Add more docs regarding X and headed mode.

[kaystrobach]

Are there any hints on how to get the vnc and x server running.

Atleast in our tests all the tests run fine in the not headed mode.
Having the headed mode would be a game changer to ensure we can run it all inside ddev not depending on any local libraries.

[deviantintegral]

👋 can you share what’s broken? The VNC and X server is always running, you just have to connect to it over the separate port in your browser. From there, you can run a terminal and tests directly. But if you run them normally but with --headed they will run in that session.

[kaystrobach]

We are using the addon on mac (armhf) and nixOS(intel).

We have the commands etc. but connecting to the ports provided in ddev describe gives us a bad gateway.

One important change we made was that we skip the assumption of the tests/playwright folder. But as i said this works fine, as long as we don’t want a headed session.

Additionally we had to ignore ssl errors in our playwright config, to get the nonheaded tests running

[mcnesium]

When running ddev playwright codegen, it returns the following error:

Details

    triggerUncaughtException(err, true /* fromPromise */);
    ^

i.parse: Target page, context or browser has been closed
Browser logs:

╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Looks like you launched a headed browser without having a XServer running.                     ║
║ Set either 'headless: true' or use 'xvfb-run <your-playwright-app>' before running Playwright. ║
║                                                                                                ║
║ <3 Playwright Team                                                                             ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Call log:
- <launching> /home/mcn/.cache/ms-playwright/chromium-1208/chrome-linux64/chrome --disable-field-trial-config --disable-background-networking --disable-background-timer-throttling --disable-backgrounding-occluded-windows --disable-back-forward-cache --disable-breakpad --disable-client-side-phishing-detection --disable-component-extensions-with-background-pages --disable-component-update --no-default-browser-check --disable-default-apps --disable-dev-shm-usage --disable-extensions --disable-features=AvoidUnnecessaryBeforeUnloadCheckSync,BoundaryEventDispatchTracksNodeRemoval,DestroyProfileOnBrowserClose,DialMediaRouteProvider,GlobalMediaControls,HttpsUpgrades,LensOverlay,MediaRouter,PaintHolding,ThirdPartyStoragePartitioning,Translate,AutoDeElevate,RenderDocument,OptimizationHints --enable-features=CDPScreenshotNewSurface --allow-pre-commit-input --disable-hang-monitor --disable-ipc-flooding-protection --disable-popup-blocking --disable-prompt-on-repost --disable-renderer-backgrounding --force-color-profile=srgb --metrics-recording-only --no-first-run --password-store=basic --use-mock-keychain --no-service-autorun --export-tagged-pdf --disable-search-engine-choice-screen --unsafely-disable-devtools-self-xss-warnings --edge-skip-compat-layer-relaunch --enable-automation --disable-infobars --disable-search-engine-choice-screen --disable-sync --enable-unsafe-swiftshader --no-sandbox --user-data-dir=/tmp/playwright_chromiumdev_profile-DkIAzE --remote-debugging-pipe --no-startup-window
- <launched> pid=56728
- [pid=56728][err] [56728:56742:0227/144448.893599:ERROR:dbus/bus.cc:405] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
- [pid=56728][err] [56728:56728:0227/144448.896314:ERROR:ui/ozone/platform/x11/ozone_platform_x11.cc:256] Missing X server or $DISPLAY
- [pid=56728][err] [56728:56728:0227/144448.896341:ERROR:ui/aura/env.cc:246] The platform failed to initialize.  Exiting.
- [pid=56728] <gracefully close start>
- [pid=56728] <kill>
- [pid=56728] <will force kill>
- [pid=56728] <process did exit: exitCode=1, signal=null>
- [pid=56728] starting temporary directories cleanup
- [pid=56728] finished temporary directories cleanup
- [pid=56728] <gracefully close end>

    at Object.<anonymous> (/var/www/html/node_modules/@playwright/test/cli.js:19:9)

Node.js v24.13.1
Failed to run playwright codegen: exit status 1

[kaystrobach]

checking display

ddev exec 'echo $DISPLAY; ls -la /tmp/.X11-unix || true; ps aux | egrep "kasm|vnc|Xvnc|Xtigervnc|Xorg" | grep -v egrep'

results in

:1
ls: cannot access '/tmp/.X11-unix': No such file or directory
kay          816  0.0  0.0  16384   492 ?        S    06:15   0:00 bash -c kasmvncserver -fg || sleep infinity; exit_code=$?; if [ $exit_code -ne 0 ]; then sleep 2; fi; exit $exit_code
kay        21528  0.0  0.0  15848  1876 pts/0    S+   15:04   0:00 grep -E kasm|vnc|Xvnc|Xtigervnc|Xorg

checking ports etc.

ddev describe

│ kasmvnc      │         │ https://project.ddev.site:8444                                                       │                    │
│              │         │ InDocker: web:8444       

result:

Bad Gateway

docker ps

Ports:

127.0.0.1:32922->80/tcp, 127.0.0.1:32923->443/tcp, 127.0.0.1:32924->8025/tcp, 127.0.0.1:32925->8444/tcp, 127.0.0.1:32926->9323/tcp

so it seems to be something in the container - maybe the xserver is not starting?

