Chromium: `await context.newPage()` hangs forever, addressed with `--disable-gpu` arg

Context:

• Playwright Version: 1.7.0
• Operating System: Linux, Debian
• Node.js version: 14
• Browser: Chromium
• Extra: [any specific details about your environment]

Code Snippet

Using this code:

import { chromium } from "playwright";
const browser = await chromium.launch();
const context = await browser.newContext({ ignoreHTTPSErrors: true });
const page = await context.newPage();

Describe the bug

Using DEBUG=pw:browser.

Broken case:

2020-12-18T11:52:23.757Z info: chromium.launch()
  pw:browser <launching> /test/node_modules/playwright/.local-browsers/chromium-833159/chrome-linux/chrome --disable-background-networking --enable-features=NetworkService,NetworkServiceInProcess --disable-background-timer-throttling --disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows --disable-breakpad --disable-client-side-phishing-detection --disable-component-extensions-with-background-pages --disable-default-apps --disable-dev-shm-usage --disable-extensions --disable-features=TranslateUI,BlinkGenPropertyTrees,ImprovedCookieControls,SameSiteByDefaultCookies,LazyFrameLoading --disable-hang-monitor --disable-ipc-flooding-protection --disable-popup-blocking --disable-prompt-on-repost --disable-renderer-backgrounding --disable-sync --force-color-profile=srgb --metrics-recording-only --no-first-run --enable-automation --password-store=basic --use-mock-keychain --user-data-dir=/tmp/playwright_chromiumdev_profile-YnnTiK --remote-debugging-pipe --headless --hide-scrollbars --mute-audio --blink-settings=primaryHoverType=2,availableHoverTypes=2,primaryPointerType=4,availablePointerTypes=4 --no-sandbox --disable-dev-shm-usage --no-startup-window +0ms
  pw:browser <launched> pid=106 +13ms
  pw:browser [err] [1218/115224.064088:ERROR:bus.cc(393)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory +101ms
2020-12-18T11:52:24.068Z info: suite setup done
2020-12-18T11:52:24.069Z info: browser.newContext()
2020-12-18T11:52:24.073Z info: context.newPage()
  pw:browser [err] [1218/115224.069551:FATAL:xlib_support.cc(44)] Check failed: xlib_xcb_loader->Load("libX11-xcb.so.1").  +250ms
  pw:browser [err] #0 0x55e96b0f0919 base::debug::CollectStackTrace() +0ms
...
  pw:browser [err] Received signal 6 +1ms
  pw:browser [err] #0 0x55e96b0f0919 base::debug::CollectStackTrace() +7ms
  pw:browser [err] #1 0x55e96b0616d3 base::debug::StackTrace::StackTrace() +7ms
  pw:browser [err] #2 0x55e96b0f04fb base::debug::(anonymous namespace)::StackDumpSignalHandler() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #3 0x7febb87ac730 (/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread-2.28.so+0x1272f) +0ms
  pw:browser [err] #4 0x7febb690e7bb gsignal +0ms
  pw:browser [err] #5 0x7febb68f9535 abort +0ms
  pw:browser [err] #6 0x55e96b0ef495 base::debug::BreakDebugger() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #7 0x55e96b072d6d logging::LogMessage::~LogMessage() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #8 0x55e96b07344e logging::LogMessage::~LogMessage() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #9 0x55e96be35c9f x11::InitXlib() +10ms
  pw:browser [err] #10 0x55e96be35e59 x11::XlibDisplay::XlibDisplay() +10ms
  pw:browser [err] #11 0x55e96be0fae0 x11::Connection::GetXlibDisplay() +11ms
  pw:browser [err] #12 0x55e96c2b94f7 gl::init::InitializeGLOneOffPlatformX11() +11ms
  pw:browser [err] #13 0x55e96c2b74cb gl::init::InitializeGLOneOffPlatformImplementation() +11ms
  pw:browser [err] #14 0x55e96c2b7172 gl::init::(anonymous namespace)::InitializeGLOneOffPlatformHelper() +12ms
  pw:browser [err] #15 0x55e96c2b72dc gl::init::InitializeGLNoExtensionsOneOff() +11ms
  pw:browser [err] #16 0x55e96cccba78 gpu::GpuInit::InitializeAndStartSandbox() +13ms
  pw:browser [err] #17 0x55e96f920a23 content::GpuMain() +22ms
  pw:browser [err] #18 0x55e96afffed9 content::RunZygote() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #19 0x55e96b001144 content::ContentMainRunnerImpl::Run() +9ms
  pw:browser [err] #20 0x55e96affe7a4 content::RunContentProcess() +7ms
  pw:browser [err] #21 0x55e96afff12c content::ContentMain() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #22 0x55e96b05b612 headless::(anonymous namespace)::RunContentMain() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #23 0x55e96b05b4bb headless::RunChildProcessIfNeeded() +9ms
  pw:browser [err] #24 0x55e96b059c25 headless::HeadlessShellMain() +8ms
  pw:browser [err] #25 0x55e968575f05 ChromeMain +25ms
  pw:browser [err] #26 0x7febb68fb09b __libc_start_main +1ms
  pw:browser [err] #27 0x55e968575d2a _start +27ms
  pw:browser [err]   r8: 0000000000000000  r9: 00007ffc1e841d30 r10: 0000000000000008 r11: 0000000000000246 +0ms
  pw:browser [err]  r12: 000034c044404c98 r13: 000034c044404c90 r14: 000034c044404c80 r15: 00007ffc1e842800 +0ms
  pw:browser [err]   di: 0000000000000002  si: 00007ffc1e841d30  bp: 00007ffc1e841f80  bx: 0000000000000006 +0ms
  pw:browser [err]   dx: 0000000000000000  ax: 0000000000000000  cx: 00007febb690e7bb  sp: 00007ffc1e841d30 +0ms
  pw:browser [err]   ip: 00007febb690e7bb efl: 0000000000000246 cgf: 002b000000000033 erf: 0000000000000000 +1ms
  pw:browser [err]  trp: 0000000000000000 msk: 0000000000000000 cr2: 0000000000000000 +0ms
  pw:browser [err] [end of stack trace] +0ms
  pw:browser [err] Calling _exit(1). Core file will not be generated. +0ms
  pw:browser [err] [1218/115227.265663:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1275)] The GPU process has crashed 6 time(s) +1ms
  pw:browser [err] [1218/115227.271729:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(999)] Reinitialized the GPU process after a crash. The reported initialization time was 0 ms +

