[Bug]: Page.goBack never resolves if chrome is not launched with --disable-extensions

[chincheta]

Bug description

Steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Navigate to https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/buttons/
2. Click on the link "Carousel".
3. Do an await Page.goBack()
4. Wait ad infinitum.

Puppeteer version

19.1.2

Node.js version

v16.18.0

npm version

8.19.2

What operating system are you seeing the problem on?

Linux

Relevant log output

No response

[Lightning00Blade]

@chincheta Can you provide the script that show this behavior?

[chincheta]

Here we go:

import { describe, test } from '@jest/globals';
import puppeteer, { ElementHandle } from 'puppeteer';
import axios from 'axios';

describe('puppeteer', () => {
    test('goback', async () => {

        let response = await axios.get(`http://127.0.0.1:9222/json/version`);

        let browser = await puppeteer.connect({
            browserWSEndpoint: response.data.webSocketDebuggerUrl,
            defaultViewport: null,
            slowMo: 100
        });

        let page = await browser.newPage();
        await page.goto('https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/buttons/');

        let [element] = await page.$x('//nav//a[normalize-space()="Carousel"]');
        let promises: Promise<any>[] = [];

        promises.push(page.waitForNavigation());
        promises.push((element as ElementHandle<HTMLElement>).click());
        await Promise.all(promises);

        await page.goBack();

        browser.disconnect();
    }, 30000);
});

It gets stuck at await page.goBack();

I noticed that if I do a launch instead of connect it works. The chrome instance I connect to is the latest version installed in Ubuntu 22.04.

[OrKoN]

The chrome instance I connect to is the latest version installed in Ubuntu 22.04.

Which version is that?

[chincheta]

The chrome instance I connect to is the latest version installed in Ubuntu 22.04.

Which version is that?

Google Chrome 106.0.5249.119

[OrKoN]

I am unable to reproduce with the latest version and the bundled Chromium. Make sure you use the same major Chrome version as the one that Puppeteer bundles.

[chincheta]

Tried with Google Chrome 108.0.5359.30 beta and still the same.

[OrKoN]

@chincheta are you using puppeteer v19.2.1+?

[chincheta]

@OrKoN yes, I updated it today and still the same issue.

[OrKoN]

@chincheta can you provide the complete executable script? I have adopted your test snippet to use launch instead of connect and goBack resolves properly.

[chincheta]

@OrKoN I posted the exact script I run. It's a jest script transformed by ts-jest.

[OrKoN]

@chincheta which arguments do you run you chrome with? are you using the same ones as Puppeteer https://github.com/puppeteer/puppeteer/blob/main/packages/puppeteer-core/src/node/ChromeLauncher.ts#L160 ?

[chincheta]

I execute it like this:

google-chrome --window-size=2560,1440 --remote-debugging-port=9222

I am gonna try all of that now.

[chincheta]

@OrKoN I am back. Off all of those settings the one which makes it works is --disable-extensions

How is that possible? I don't have any extension installed.

[OrKoN]

it's a good question. I am not sure: it looks like chromium is using that flag in multiple places https://source.chromium.org/chromium/chromium/src/+/main:chrome/common/chrome_switches.cc;l=195;drc=44798fcb6d921c4a8fee8331289021a3b25b4450

Perhaps this background mode that is enabled by default is causing this. Very likely an upstream issue.

[OrKoN]

Are you sure it's --disable-extensions? The following seems to work still:

const puppeteer = require("puppeteer");

(async() => {
  let browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    defaultViewport: null,
    slowMo: 100,
    headless: false,
    ignoreDefaultArgs: ['--disable-extensions']
  });

  let page = await browser.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://getbootstrap.com/docs/4.0/components/buttons/');

  let [element] = await page.$x('//nav//a[normalize-space()="Carousel"]');
  let promises = [];

  promises.push(page.waitForNavigation());
  promises.push((element).click());
  await Promise.all(promises);

  await page.goBack();
  console.log('DONE');

  await browser.close();
})()

[chincheta]

If I launch chrome like this:

google-chrome --window-size=2560,1440 --remote-debugging-port=9222 --disable-extensions

the code posted works. Maybe there is another flag that if included makes it work. Will try now.

Edit: for now it works If I only remove --disable-extensions from all the list of flags added by puppeteer. I continue isolating the issue...

[chincheta]

@OrKoN, well.... adding only --disable-features=BackForwardCache makes it work, which makes sense. I noticed as well that without the flag in a very few cases it works as well but with this flag always works.

Edit: with --disable-extensions only it works as well. Puzzling...

[OrKoN]

ah yes, BackForwardCache is unfortunately not supported by Puppeteer and, perhaps, it's not deterministic?

[chincheta]

No big issue then. I will just replicate all the flags in the remote chrome instance I have. But disabling extensions was a problem due to ads. Is it ok to run chrome without the --disable-extensions flag? What would I be breaking?

[OrKoN]

@chincheta in general, it should work but you will probably see more targets and workers coming from extensions which might be okay.

[chincheta]

Ok thanks. Should we close the bug?

[OrKoN]

Yes, since it seems to be caused by BFCache indeed. #8197 is to track progress on BFCache support.