_revisions.md
Linux ARM https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/master/docs/linux_chromium_arm.md#Recipe1_Building-for-an-ARM-CrOS-device
Chromium work with branches / tags

you must checkout the right Branch, even it wont work with puppeeter.
for puppeeter 1.7.0 it is Chrome Version 70.0.3508.0

andre2308 · December 4, 2019, 5:45pm

Hey shutterfreak,

it was my mistake, i had think, that I only replaced the chrome binary. But I replaced more… Like the nacl_helper_bootstrap.

Now you can find at my github link above the complete chromium folder from my working setup.

Hope now it will run…

AleAle · January 5, 2020, 3:03pm

Hi @David_deMarco @Chrishab

Could you help me?

I tried to follow your procedure on my RPI4 with openhabian buster
but at the command:yarn run build
I have got:

root@openhab:/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer# yarn run build
yarn run v1.21.1
error renderer@1.0.0: The engine "node" is incompatible with this module. Expected version ">=12 <13". Got "10.18.0"
error Commands cannot run with an incompatible environment.
info Visit https://yarnpkg.com/en/docs/cli/run for documentation about this command.

I had installed NodeRED with

sudo openhabian-config

clearly something went wrong… but at localhost:1880 Node-Red is working.

so I have three questions:

How can I update, in the right way, the node engine?
Is the edit of grpc-plugin.ts still necessary? my file is in /src/plugin and I don’t understand the right position for the two new lines
At the end of this game… will Grafana renders again ?

please be simple: I am a newbie with zero java skill!
Thanks in advance
Ale

andre2308 · January 8, 2020, 4:53pm

Hey,

this mean you must update Node.js grafana have chanced to the last LTS version from Node.js

Follow the instructions at the point Major Version Upgrades

Major Update Node.js

AleAle · January 9, 2020, 8:19pm

ty @andre2308
I followed the tutorial and intalled node.js 12.x

then restarted with…

> [21:01:55] root@openhab:/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/src# **sudo npm i grpc**
> 
> > grpc@1.24.2 install /var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/node_modules/grpc
> > node-pre-gyp install --fallback-to-build --library=static_library
> 
> node-pre-gyp WARN Using request for node-pre-gyp https download 
> [grpc] Success: "/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/node_modules/grpc/src/node/extension_binary/node-v72-linux-arm-glibc/grpc_node.node" is installed via remote
> + grpc@1.24.2
> updated 1 package and audited 1893 packages in 22.011s
> 
> 5 packages are looking for funding
>   run `npm fund` for details
> 
> found 0 vulnerabilities
> 
> [21:02:24] root@openhab:/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/src# **sudo npm i install**
> + install@0.13.0
> updated 1 package and audited 1893 packages in 9.471s
> 
> 5 packages are looking for funding
>   run `npm fund` for details
> 
> found 0 vulnerabilities
> 
> [21:02:42] root@openhab:/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/src# **yarn run build**
> yarn run v1.21.1
> $ tsc
> Done in 8.69s.
[21:03:42] root@openhab:/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer# **cp plugin_start_linux_amd64 plugin_start_linux_arm`**

[21:03:58] root@openhab:/var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer# **sudo systemctl restart grafana-server.service**

[21:05:45] openhabian@openhab:/etc/openhab2/rules$ sudo systemctl status grafana-server.service
● grafana-server.service - Grafana instance
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/grafana-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2020-01-09 21:04:38 CET; 1min 9s ago
Docs: http://docs.grafana.org
Main PID: 25036 (grafana-server)
Tasks: 22 (limit: 4915)
Memory: 34.3M
CGroup: /system.slice/grafana-server.service
├─25036 /usr/sbin/grafana-server --config=/etc/grafana/grafana.ini --pidfile=/var/run/grafana/grafana-server.pid --packaging=deb cfg:default.paths.logs=/var/log/grafana cfg:defa
├─25050 /bin/bash /var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/plugin_start_linux_arm
└─25053 node /var/lib/grafana/plugins/grafana-image-renderer/build/app.js

but still not working…

andre2308 · January 9, 2020, 10:19pm

Hey, @AleAle
Is the marked a typico by copy an paste the output from ssh?

