[BUG] Host system is missing dependencies to run browsers (WSL2)

[Newbie012]

Context:

• Playwright Version:1.28.1
• Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS (WSL 2)
• Node.js version: v18.4.0
• Browser:All

System:

• OS: Linux 5.10 Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS (Focal Fossa)
• Memory: 12.41 GB / 15.58 GB
• Container: Yes

Binaries:

• Node: 18.4.0 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.4.0/bin/node
• Yarn: 1.22.19 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.4.0/bin/yarn
• npm: 8.12.1 - ~/.nvm/versions/node/v18.4.0/bin/npm

Languages:

• Bash: 5.0.17 - /usr/bin/bash

npmPackages:

• playwright: 1.28.1 => 1.28.1

Code Snippet

Help us help you! Put down a short code snippet that illustrates your bug and
that we can run and debug locally. For example:

import { chromium } from "playwright";

async function main() {
  const browser = await chromium.launch();
}

main();

Describe the bug

While running the code above, I'm getting

╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Host system is missing dependencies to run browsers. ║
║ Please install them with the following command:      ║
║                                                      ║
║     sudo npx playwright install-deps                 ║
║                                                      ║
║ Alternatively, use apt:                              ║
║     sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-0\               ║
║         libnss3\                                     ║
║         libnspr4\                                    ║
║         libatk1.0-0\                                 ║
║         libatk-bridge2.0-0\                          ║
║         libcups2\                                    ║
║         libdrm2\                                     ║
║         libdbus-1-3\                                 ║
║         libatspi2.0-0\                               ║
║         libxcomposite1\                              ║
║         libxdamage1\                                 ║
║         libxfixes3\                                  ║
║         libxrandr2\                                  ║
║         libgbm1\                                     ║
║         libxkbcommon0\                               ║
║         libpango-1.0-0\                              ║
║         libcairo2\                                   ║
║         libasound2                                   ║
║                                                      ║
║ <3 Playwright Team                                   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Trying to follow the instructions leads to the same error:

➜  xxx ✗ pnpm tsx src/index.ts
browserType.launch: 
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Host system is missing dependencies to run browsers. ║
║ Please install them with the following command:      ║
║                                                      ║
║     sudo npx playwright install-deps                 ║
║                                                      ║
║ Alternatively, use apt:                              ║
║     sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-0\               ║
║         libnss3\                                     ║
║         libnspr4\                                    ║
║         libatk1.0-0\                                 ║
║         libatk-bridge2.0-0\                          ║
║         libcups2\                                    ║
║         libdrm2\                                     ║
║         libdbus-1-3\                                 ║
║         libatspi2.0-0\                               ║
║         libxcomposite1\                              ║
║         libxdamage1\                                 ║
║         libxfixes3\                                  ║
║         libxrandr2\                                  ║
║         libgbm1\                                     ║
║         libxkbcommon0\                               ║
║         libpango-1.0-0\                              ║
║         libcairo2\                                   ║
║         libasound2                                   ║
║                                                      ║
║ <3 Playwright Team                                   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
    at main (/.../src/index.ts:167:34)
    at queue (/.../src/index.ts:269:1)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/.../src/index.ts:269:6)
    at Object.T (/home/eliya/projects/home-app/node_modules/.pnpm/@esbuild-kit+cjs-loader@2.4.1/node_modules/@esbuild-kit/cjs-loader/dist/index.js:1:901) {
  name: 'Error'
}

