[Bug]: Chromium - Stuck Execution on context.waitForEvent('serviceworker') with extension testing

[darshandp007]

Version

1.49.0

Description

I encountered an issue while testing a Manifest v3 extension using Playwright. The execution gets stuck at the following line and does not proceed:

await context.waitForEvent('serviceworker');

Steps to reproduce:

1. I uploaded the extension to the Chromium browser using the code provided in the Playwright documentation for Testing Chrome Extensions.
2. The execution hangs after the above line, and no further steps are executed.

Observations:

1. The same code worked perfectly in Playwright version 1.48.2.
2. The issue started appearing after upgrading to the current version.

Expected behavior

The code should wait for the serviceworker event and proceed as expected.

Actual behavior

Execution is stuck indefinitely, and the serviceworker event is not detected.

Additional context

• Browser Version: Chromium (131.0.6778.33)
• Playwright Version: (1.49.0)
• Operating System: (Linux)
• Extension Type: Manifest v3

Environment

System:
  OS: Linux 6.2 Ubuntu 22.04.3
Binaries:
  Node: 18.18.2
  npm: 9.8.1
npmPackages:
  @playwright/test: 1.49.0

[dgozman]

@darshandp007 Could you please share a minimal reproducible that includes a sample extension and your test code? That would help to get this issue resolved. Without a repro, it's much less likely we'll be able to figure out the problem.

[mdmower]

@dgozman - This bug affects me as well. Here's a minimal reproduction, see testing instructions in readme: https://github.com/mdmower/pw-sw-wait . The issue started with v1.49.0. It is not a problem in v1.48.2.

[mdmower]

Follow-up: It looks like this issue is resolved by opting into the new headless. Is this the same as the old --headless=new flag?

When I make the following updates to sample repo https://github.com/mdmower/pw-sw-wait (and my own personal projects), the test suite works again:

diff --git a/playwright.config.js b/playwright.config.js
index ee32b05..1a23506 100644
--- a/playwright.config.js
+++ b/playwright.config.js
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ export default defineConfig({
   projects: [
     {
       name: "chromium",
-      use: { ...devices["Desktop Chrome"] },
+      use: { ...devices["Desktop Chrome"], channel: "chromium" },
     },
   ],
 });
diff --git a/pw-fixtures.js b/pw-fixtures.js
index b685ad7..7fd6c25 100644
--- a/pw-fixtures.js
+++ b/pw-fixtures.js
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ export const test = base.extend({
     const pathToExtension = fileURLToPath(import.meta.resolve("."));
     const context = await chromium.launchPersistentContext("", {
       args: [
-        "--headless=new",
         `--disable-extensions-except=${pathToExtension}`,
         `--load-extension=${pathToExtension}`,
       ],

[dgozman]

@mdmower Yes, you are right, the new chromium channel is equivalent to passing --headless=new previously. Let me update the docs that are now wrong.