chromium doesn't launch when using --user-data-dir

[Albert Cardona]

The command to launch:

chromium-browser --user-data-dir=/home/albert/snap/chromium/1213/.config/google-chrome 2>&1 >> /dev/null

The error:

Gtk-Message: 14:38:15.136: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: 14:38:15.138: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
[24822:24822:0723/143815.159408:ERROR:process_singleton_posix.cc(280)] Failed to create /home/albert/snap/chromium/1213/.config/google-chrome/SingletonLock: Permission denied (13)
[24822:24822:0723/143815.159485:ERROR:chrome_browser_main.cc(1246)] Failed to create a ProcessSingleton for your profile directory. This means that running multiple instances would start multiple browser processes rather than opening a new window in the existing process. Aborting now to avoid profile corruption.
[24822:25016:0723/143815.163146:ERROR:disk_cache.cc(184)] Unable to create cache
[24822:25016:0723/143815.163207:ERROR:shader_disk_cache.cc(606)] Shader Cache Creation failed: -2

Some background: was able to use a similar command for years. Then recently when chromium was packed into a snap, I had to move my user directory inside the ~/snap/ folder or it wouldn't launch. After the latest update, I can't launch chromium at all.

Please advice. Thank you.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: chromium-browser 83.0.4103.97-0ubuntu0.20.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-42.46-generic 5.4.44
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.4
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Jul 23 14:36:34 2020
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-06-24 (1489 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Snap.Changes: Error: command ['snap', 'changes', '--abs-time', 'chromium'] failed with exit code 1: error: no changes found
Snap.ChromeDriverVersion: ChromeDriver 84.0.4147.89 (19abfe7bcba9318a0b2a6bc6634a67fc834aa592-refs/branch-heads/4147@{#852})
Snap.ChromiumVersion: Chromium 84.0.4147.89 snap
SourcePackage: chromium-browser
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-05-20 (64 days ago)

[Albert Cardona (albertcardona)]

More info: if I change permissions from 700 to 755 with chmod 755 the ~/snap/chromium/1213/.config/ folder, then the error changes, which makes no sense: it's my user who is launching this process in any case.

Now the error message is a bit different, still a "permission denied" for SingletonLock:

Gtk-Message: 14:45:01.519: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
Gtk-Message: 14:45:01.521: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"
[26613:26804:0723/144501.541534:ERROR:disk_cache.cc(184)] Unable to create cache
[26613:26804:0723/144501.541676:ERROR:shader_disk_cache.cc(606)] Shader Cache Creation failed: -2
[26613:26613:0723/144501.539783:ERROR:process_singleton_posix.cc(280)] Failed to create /home/albert/snap/chromium/1213/.config/google-chrome/SingletonLock: Permission denied (13)
[26613:26613:0723/144501.543529:ERROR:chrome_browser_main.cc(1246)] Failed to create a ProcessSingleton for your profile directory. This means that running multiple instances would start multiple browser processes rather than opening a new window in the existing process. Aborting now to avoid profile corruption.

[Albert Cardona (albertcardona)]

More:

$ ls ~/snap/chromium
total 24
drwxr-xr-x 5 albert albert 4096 Jul 23 14:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 albert albert 4096 Jul 13 15:30 ..
drwxr-xr-x 5 albert albert 4096 Jul 13 21:43 1213
drwxr-xr-x 5 albert albert 4096 Jul 23 14:49 1229
drwxr-xr-x 4 albert albert 4096 Jul 13 15:30 common
lrwxrwxrwx 1 albert albert 4 Jul 23 14:49 current -> 1229

# cd ~/snap/chromium/
$ rm -rf 1229
$ rm current
$ ln -s 1213 current

Then launch google chrome from the menus. Result? 1229 is recreated, and current points to it again. That's unexpected.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Please see my comment on bug #1887396: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+bug/1887396/comments/6.

Try moving your profile folders over to the common directory, which is unversioned. Hopefully this helps.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for chromium-browser (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]