[deviantintegral]

One important change we made was that we skip the assumption of the tests/playwright folder. But as i said this works fine, as long as we don’t want a headed session.

I wonder if that's breaking the Dockerfile that adds all the system dependencies. Can you re-add that following the setup directions?

I just created a from-scratch project called playwright-test and I can connect in without issue.

[kaystrobach]

ok, will try - and yes i got it working, by reinstalling packages via ssh - which points to potential problems in with dockerfiles etc.

will try

[kaystrobach]

ddev-test.zip

Same problem: Bad Gateway

ddev version v1.25.1

[kaystrobach]

what I did for now - .ddev/commands/web/playwright-fix

#!/usr/bin/env bash

sudo apt-get update --yes;
sudo apt-get upgrade --yes;
sudo apt-get install --yes icewm xterm;
sudo apt autoremove --yes;

(
    cd .ddev/web-build/ || exit 1
    cp install-kasmvnc.sh /usr/local/bin
    chmod +x /usr/local/bin/install-kasmvnc.sh
    sudo /usr/local/bin/install-kasmvnc.sh
)

sudo chgrp -R $DDEV_GID /etc/ssl/private

(
    cd .ddev/web-build/ || exit 1
    mkdir -p /home/$USER/.vnc
    cp kasmvnc.yaml /home/$USER/.vnc
    sudo touch /home/$USER/.vnc/.de-was-selected

    chown $USER:$USER /home/$USER/.vnc/*

    echo -e "secret\nsecret\n" | kasmvncpasswd -wo -u $USER
)

(
    npx playwright install
    npx playwright install-deps
)

(
    cd .ddev/web-build/ || exit 1
    cp xstartup /usr/local/bin/
    chmod +x /usr/local/bin/xstartup
    /usr/local/bin/xstartup || true
)

then i run the following commands on the host:

ddev playwright-fix
ddev ssh

in the ssh session

kasmvncserver

the i'm able to access the vnc server over the given ip and port in the shell (username from the host and passwort secret as mentioned)

[kaystrobach]

As far as i understand, the dockerfile should do all the stuff, that i put in the fix command - correct?

[kaystrobach]

@mcnesium here is the test project with the shell script and a readme.

ddev-test.zip

@deviantintegral I think for some weird reason the Dockerfile is not used at all. and this causes the problems.

Now I'm verifying the easiast fix:

cp .ddev/web-build/disabled.Dockerfile.playwright .ddev/web-build/Dockerfile.playwright

[deviantintegral]

Did you run ddev install-playwright on your local? The playwright dependencies are opt in per checkout because they're big and slow to install.

https://github.com/Lullabot/ddev-playwright/blob/main/commands/host/install-playwright#L30 is where the cp command happens.

[kaystrobach]

I think i got it.

cp: test/playwright: No such file or directory
Task failed: Exec command 'if [[ -f .ddev/web-build/Dockerfile.playwright ]]
then                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
  rm -rf .ddev/web-build/playwright                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
  cp -r test/playwright .ddev/web-build/                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
fi                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
' on the host (Kays-MacBook-Pro-M1-2.local): exit status 1                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
A task failure does not mean that DDEV failed, but your hook configuration has a command that failed. 

Is it possible, that it fails, when we are using hooks too?

[kaystrobach]

I did and got this:

No playwright installation exists at test/playwright.
Playwright does not support a non-interactive setup and must be done manually.

Run the following to use npm:
ddev exec -d /var/www/html/test/playwright npm init playwright@latest

Run the following to use yarn instead:
ddev exec -d /var/www/html/test/playwright yarn create playwright

Answer no when it asks to install browsers and operating system dependencies,
as those will be erased when ddev restarts.

As well, add ignoreHTTPSErrors: true to playwright.config.ts.

See https://playwright.dev/docs/intro for more details.

When done, run: ddev install-playwright
Failed to run install-playwright ; error=exit status 1

What I learned, after running the command up there, we can rerun ddev install-playwright and then it seams to work

The question is, if we really need to run the initial setup (which is not just installing stuff, but also configuring playwright), esp. if we have all of it in the root dir already (package.json, playwright config etc.).

[kaystrobach]

Ok, VNC works with the info above:

run

ddev install-playwright

follow the info there

run

ddev install-playwright

then we need to symlink the tests/playwright dir to our rootdir to finally get our tests and not the examples that are shipped

[kaystrobach]

Thank you!