[BUG] Running Nightly as root in a regular user's session is not supported.

[Th3S4mur41]

Running playwright automation in Github CI using docker image fails for Firefox

Github Actions Workflow looks as follow:

jobs:
  test_e2e:
    runs-on: self-hosted
    container:
      image: mcr.microsoft.com/playwright
      options: '--ipc=host --entrypoint /bin/bash'
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
      - run: npm ci --no-optional --no-audit --prefer-offline --progress=false
      - run: npm run ci:e2e

Output is:

 npm run ci:e2e
  shell: sh -e {0}

> @clap/clap-frontend@0.1.0 ci:e2e /__w/clap-ui/clap-ui
> jest -c jest-e2e.config.js

Protocol error (Browser.enable): Browser closed.
==================== Browser output: ====================
<launching> /ms-playwright/firefox-1250/firefox/firefox -no-remote -headless -profile /tmp/playwright_firefoxdev_profile-8PNwPz -juggler-pipe -silent
<launched> pid=629
[pid=629][err] Running Nightly as root in a regular user's session is not supported.  ($HOME is /github/home which is owned by pwuser.)Error
    at /__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/server/firefox/ffConnection.js:55:63
    at new Promise (<anonymous>)
    at FFConnection.send (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/server/firefox/ffConnection.js:54:16)
    at Function.connect (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/server/firefox/ffBrowser.js:65:24)
    at Firefox._connectToTransport (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/server/firefox/firefox.js:65:38)
    at Firefox._innerLaunch (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/server/browserType.js:133:36)
    at async ProgressController.run (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/server/progress.js:76:28)
    at async Firefox.launch (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/server/browserType.js:78:25)
    at async BrowserServerLauncherImpl.launchServer (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/playwright/lib/browserServerImpl.js:35:25)
    at async PlaywrightRunner.launchServer (/__w/clap-ui/clap-ui/node_modules/jest-playwright-preset/lib/PlaywrightRunner.js:68:44)
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! @clap/clap-frontend@0.1.0 ci:e2e: `jest -c jest-e2e.config.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the @clap/clap-frontend@0.1.0 ci:e2e script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR!     /github/home/.npm/_logs/2021-05-11T12_50_21_530Z-debug.log
Error: Process completed with exit code 1.

[JoelEinbinder]

@aslushnikov for help with docker.

The code in firefox is in toolkit/xre/nsAppRunner.cpp, and it checks if the directories $HOME, $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR and $XAUTHORITY are owned by the current user. Could you try running with HOME=/root npm run ci:e2e?

[Th3S4mur41]

Thanks @JoelEinbinder that solved the issue 👍

[mxschmitt]

Update: I raised an issue on GitHub side, since it seems not fixable on our side except using HOME=/root as a workaround as Joel has recommended.

[aslushnikov]

Looks like the workaround is good-enough

[mxschmitt]

Reopening since this is still relevant and affects the default configuration.

Repro: https://github.com/mxschmitt/firefox-github-actions-container
Upstream bug which implemented it: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1323302

---

Actually while looking at it again, it seems working fine: https://github.com/mxschmitt/firefox-github-actions-container

Waiting for new customer reports.

[thewilkybarkid]

I saw this occur when using the container as a GitHub Actions step: #23388 (comment).

GitHub Actions passes in a HOME variable of /github/home: #23388 (comment)

I tried to override it at the step level (PREreview/prereview.org@8f7b96e), but it didn't apply (it remained /github/home).

Following #23388 (comment), using env HOME=/root npx playwright [...] worked (PREreview/prereview.org@5e2bf81). (Using env is needed as the contents of the step.with.args is equivalent to a Dockerfile CMD.)

I couldn't recreate this locally with Act, and I haven't seen it when using docker run either locally or in GitHub Actions before.

[mxschmitt]

@thewilkybarkid could you help me reproducing it at the https://github.com/mxschmitt/firefox-github-actions-container repository? (feel free to create a PR there with what I did wrong)

[aslushnikov]

@thewilkybarkid could you please try running npx playwright test prefixed with HOME=/root ? Like this: https://github.com/mxschmitt/firefox-github-actions-container/pull/3/files

[thewilkybarkid]

@aslushnikov Yeah, that does get round the problem:

Following #23388 (comment), using env HOME=/root npx playwright [...] worked (PREreview/prereview.org@5e2bf81). (Using env is needed as the contents of the step.with.args is equivalent to a Dockerfile CMD.)

[aslushnikov]

@thewilkybarkid that's the way to go then. Supplying env to the docker command won't work since it doesn't get propagated inside the docker image.

I'll close this with the given workaround since it seems to be good-enough!

[taylorkline]

If possible, it'd be great if someone had a moment to update the docs at the following two locations:

• https://playwright.dev/docs/ci#via-containers
• https://playwright.dev/docs/ci#via-containers-sharded

[aslushnikov]

@taylorkline feel free to send us a pull request!