Note that you are viewing Looker documentation. For Looker Studio documentation, visit https://support.google.com/looker-studio.

Installing Chromium for Amazon Linux

Looker uses the Chromium renderer to run certain Looker features. If your instance is hosted by Looker, this software is already installed. However, if you host your own Looker instance, you will need to install the renderer.

Instructions to install Chromium on Ubuntu are in the Chromium section of the Customer-hosted installation documentation page. Instructions for installing Chromium on Debian are also available in the Installing Chromium on Debian section of the Customer-hosted installation documentation page.

Chromium is more difficult to install on some Linux distributions, such as Amazon Linux. Looker recommends that customers with Looker running on those distributions install Chrome instead and creating a link from Chrome to Chromium.

Installation steps

If you are installing Chrome on a clustered Looker installation, the versions on all nodes must be fully identical. Even minor differences, such as different build numbers, can prevent the Chromium renderer from working properly.

Get the latest version of Chrome by running the following command in your terminal application:

wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm

Use the sudo command to perform the installation steps as the Looker user. Do not run as root. If you install Chrome while logged in as the root user, Looker might not be able to execute PDF or PNG rendering.

To install Chrome on Amazon Linux:

Install Chrome by running the following command:

sudo yum install ./google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm

Create a symbolic link from Chrome to Chromium's executable path in/usr/bin/chromium by running the following command:
```
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable /usr/bin/chromium
```
You can use instructions like those from the intoli blog to resolve any dependency issues.
This page recommends using their script by running the following command:
```
curl https://intoli.com/install-google-chrome.sh | bash
```
You should always inspect any bash script and understand what it is doing before running it on your Looker instance.

See the Customer-hosted installation of rendering software documentation page for some optional environment variables, such as DISABLE_EXTERNAL_RENDER_ACCESS.