Node.js v18.4.0
➜  xxx ✗ sudo npx playwright install-deps
sudo: npx: command not found
➜  xxx ✗ npx playwright install-deps
Installing dependencies...
Switching to root user to install dependencies...
Hit:1 https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:2 https://apt.releases.hashicorp.com focal InRelease                                                                            
Hit:3 https://cli.github.com/packages focal InRelease                                                                               
Get:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [114 kB]                                                           
Hit:5 https://cli.github.com/packages stable InRelease                                                                              
Hit:6 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease                                                                       
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/redislabs/redis/ubuntu focal InRelease                                                      
Hit:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease                                               
Hit:9 http://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt focal-pgdg InRelease             
Hit:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease                
Hit:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Fetched 114 kB in 1s (131 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'libfontconfig1' instead of 'libfontconfig'
fonts-liberation is already the newest version (1:1.07.4-11).
libatk1.0-0 is already the newest version (2.35.1-1ubuntu2).
libatspi2.0-0 is already the newest version (2.36.0-2).
libcairo-gobject2 is already the newest version (1.16.0-4ubuntu1).
libcairo2 is already the newest version (1.16.0-4ubuntu1).
libdbus-glib-1-2 is already the newest version (0.110-5fakssync1).
libepoxy0 is already the newest version (1.5.4-1).
libevent-2.1-7 is already the newest version (2.1.11-stable-1).
libfontconfig1 is already the newest version (2.13.1-2ubuntu3).
libhyphen0 is already the newest version (2.8.8-7).
libnspr4 is already the newest version (2:4.25-1).
libopus0 is already the newest version (1.3.1-0ubuntu1).
libpango-1.0-0 is already the newest version (1.44.7-2ubuntu4).
libpangocairo-1.0-0 is already the newest version (1.44.7-2ubuntu4).
libpangoft2-1.0-0 is already the newest version (1.44.7-2ubuntu4).
libpng16-16 is already the newest version (1.6.37-2).
libsoup2.4-1 is already the newest version (2.70.0-1).
libvpx6 is already the newest version (1.8.2-1build1).
libwoff1 is already the newest version (1.0.2-1build2).
libxcb-shm0 is already the newest version (1.14-2).
libxcb1 is already the newest version (1.14-2).
libxcomposite1 is already the newest version (1:0.4.5-1).
libxcursor1 is already the newest version (1:1.2.0-2).
libxdamage1 is already the newest version (1:1.1.5-2).
libxext6 is already the newest version (2:1.3.4-0ubuntu1).
libxfixes3 is already the newest version (1:5.0.3-2).
libxi6 is already the newest version (2:1.7.10-0ubuntu1).
libxkbcommon0 is already the newest version (0.10.0-1).
libxrandr2 is already the newest version (2:1.5.2-0ubuntu1).
libxrender1 is already the newest version (1:0.9.10-1).
libxshmfence1 is already the newest version (1.3-1).
libxt6 is already the newest version (1:1.1.5-1).
libxtst6 is already the newest version (2:1.2.3-1).
ttf-unifont is already the newest version (1:12.0.01-2).
xfonts-scalable is already the newest version (1:1.0.3-1.1).
fonts-ipafont-gothic is already the newest version (00303-18ubuntu1).
fonts-tlwg-loma-otf is already the newest version (1:0.7.1-3).
fonts-wqy-zenhei is already the newest version (0.9.45-7ubuntu1).
gstreamer1.0-libav is already the newest version (1.16.2-2).
libenchant1c2a is already the newest version (1.6.0-11.3build1).
ttf-ubuntu-font-family is already the newest version (1:0.83-4ubuntu1).
xfonts-cyrillic is already the newest version (1:1.0.4).
fonts-noto-color-emoji is already the newest version (0~20200916-1~ubuntu20.04.1).
gstreamer1.0-plugins-base is already the newest version (1.16.3-0ubuntu1.1).
gstreamer1.0-plugins-good is already the newest version (1.16.3-0ubuntu1.1).
libasound2 is already the newest version (1.2.2-2.1ubuntu2.5).
libatk-bridge2.0-0 is already the newest version (2.34.2-0ubuntu2~20.04.1).
libatomic1 is already the newest version (10.3.0-1ubuntu1~20.04).
libcups2 is already the newest version (2.3.1-9ubuntu1.2).
libdbus-1-3 is already the newest version (1.12.16-2ubuntu2.3).
libdrm2 is already the newest version (2.4.107-8ubuntu1~20.04.2).
libegl1 is already the newest version (1.3.2-1~ubuntu0.20.04.2).
libenchant-2-2 is already the newest version (2.2.8-1ubuntu0.20.04.1).
libevdev2 is already the newest version (1.9.0+dfsg-1ubuntu0.2).
libfreetype6 is already the newest version (2.10.1-2ubuntu0.2).
libgbm1 is already the newest version (21.2.6-0ubuntu0.1~20.04.2).
libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 is already the newest version (2.40.0+dfsg-3ubuntu0.4).
libgl1 is already the newest version (1.3.2-1~ubuntu0.20.04.2).
libgles2 is already the newest version (1.3.2-1~ubuntu0.20.04.2).
