Headful / headed runs failing on GitHub Actions (python-playwright / Chromium / Linux)

I can’t get headful runs to work using python-playwright; I keep getting Unable to open X display..

I’ve tried for months with the recommended setup at https://playwright.dev/python/docs/ci#running-headed, and just today tried adding --server-args="-screen 0 1280x960x24" to the xvfb-run command to match your (passing) example here, but it’s still not working.

I got some errors about the Chromium sandbox, so I added

chromium_sandbox=False,
args=["--no-sandbox", "--disable-setuid-sandbox"],

but that didn’t seem to help.

Currently on python 3.9.5, python-playwright 1.11.0, Ubuntu-20.04.

You can see my config at: https://github.com/n8henrie/pycookiecheat/blob/dev/.github/workflows/python-package.yml

At the time of opening this issue, it is:

# This workflow will install Python dependencies, run tests and lint with a variety of Python versions
# For more information see: https://help.github.com/actions/language-and-framework-guides/using-python-with-github-actions

name: Python package

on:
  push:
    branches: [ master, dev ]
  pull_request:
    branches: [ master, dev ]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
    strategy:
      matrix:
        python-version: [3.7, 3.8, 3.9]

    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
    - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
      uses: actions/setup-python@v2
      with:
        python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
    - uses: microsoft/playwright-github-action@v1
    - name: Install tox
      run: python -m pip install tox
    - name: Run tox
      run: xvfb-run --auto-servernum --server-args="-screen 0 1280x960x24" -- python -m tox -e py
    - name: Lint
      run: python -m tox -e lint

You can see my dozens of failing attempts to get this to run at: https://github.com/n8henrie/pycookiecheat/actions – I’d love to hear any suggestions!

[n8henrie]

@mxschmitt – You’re correct, it had to do with tox clearing the environment variables.

Specifically, adding this to my GitHub Actions yaml file resolved the issue:

  env:
      TOX_TESTENV_PASSENV: "XAUTHORITY DISPLAY"

Full working example: https://github.com/n8henrie/pycookiecheat/blob/3458862a4c99c83ae9017fe52ae6ec49216c745d/.github/workflows/python-package.yml#L16

Alternatively, I could have used the passenv key in tox.ini.

This was such a pain to sort out that I wrote up a blog post of my procedure here.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

[mxschmitt]

Awesome news! 💯