Can you post the log from grafana?
Normally you can find it at

/var/log/grafana/grafana.log

Thanks

AleAle · January 10, 2020, 6:55pm

Hi @andre2308

the marked is copy an paste error

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 94 gen 9 21:03 plugin_start_linux_arm

and this is the grafana.log

> [19:44:39] openhabian@openhab:/var/log/grafana$ sudo cat grafana.log
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Shutdown started" logger=server reason="System signal: terminated"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped UsageStatsService" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped PluginManager" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped CleanUpService" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped NotificationService" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped InternalMetricsService" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped provisioningServiceImpl" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped AlertEngine" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped UserAuthTokenService" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped RemoteCache" logger=server reason="context canceled"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Stopped Stream Manager"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=eror msg="Server shutdown" logger=server reason=nil
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Starting Grafana" logger=server version=6.5.2 commit=742d165 branch=HEAD compiled=2019-12-11T13:41:26+0100
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Config loaded from" logger=settings file=/usr/share/grafana/conf/defaults.ini
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Config loaded from" logger=settings file=/etc/grafana/grafana.ini
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Config overridden from command line" logger=settings arg="default.paths.data=/var/lib/grafana"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Config overridden from command line" logger=settings arg="default.paths.logs=/var/log/grafana"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Config overridden from command line" logger=settings arg="default.paths.plugins=/var/lib/grafana/plugins"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Config overridden from command line" logger=settings arg="default.paths.provisioning=/etc/grafana/provisioning"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Path Home" logger=settings path=/usr/share/grafana
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Path Data" logger=settings path=/var/lib/grafana
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Path Logs" logger=settings path=/var/log/grafana
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Path Plugins" logger=settings path=/var/lib/grafana/plugins
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Path Provisioning" logger=settings path=/etc/grafana/provisioning
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="App mode production" logger=settings
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Writing PID file" logger=server path=/var/run/grafana/grafana-server.pid pid=25036
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing SqlStore" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Connecting to DB" logger=sqlstore dbtype=sqlite3
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Starting DB migration" logger=migrator
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing HTTPServer" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing OSSLicensingService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing SearchService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing RemoteCache" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing QuotaService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing ServerLockService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing UserAuthTokenService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing PluginManager" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Starting plugin search" logger=plugins
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Registering plugin" logger=plugins name="Grafana Image Renderer"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing RenderingService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing AlertEngine" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing DatasourceCacheService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing HooksService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing LoginService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing InternalMetricsService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing TracingService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing UsageStatsService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing CleanUpService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing NotificationService" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing provisioningServiceImpl" logger=server
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Renderer plugin found, starting" logger=rendering cmd=plugin_start_linux_arm
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="Initializing Stream Manager"
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:38+0100 lvl=info msg="HTTP Server Listen" logger=http.server address=[::]:3000 protocol=http subUrl= socket=
> t=2020-01-09T21:04:39+0100 lvl=info msg="Renderer plugin started" logger=rendering ignoreHttpsErrors=false timestamp=0001-01-01T00:00:00.000Z

I have a doubt: do I need a reboot?

Thanks in advance
Ale

andre2308 · January 10, 2020, 8:14pm

Hey…

Hmm a reboot is a try…
unfortunately there are no errors in your log. Are you get an error in your browser, when you try to render a graph?

Maybe this is a solution for you…
https://github.com/grafana/grafana/issues/19842#issuecomment-561268838

I‘am still running Version 1.0.0

rkrisi · February 5, 2020, 11:28am

Anyone was able to get this running on RPi?
I have tried everything and still getting ‘Failed to launch chrome’ error.

nothingman · March 2, 2020, 8:02pm

I tried but the newer source code of the module are different and I don’t know how to modify it

rkrisi · March 2, 2020, 8:26pm

I simply gave up on Grafana even which part of it works is not great, shitty piece of software…

crnv · April 17, 2020, 9:18am

I followed the above steps to install the image rendering plugin on a RPi4 (with custom installation of openhab and grafana). As others pointed out, you need to install chromium-browser via apt, since the version included in puppeteer does not work. After that just add this:

to plugin_start_linux_arm.

If you use SSL with a custom CA, then you also need to add this line:

GF_RENDERER_PLUGIN_IGNORE_HTTPS_ERRORS=true