[Bug]: ECONNREFUSED, PW waits for a 2 mins timeout to start a server in WSL

[bryndin]

Version

1.59.1

Steps to reproduce

This could be specific to WSL (Ubuntu running inside WSL with networking in a mirrored mode).
The run consistently takes 2.3 mins, with the 2 mins spent waiting for ECONNREFUSED
Changing b/w localhost (ipv6) and 127.0.0.1, trying different ports etc. doesn't help.

DEBUG=pw:webserver npx playwright test
  pw:webserver HTTP GET: http://localhost:1315/ +0ms
  pw:webserver Error while checking if http://localhost:1315/ is available: connect ECONNREFUSED ::1:1315 +2m
  pw:webserver Starting WebServer process npx serve public -l 1315 --no-clipboard... +0ms
  pw:webserver Process started +7ms
  pw:webserver Waiting for availability... +0ms
[WebServer]  INFO  Accepting connections at http://localhost:1315
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:10 PM 127.0.0.1 GET /
...

playwright.config.ts

import { defineConfig, devices } from '@playwright/test';

const port = 1315;
const baseURL = `http://localhost:${port}`;

export default defineConfig({
  testDir: './tests/e2e',
  fullyParallel: true,
  forbidOnly: !!process.env.CI,
  retries: process.env.CI ? 2 : 0,
  workers: process.env.CI ? 1 : undefined,
  reporter: 'html',

  use: {
    baseURL,
    trace: 'on-first-retry',
  },

  projects: [
    {
      name: 'chromium',
      use: { ...devices['Desktop Chrome'] },
    },
  ],

  webServer: {
    command: `npx serve public -l ${port} --no-clipboard`,
    url: baseURL,
    reuseExistingServer: !process.env.CI,
  },
});

Expected behavior

Not to have this error and an extra 2 mins waiting time on every run.
pw:webserver Error while checking if http://localhost:1315/ is available: connect ECONNREFUSED ::1:1315 +2m

Actual behavior

DEBUG=pw:webserver npx playwright test
  pw:webserver HTTP GET: http://localhost:1315/ +0ms
  pw:webserver Error while checking if http://localhost:1315/ is available: connect ECONNREFUSED ::1:1315 +2m
  pw:webserver Starting WebServer process npx serve public -l 1315 --no-clipboard... +0ms
  pw:webserver Process started +7ms
  pw:webserver Waiting for availability... +0ms
[WebServer]  INFO  Accepting connections at http://localhost:1315
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:10 PM 127.0.0.1 GET /
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:10 PM 127.0.0.1 Returned 200 in 40 ms

  pw:webserver HTTP Status: 200 +3s
  pw:webserver WebServer available +1ms

Running 2 tests using 2 workers
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /about/
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 4 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 6 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /css/bundle.min.7f8fd7071af08cc8653cdfa9791f7ffc4e4b97bcfaf97a47550d9cad094b0f36.css
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /css/bundle.min.7f8fd7071af08cc8653cdfa9791f7ffc4e4b97bcfaf97a47550d9cad094b0f36.css
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /js/main.5a255add05038306f53d9b456dc1f604e8276dda46b0dd804270b2d27387826c.js
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /js/main.5a255add05038306f53d9b456dc1f604e8276dda46b0dd804270b2d27387826c.js
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 3 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 2 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 5 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 3 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-700.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-700.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-regular.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-300.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-regular.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-800.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-300.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 8 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-600.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 9 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 7 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 GET /fonts/manrope-v20-cyrillic_cyrillic-ext_greek_latin_latin-ext_vietnamese-800.woff2
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 7 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 8 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 7 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 3 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 8 ms
[WebServer]  HTTP  4/26/2026 6:46:11 PM ::1 Returned 200 in 9 ms

  pw:webserver Terminating the WebServer +2s
  2 passed (2.3m)

To open last HTML report run:

  npx playwright show-report

Additional context

Here's what LLMs say about it:

