Unpredictable behavior of Lighthouse 4.3.1/5.1.0 in docker container

Provide the steps to reproduce

1. Run LH on <affected url>

What is the current behavior?

I am trying to run lighthouse from inside Docker container and I am seeing strange unpredictable behavior when executing the following command in bash (after getting inside): lighthouse --disable-storage-reset --output=json --no-enable-error-reporting --chrome-flags="--no-sandbox --headless --disable-gpu" https://www.agencjawhites.pl

I build two docker containers with different versions of nodejs and lighthouse. The first one has nodejs==10.16.0, google-chrome==75.0.3770.100, lighthouse==5.1.0

FROM ubuntu:bionic

# install node js
RUN apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y \
    build-essential \
    make \ 
    curl \
    ca-certificates \
    apt-transport-https \
    lsb-release \
    gnupg

# install google-chrome
RUN curl -sL https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb -o google-chrome-stable.deb \
    && apt-get install -y ./google-chrome-stable.deb 

# create user
# Add Chrome as a user
RUN groupadd -r chrome && useradd -r -g chrome chrome \
    && mkdir /home/chrome && chown -R chrome:chrome /home/chrome

RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | bash - \
    && apt-get install -y nodejs 

# install lighthouse
RUN npm install -g lighthouse@5.1.0

WORKDIR /home/chrome

# Run Chrome non-privileged
USER chrome

The second one has nodejs==8.16.0, google-chrome==75.0.3770.100, lighthouse==4.3.1

FROM ubuntu:bionic

# install node js
RUN apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y \
    build-essential \
    make \ 
    curl \
    ca-certificates \
    apt-transport-https \
    lsb-release \
    gnupg

# install google-chrome
RUN curl -sL https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb -o google-chrome-stable.deb \
    && apt-get install -y ./google-chrome-stable.deb 

# create user
# Add Chrome as a user
RUN groupadd -r chrome && useradd -r -g chrome chrome \
    && mkdir /home/chrome && chown -R chrome:chrome /home/chrome

RUN curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | bash - \
    && apt-get install -y nodejs 

# install lighthouse
RUN npm install -g lighthouse@4.3.1

WORKDIR /home/chrome

# Run Chrome non-privileged
USER chrome

My docker version: Docker version 18.09.7, build 2d0083d

I am running the same lighthouse command (stated earlier) in both containers against the https://www.agencjawhites.pl (which has redirect). Sometimes lighthouse==5.1.0 finishes without errors, but sometimes hangs (see screenshot) and produces errors. The same things happens with ligthouse==4.3.1. Sometimes it gives full report but sometimes it produces errors. I am not seeing any pattern so that is why it is unpredictable. I have no idea what might be causing this. I have ligthouse==4.3.1 installed on my local computer (linux mint tara, nodejs==8.12.0, google-chrome==75.0.3770.100) and each time I run lighthouse it finishes without errors, whereas in docker it is a lottery. I wanted to run lighthouse on Kubernetes Pod, but right now with such unpredictable behavior it is not an option. Any ideas what might be causing this? I collected a few screenshots with errors:

What is the expected behavior?

Environment Information

• Affected Channels:
• Lighthouse version:
• Node.js version:
• Operating System:

Related issues

[skadeglad]

Might be not related, but to stop chrome from crashing in docker-selenium containers, it is generally required to use host’s shared memory (either via mounting /dev/shm or via a flag --shm-size=2g ) see: https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/docker-selenium#running-the-images

[dkajtoch]

I performed tests on more than 50 thousand different urls and lighthouse was responsive thanks to @skadeglad solution. Flag --shm-size=2g works for me.