libglib2.0-0 is already the newest version (2.64.6-1~ubuntu20.04.4).
libgstreamer-gl1.0-0 is already the newest version (1.16.3-0ubuntu1.1).
libgstreamer1.0-0 is already the newest version (1.16.3-0ubuntu1.1).
libgtk-3-0 is already the newest version (3.24.20-0ubuntu1.1).
libharfbuzz-icu0 is already the newest version (2.6.4-1ubuntu4.2).
libharfbuzz0b is already the newest version (2.6.4-1ubuntu4.2).
libicu66 is already the newest version (66.1-2ubuntu2.1).
libjpeg-turbo8 is already the newest version (2.0.3-0ubuntu1.20.04.3).
libnotify4 is already the newest version (0.7.9-1ubuntu3.20.04.2).
libnss3 is already the newest version (2:3.49.1-1ubuntu1.8).
libopengl0 is already the newest version (1.3.2-1~ubuntu0.20.04.2).
libopenjp2-7 is already the newest version (2.3.1-1ubuntu4.20.04.1).
libsecret-1-0 is already the newest version (0.20.4-0ubuntu1).
libwayland-client0 is already the newest version (1.18.0-1ubuntu0.1).
libwayland-egl1 is already the newest version (1.18.0-1ubuntu0.1).
libwayland-server0 is already the newest version (1.18.0-1ubuntu0.1).
libwebp6 is already the newest version (0.6.1-2ubuntu0.20.04.1).
libwebpdemux2 is already the newest version (0.6.1-2ubuntu0.20.04.1).
libx11-6 is already the newest version (2:1.6.9-2ubuntu1.2).
libx11-xcb1 is already the newest version (2:1.6.9-2ubuntu1.2).
libxml2 is already the newest version (2.9.10+dfsg-5ubuntu0.20.04.4).
libxslt1.1 is already the newest version (1.1.34-4ubuntu0.20.04.1).
ffmpeg is already the newest version (7:4.2.7-0ubuntu0.1).
gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad is already the newest version (1.16.3-0ubuntu1).
xvfb is already the newest version (2:1.20.13-1ubuntu1~20.04.4).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
➜  xxx ✗ sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-0 libnss3 libnspr4 libatk1.0-0 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libcups2 libdrm2 libdbus-1-3 libxkbcommon0 libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxfixes3 libxrandr2 libgbm1 libpango-1.0-0 libcairo2 libasound2 libatspi2.0-0 libwayland-client0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
libatk1.0-0 is already the newest version (2.35.1-1ubuntu2).
libatspi2.0-0 is already the newest version (2.36.0-2).
libcairo2 is already the newest version (1.16.0-4ubuntu1).
libnspr4 is already the newest version (2:4.25-1).
libpango-1.0-0 is already the newest version (1.44.7-2ubuntu4).
libxcomposite1 is already the newest version (1:0.4.5-1).
libxdamage1 is already the newest version (1:1.1.5-2).
libxfixes3 is already the newest version (1:5.0.3-2).
libxkbcommon0 is already the newest version (0.10.0-1).
libxrandr2 is already the newest version (2:1.5.2-0ubuntu1).
libasound2 is already the newest version (1.2.2-2.1ubuntu2.5).
libatk-bridge2.0-0 is already the newest version (2.34.2-0ubuntu2~20.04.1).
libcups2 is already the newest version (2.3.1-9ubuntu1.2).
libdbus-1-3 is already the newest version (1.12.16-2ubuntu2.3).
libdrm2 is already the newest version (2.4.107-8ubuntu1~20.04.2).
libgbm1 is already the newest version (21.2.6-0ubuntu0.1~20.04.2).
libglib2.0-0 is already the newest version (2.64.6-1~ubuntu20.04.4).
libnss3 is already the newest version (2:3.49.1-1ubuntu1.8).
libwayland-client0 is already the newest version (1.18.0-1ubuntu0.1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 5 not upgraded.
➜  xxx ✗ pnpm tsx src/index.ts           
browserType.launch: 
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Host system is missing dependencies to run browsers. ║
║ Please install them with the following command:      ║
║                                                      ║
║     sudo npx playwright install-deps                 ║
║                                                      ║
║ Alternatively, use apt:                              ║
║     sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-0\               ║
║         libnss3\                                     ║
║         libnspr4\                                    ║
║         libatk1.0-0\                                 ║
║         libatk-bridge2.0-0\                          ║
║         libcups2\                                    ║
║         libdrm2\                                     ║
║         libdbus-1-3\                                 ║
║         libatspi2.0-0\                               ║
║         libxcomposite1\                              ║
║         libxdamage1\                                 ║
║         libxfixes3\                                  ║
║         libxrandr2\                                  ║
║         libgbm1\                                     ║
║         libxkbcommon0\                               ║
║         libpango-1.0-0\                              ║
║         libcairo2\                                   ║
║         libasound2                                   ║
║                                                      ║
║ <3 Playwright Team                                   ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
    at main (/.../src/index.ts:167:34)
    at queue (/.../src/index.ts:269:1)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/.../src/index.ts:269:6)
    at Object.T (...) {
  name: 'Error'
}

