Bug: Cannot set up Chromium user profile using noVNC

Author: axeleroyCreated Oct 13, 2025Updated Jan 25, 2026

Provide a screenshot and describe the bug

I followed to the letter the wiki guide to set up a Chromium user profile using noVNC, but it unfortunately does not work, even with the most simple docker-compose.yml on a local machine.

Steps to reproduce

markdown

1. Create a `docker-compose.yml`
2. Start the `novnc` container
  
  docker compose up -d novnc
  
3. Start Chromium inside ArchiveBox's container
  
  docker compose run archivebox /usr/bin/chromium-browser --user-data-dir=/data/personas/Default/chrome_profile --profile-directory=Default --disable-gpu --disable-features=dbus --disable-dev-shm-usage --start-maximized --no-sandbox --disable-setuid-sandbox --no-zygote --disable-sync --no-first-run

Logs or errors

bash

docker compose run archivebox /usr/bin/chromium-browser --user-data-dir=/data/personas/Default/chrome_profile --profile-directory=Default --disable-gpu --disable-features=dbus --disable-dev-shm-usage --start-maximized --no-sandbox --disable-setuid-sandbox --no-zygote --disable-sync --no-first-run
[7:66:1013/132219.681451:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:69:1013/132219.688938:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:69:1013/132219.688992:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:7:1013/132219.689245:ERROR:message_box_dialog.cc(190)] Unable to show message box: Failed To Create Data Directory - Chromium cannot read and write to its data directory:

/data/personas/Default/chrome_profile
[7:66:1013/132219.692374:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.692424:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.692656:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.692716:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.692755:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.740498:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.752568:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.752607:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")

(process:7): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 13:22:19.766: g_settings_schema_source_lookup: assertion 'source != NULL' failed
[7:62:1013/132219.766405:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.776767:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:66:1013/132219.776787:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:7:1013/132219.819569:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(576)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.NameHasOwner: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: unknown error type: 
[7:7:1013/132219.824676:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(576)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.NameHasOwner: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: unknown error type: 
[7:74:1013/132219.824749:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:132:1013/132219.826998:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:132:1013/132219.827034:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:132:1013/132219.827080:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:132:1013/132219.827109:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:132:1013/132219.827140:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[7:7:1013/132219.832315:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(576)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.NameHasOwner: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: unknown error type: 
[7:62:1013/132219.832389:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:7:1013/132219.834474:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(576)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.NameHasOwner: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: unknown error type: 
[7:63:1013/132219.834538:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:7:1013/132219.837013:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(576)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.NameHasOwner: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: unknown error type: 
[7:62:1013/132219.837069:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Could not parse server address: Unknown address type (examples of valid types are "tcp" and on UNIX "unix")
[7:7:1013/132219.837450:ERROR:object_proxy.cc(576)] Failed to call method: org.freedesktop.DBus.NameHasOwner: object_path= /org/freedesktop/DBus: unknown error type:

ArchiveBox Version

bash

0.7.3
ArchiveBox v0.7.3 COMMIT_HASH=069aabc BUILD_TIME=2024-12-15 09:54:03 1734256443
IN_DOCKER=True IN_QEMU=False ARCH=x86_64 OS=Linux PLATFORM=Linux-6.16.7-200.fc42.x86_64-x86_64-with-glibc2.36 PYTHON=Cpython
FS_ATOMIC=True FS_REMOTE=True FS_USER=911:911 FS_PERMS=644
DEBUG=False IS_TTY=True TZ=UTC SEARCH_BACKEND=ripgrep LDAP=False

[i] Dependency versions:
 √  PYTHON_BINARY         v3.11.11        valid     /usr/local/bin/python3.11                                                   
 √  SQLITE_BINARY         v2.6.0          valid     /usr/local/lib/python3.11/sqlite3/dbapi2.py                                 
 √  DJANGO_BINARY         v3.1.14         valid     /usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/django/__init__.py                  
 √  ARCHIVEBOX_BINARY     v0.7.3          valid     /usr/local/bin/archivebox                                                   

 √  CURL_BINARY           v8.10.1         valid     /usr/bin/curl                                                               
 √  WGET_BINARY           v1.21.3         valid     /usr/bin/wget                                                               
 √  NODE_BINARY           v20.18.1        valid     /usr/bin/node                                                               
 √  SINGLEFILE_BINARY     v1.1.54         valid     /app/node_modules/single-file-cli/single-file                               
 √  READABILITY_BINARY    v0.0.11         valid     /app/node_modules/readability-extractor/readability-extractor               
 √  MERCURY_BINARY        v1.0.0          valid     /app/node_modules/@postlight/parser/cli.js                                  
 √  GIT_BINARY            v2.39.5         valid     /usr/bin/git                                                                
 √  YOUTUBEDL_BINARY      v2024.12.13     valid     /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp                                                       
 √  CHROME_BINARY         v131.0.6778.33  valid     /usr/bin/chromium-browser                                                   
 √  RIPGREP_BINARY        v13.0.0         valid     /usr/bin/rg                                                                 

[i] Source-code locations:
 √  PACKAGE_DIR           23 files        valid     /app/archivebox                                                             
 √  TEMPLATES_DIR         3 files         valid     /app/archivebox/templates                                                   
 -  CUSTOM_TEMPLATES_DIR  -               disabled  None                                                                        

[i] Secrets locations:
 X  CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR  missing         invalid   ./personas/Default/chrome_profile                                           
 -  COOKIES_FILE          -               disabled  None

How did you install the version of ArchiveBox you are using?

Docker (or Podman/LXC/K8s/TrueNAS/Proxmox/etc)

What operating system are you running on?

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian/Arch/Alpine/etc.)

What type of drive are you using to store your ArchiveBox data?

some of data/ is on a local SSD or NVMe drive
some of data/ is on a spinning hard drive or external USB drive
some of data/ is on a network mount (e.g. NFS/SMB/Ceph/GlusterFS/etc.)
some of data/ is on a FUSE mount (e.g. SSHFS/RClone/S3/B2/Google Drive/Dropbox/etc.)

Docker Compose Configuration

bash

services:
    archivebox:
        image: archivebox/archivebox:latest
        volumes:
            - ./data/personas/Default:/data/personas/Default
        environment:
            - CHROME_USER_DATA_DIR=/data/personas/Default/chrome_profile
            - DISPLAY=novnc:0.0
            
    novnc:
        image: theasp/novnc:latest
        environment:
            - DISPLAY_WIDTH=1920
            - DISPLAY_HEIGHT=1080
            - RUN_XTERM=no
        ports:
            - "8080:8080"

ArchiveBox Configuration

bash

Source: ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox

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