This output is absolutely fantastic and reveals exactly what the "freeze" is. It wasn't freezing forever; it was hanging for exactly 2 minutes due to a well-known networking quirk in WSL Mirrored Mode.
Look at these two lines from your log:
code
Text
pw:webserver HTTP GET: http://127.0.0.1:1315/ +0ms
  pw:webserver Error while checking if http://127.0.0.1:1315/ is available: connect ETIMEDOUT 127.0.0.1:1315 +2m
The Root Cause: The WSL TCP Blackhole
Before Playwright starts your webServer, it sends a quick HTTP request to see if the server is already running (to avoid starting a duplicate server).
Normally, on Linux or Mac, if a port is closed, the operating system instantly rejects the connection with an ECONNREFUSED error (this takes 1 millisecond).
However, in WSL Mirrored Mode, your network is bound to Windows. Unused ports route to the Windows Defender Firewall. Instead of cleanly rejecting the connection, the Windows firewall silently drops the network packets.
Because the packets are silently dropped, Node.js waits for the system's default TCP timeout (which is exactly 120 seconds, or 2 minutes) before it finally gives up (ETIMEDOUT).
Once those 2 minutes pass, Playwright goes "Okay, nothing is running, I'll start the server." It starts serve, the port opens, the firewall allows the traffic, and your tests run instantly and perfectly.
(Note: start-server-and-test didn't suffer from this because it uses a custom socket polling library that manually times out every 250 milliseconds, bypassing the Windows OS 2-minute timeout.)

Environment

System:
    OS: Linux 6.6 Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS 24.04.4 LTS (Noble Numbat)
    CPU: (16) x64 AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 7840U w/ Radeon 780M Graphics
    Memory: 24.31 GB / 27.24 GB
    Container: Yes
  Binaries:
    Node: 24.14.1 - /home/xx/.nvm/versions/node/v24.14.1/bin/node
    npm: 11.11.0 - /home/xx/.nvm/versions/node/v24.14.1/bin/npm
  IDEs:
    VSCode: 1.111.0 - /mnt/c/Users/xxx/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft VS Code/bin/code
  Languages:
    Bash: 5.2.21 - /usr/bin/bash
  npmPackages:
    @playwright/test: ^1.59.1 => 1.59.1
    playwright: ^1.58.2 => 1.59.1
    playwright-core: ^1.58.2 => 1.59.1

[Skn0tt]

@bryndin could you try updating Node.js? This could be related to what's discussed in #40226.

We can separately make use of happyeyeballs in our port check.

[bryndin]

@bryndin could you try updating Node.js? This could be related to what's discussed in [#40226]
I'm using

• Node.js v24.14.1. (Latest available for my Ubuntu)
• npm 11.11.0

Any specific Node version to try?

what's discussed in [#40226
If it helps:

• I'm not using VSCode extension or VSCode to run these commands, just plain Ubuntu terminal (on Windows with WSL)
• I don't run extra antiviruses or firewalls except what's running in Windows (I think I even tried to disable them, but my memory could be failing me)
• I tried IPV4 and IPV6 the same outome
• I tried port instead of baseurl in webserver part of config, it changes debug reporting (it probably shouldn't, but it's ok), but still the same 2 mins timeout.
• LLMs suggest it's a WSL thing with a firewall blocking a call (WSL is in the mirror mode), but I can't confirm or disprove it. I remember trying to disable Windows firewall, but it didn't fix the problem
• The server runs fine and the tests run, but only after that initial 2-minute timeout, checking if there is a server to reuse
• I have to use npx start-server-and-test 'npx serve public -l ... this works, probably due to a shorter timeout.

[devareddy05]

Opened a PR for this: #40433

This change caps each pre-launch webServer availability probe at 1 second, preventing hangs caused by the OS default TCP connect timeout (~2 minutes). This is especially noticeable on WSL mirrored networking, where Windows Defender Firewall silently drops SYN packets to closed loopback ports.

Changes

• isPortUsed()

  • Added explicit socket.setTimeout()
  • Treat timeout the same as a connection error

• httpStatusCode()

  • Wrapped the request with a timer that calls cancel()
  • Request-level setTimeout alone is insufficient because of Happy Eyeballs — a socket is only assigned after a successful connection, so the timeout cannot attach before that

• Tests

  • Added a regression test that simulates a TCP peer accepting SYNs but never responding
  • Without this fix, the probe hangs indefinitely

[Skn0tt]

@bryndin try v24.15.0, see #40226 (comment) for an explanation.