Node.js v18.4.0

[thiagomini]

Same thing here, using WSL.

[pbstrein]

Same here

[GuillaumeDeconinck]

Same here as well

Note that I can run GUI apps in WSL2 such as Gedit without any issues.

[GuillaumeDeconinck]

I manage to make it run with the following:
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ npx playwright test

But modifying globally LD_LIBRARY_PATH breaks something in my WSL (apparently Golang executables).
I don't know if it's my WSL or if it's "expected". I don't know enough yet on this kind of stuff.

[pbstrein]

#13995 Mentioned this SO, I haven't been able to test whether that fixes the problem or not.

[vuki656]

I manage to make it run with the following: LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ npx playwright test

But modifying globally LD_LIBRARY_PATH breaks something in my WSL (apparently Golang executables). I don't know if it's my WSL or if it's "expected". I don't know enough yet on this kind of stuff.

Interestingly enough, I have the same problem but on ubuntu 20.04 and this fixes the issue and I am able to run the tests.

[ch4r-ch4r]

Was having this same issue, if you use nvm to manage your node versions in WSL2 (as I am), then removing the sudo and just running npx playwright install-deps should fix it.

Found this nugget in Microsoft's official guide to installing nvm on WSL2, right after step 9:

If you are using NVM to install Node.js and NPM, you should not need to use the SUDO command to install new packages.

After that the tests ran without errors.

[emrancu]

npx playwright install-deps fix my problem. Thanks @ch4r-ch4r

[KubaJastrz]

npx playwright install-deps still didn't work for me, but this setup did (API mode):

import { chromium } from "playwright";

const browser = await chromium.launch({
  executablePath: chromium.executablePath(), // <- add this
  headless: false,
});

If that doesn't work, you can try to install google chrome separately and provide it here. I used this for testing: https://askubuntu.com/questions/79280/how-to-install-chrome-browser-properly-via-command-line

import { chromium } from "playwright";

const browser = await chromium.launch({
  executablePath: "/usr/bin/google-chrome",
  headless: false,
});

The window was not sized properly though to the viewport, I'm not sure if this is a problem on my end (I use this X410 bridge: https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9NLP712ZMN9Q)

[howelwu]

npx playwright install-deps fix my problem. Thanks @ch4r-ch4r

work for me, thanks

[jnguyen1098]

had the same issue on wsl2 with python playwright; I ran playwright installwithout having first run playwright install-deps