Firefox not found with root user and non-root $HOME

[MikeMcC399]

What would you like?

If an attempt is made to run Cypress against the Mozilla Firefox browser in a Cypress Docker container runner under GitHub Actions when the user is root Cypress should log the error message from Firefox:

"Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported. ($HOME is /github/home which is owned by uid 1001.)"

This is the error message which is produced when
firefox --version
is executed directly in a GitHub Actions workflow.

Cypress however outputs the message:

"Browser: firefox was not found on your system or is not supported by Cypress."

Why is this needed?

The message "firefox was not found on your system" is misleading. This message is output even though Firefox is installed.

The resolution necessary is to use the GitHub Actions
jobs.<job_id>.container.options with
--user 1001 to match the ownership of the $HOME directory.

Other

Repo https://github.com/MikeMcC399/cy-firefox-docker demonstrates this issue using

cypress/browsers:latest

See .github/workflows/firefox.yml

Debug logs

https://github.com/MikeMcC399/cy-firefox-docker/actions/workflows/firefox-debug.yml

[warrensplayer]

@MikeMcC399 Thanks as usual for all the hard work documenting issues and creating excellent reproductions. It always makes it so easy to see what is happening.

[warrensplayer]

I reviewed the logs from the Github actions in the sample repo from @MikeMcC399 and can see the different behaviors.

Here are several related issues/PRs:

• Update README.md to talk about non-root user for firefox per #938 in the github-action repo cypress-docker-images#900
• Add Firefox user id 1001 to README common problems cypress-docker-images#871
• docs: adding in information on running firefox in a container in the README github-action#938
• Browser: 'firefox' was not found on your system -- but FF is version 57 in container cypress-docker-images#85 (comment)
• Firefox - unable to run scripts in Firefox - cypress/browsers:node12.18.3-chrome89-ff86 cypress-docker-images#571

[MikeMcC399]

The Firefox detection issue by Cypress is reproducible without GitHub Actions in a local Docker container.

Cypress fails to find the Firefox browser if the user is root and the HOME environment variable is set to a directory owned by a non-root user. This is demonstrated below using the non-root user node.

Firefox reports:

Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported. ($HOME is /home/node which is owned by node.)

Cypress incorrectly reports:

Browser: firefox was not found on your system or is not supported by Cypress.

Steps to reproduce

Environment: Docker desktop v4.30.0

git clone https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress-docker-images
cd cypress-docker-images/factory/test-project
docker run -it --rm -v .:/e2e -w /e2e --entrypoint bash cypress/included
firefox --version
cypress info
export HOME=/home/node
firefox --version
cypress run --browser firefox

Logs

git clone https://github.com/cypress-io/cypress-docker-images
cd cypress-docker-images/factory/test-project
docker run -it --rm -v .:/e2e -w /e2e --entrypoint bash cypress/included

Success

User is root and $HOME is /root

root@0235712be24c:/e2e# firefox --version
Mozilla Firefox 126.0.1
root@0235712be24c:/e2e# cypress info

DevTools listening on ws://127.0.0.1:36975/devtools/browser/991ade34-dcf7-4886-b9cf-62e7de7600f6
Displaying Cypress info...

Detected 3 browsers installed:

1. Chrome
  - Name: chrome
  - Channel: stable
  - Version: 125.0.6422.141
  - Executable: google-chrome

2. Edge
  - Name: edge
  - Channel: stable
  - Version: 125.0.2535.85
  - Executable: edge

3. Firefox
  - Name: firefox
  - Channel: stable
  - Version: 126.0.1
  - Executable: firefox

Note: to run these browsers, pass <name>:<channel> to the '--browser' field

Examples:
- cypress run --browser firefox
- cypress run --browser chrome

Learn More: https://on.cypress.io/launching-browsers

Proxy Settings: none detected
Environment Variables:
CYPRESS_CACHE_FOLDER: /root/.cache/Cypress
CYPRESS_FACTORY_DEFAULT_NODE_VERSION: 20.14.0

Application Data: /root/.config/cypress/cy/development
Browser Profiles: /root/.config/cypress/cy/development/browsers
Binary Caches: /root/.cache/Cypress

Cypress Version: 13.11.0 (stable)
System Platform: linux (Debian - 12.5)
System Memory: 5.16 GB free 4.1 GB

Failure

User is still root and $HOME is /home/node with non-root ownership

root@0235712be24c:/e2e# export HOME=/home/node
root@0235712be24c:/e2e# firefox --version
Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported.  ($HOME is /home/node which is owned by node.)
root@0235712be24c:/e2e# cypress run --browser firefox


DevTools listening on ws://127.0.0.1:37881/devtools/browser/3c93fc63-e7b7-4a1f-899f-242fd9fc5903
Can't run because you've entered an invalid browser name.

Browser: firefox was not found on your system or is not supported by Cypress.

Cypress supports the following browsers:
 - electron
 - chrome
 - chromium
 - chrome:canary
 - edge
 - firefox

You can also use a custom browser: https://on.cypress.io/customize-browsers

Available browsers found on your system are:
 - chrome
 - edge
 - electron
Can't run because you've entered an invalid browser name.

Browser: firefox was not found on your system or is not supported by Cypress.

Cypress supports the following browsers:
 - electron
 - chrome
 - chromium
 - chrome:canary
 - edge
 - firefox

You can also use a custom browser: https://on.cypress.io/customize-browsers

Available browsers found on your system are:
 - chrome
 - edge
 - electron

[MikeMcC399]

I originally submitted this as a feature request. Possibly it should be classed as a bug?