[Bug]: Playwright: Missing official support for Fedora - Incorrect fallback message and dependency handling

[khaimed]

Version

1.41.2

Steps to reproduce

1. System Setup:

• Fedora version: 39
• Playwright version: 1.41.2
• Installed Playwright using: npm init playwright

2. Test Execution:

• Ran the following command: npx playwright test
• Observed the following error message:

Error: browserType.launch:
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Host system is missing dependencies to run browsers. ║
║ Missing libraries:                                   ║
║     libicudata.so.66                                 ║
║     libicui18n.so.66                                 ║
║     libicuuc.so.66                                   ║
║     libjpeg.so.8                                     ║
║     libwebp.so.6                                     ║
║     libflite.so.1                                    ║
║     libflite_usenglish.so.1                          ║
║     libflite_cmu_grapheme_lang.so.1                  ║
║     libflite_cmu_grapheme_lex.so.1                   ║
║     libflite_cmu_indic_lang.so.1                     ║
║     libflite_cmu_indic_lex.so.1                      ║
║     libflite_cmulex.so.1                             ║
║     libflite_cmu_time_awb.so.1                       ║
║     libflite_cmu_us_awb.so.1                         ║
║     libflite_cmu_us_kal16.so.1                       ║
║     libflite_cmu_us_kal.so.1                         ║
║     libflite_cmu_us_rms.so.1                         ║
║     libflite_cmu_us_slt.so.1                         ║
║     libpcre.so.3                                     ║
║     libffi.so.7                                      ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

3. Dependency Installation Attempt:

• Ran the following command: npx playwright install-deps
• Encountered an error: Failed to install browser dependencies

4. Playwright Installation Attempt:

• Ran the following command: npx playwright install
• Observed multiple warnings: BEWARE: your OS is not officially supported by Playwright; downloading fallback build for ubuntu20.04-x64.

Expected behavior

• Playwright should launch the requested browsers (webkit, chromium, etc.) without encountering any missing dependency errors.
• Playwright tests should execute successfully on my Fedora system.

Actual behavior

• Playwright fails to launch browsers due to missing libraries.
• The error message lists specific missing libraries needed for browser functionality.
• Attempting to install dependencies manually or through npx playwright install-deps fails.
• Installing Playwright with npx playwright install triggers warnings about using an unsupported fallback build.

Additional context

• I understand that Fedora is not officially supported by Playwright, but I wanted to see if it could still be used with some effort.
• I did not create any custom code for this test; I only used the basic structure generated by npm init playwright.
• I am hoping to contribute to improving Playwright's compatibility with Fedora or at least provide guidance for other users facing similar issues.

Environment

System:
    OS: Linux 6.7 Fedora Linux 39 (Cinnamon)
    CPU: (8) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2720QM CPU @ 2.20GHz
    Memory: 8.01 GB / 15.53 GB
    Container: Yes
  Binaries:
    Node: 20.10.0 - /usr/bin/node
    Yarn: 1.22.19 - /usr/bin/yarn
    npm: 10.2.3 - /usr/bin/npm
  IDEs:
    VSCode: 1.86.2 - /usr/bin/code
  Languages:
    Bash: 5.2.26 - /usr/bin/bash

[ALRubinger]

Ran into same issue tonight - appreciate y'all, maintainers. Would be great to get this in Fedora.

[mxschmitt]

Supporting a new operating system is a major investment for us. Not only compiling the browsers, its also required to run our tests against this new operating system. For amd/arm multiplied by the 3 browser engines. And potentially new Fedora versions. In the past we didn't see enough interest for Fedora, hence we haven't invested much time into it.

Folding into #19458.

As a workaround we recommend either running entirely inside Docker or using the client/server mode: #26482

Running it inside Docker is what customers are usually doing in such a scenario.

[wencan]

Firefox can be installed on Fedora 40.

[Forceres]

Firefox can be installed on Fedora 40.

How it can be installed for playwright?

[wwk-github]

I've used:

sudo dnf install -y \
    libicu \
    libjpeg-turbo \
    libwebp \
    flite \
    pcre \
    libffi

The 'playwright install' complains but seems to be working (try runnng playwright codegen https://www.nasa.gov/)

playwright install        
BEWARE: your OS is not officially supported by Playwright; downloading fallback build for ubuntu20.04-x64.
BEWARE: your OS is not officially supported by Playwright; downloading fallback build for ubuntu20.04-x64.
BEWARE: your OS is not officially supported by Playwright; downloading fallback build for ubuntu20.04-x64.
BEWARE: your OS is not officially supported by Playwright; downloading fallback build for ubuntu20.04-x64.
Playwright Host validation warning: 
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Host system is missing dependencies to run browsers. ║
║ Missing libraries:                                   ║
║     libicudata.so.66                                 ║
║     libicui18n.so.66                                 ║
║     libicuuc.so.66                                   ║
║     libjpeg.so.8                                     ║
║     libwebp.so.6                                     ║
║     libpcre.so.3                                     ║
║     libffi.so.7                                      ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