Note the The GPU process has crashed 6 time(s)

The NodeJS process hangs infinitely in the last line shown in the code snippet above, in const page = await context.newPage();.

No further log output produced by playwright.

That is, await context.newPage() does not resolve, as was for example reported here (without root-causing this): https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/3939

I then changed the browser instantiation to use the --disable-gpu arg:

    browser = await chromium.launch({
      args: ["--disable-gpu"]
    });

resulting in

2020-12-18T11:51:26.862Z info: chromium.launch()
  pw:browser <launching> /test/node_modules/playwright/.local-browsers/chromium-833159/chrome-linux/chrome --disable-background-networking --enable-features=NetworkService,NetworkServiceInProcess --disable-background-timer-throttling --disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows --disable-breakpad --disable-client-side-phishing-detection --disable-component-extensions-with-background-pages --disable-default-apps --disable-dev-shm-usage --disable-extensions --disable-features=TranslateUI,BlinkGenPropertyTrees,ImprovedCookieControls,SameSiteByDefaultCookies,LazyFrameLoading --disable-hang-monitor --disable-ipc-flooding-protection --disable-popup-blocking --disable-prompt-on-repost --disable-renderer-backgrounding --disable-sync --force-color-profile=srgb --metrics-recording-only --no-first-run --enable-automation --password-store=basic --use-mock-keychain --user-data-dir=/tmp/playwright_chromiumdev_profile-lKflzS --remote-debugging-pipe --headless --hide-scrollbars --mute-audio --blink-settings=primaryHoverType=2,availableHoverTypes=2,primaryPointerType=4,availablePointerTypes=4 --no-sandbox --disable-dev-shm-usage --disable-gpu --no-startup-window +0ms
  pw:browser <launched> pid=107 +13ms
  pw:browser [err] [1218/115127.182152:ERROR:bus.cc(393)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory +107ms
2020-12-18T11:51:27.186Z info: suite setup done
2020-12-18T11:51:27.188Z info: browser.newContext()
2020-12-18T11:51:27.195Z info: context.newPage()

Here, the await context.newPage() resolved quickly and the test runner could move on. The browser output shows

  pw:browser [err] Calling _exit(1). Core file will not be generated. +0ms
  pw:browser [err] [1218/115128.810815:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(1275)] The GPU process has crashed 3 time(s) +1ms
  pw:browser [err] [1218/115128.816207:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(999)] Reinitialized the GPU process after a crash. The reported initialization time was 0 ms 

That is, even with --disable-gpu The GPU process has crashed 3 time(s). But that wasn’t deadly.

Discussion / conclusions

• await context.newPage() can hang indefinitely, and should get some error handling love. It should error out instead of hanging indefinitely. Maybe there should be a timeout; and when that hits in the browser log should be emitted – using DEBUG=pw:browser should not be necessary to get further information.
• Should --disable-gpu be the default in headless mode? To me it seems like https://github.com/microsoft/playwright/issues/2698 needs more discussion maybe.

[denniskrol]

Ran into the same problem on a Ubuntu 20.04 server, while another Ubuntu 20.04 server didn’t have this issue. Saw this log as wel pw:browser [err] [1218/115224.069551:FATAL:xlib_support.cc(44)] Check failed: xlib_xcb_loader->Load("libX11-xcb.so.1"). +250ms Not being a Linux professional, I installed libx11-xcb1 and it seems to have fixed the problem.

[brendon]

Lol, sorry, I’m in the wrong place! 😄 I’m only using Puppeteer, but of course this helped immensely 😃