Missing X server or $DISPLAY

[JeremieDoctrine]

Current behavior

I'm not sure if this is a CirlceCI issue or Cypress issue.

But we did not change our code. And we started to have issues installing cypress starting from yesterday.

We had this setup running for years.

Debug logs

It looks like this is your first time using Cypress: 14.2.1


Cypress failed to start.

This may be due to a missing library or dependency. https://on.cypress.io/required-dependencies

Please refer to the error below for more details.

----------

[1000:0411/085404.347979:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
[1000:0411/085405.054021:ERROR:ozone_platform_x11.cc(245)] Missing X server or $DISPLAY
[1000:0411/085405.054040:ERROR:env.cc(258)] The platform failed to initialize.  Exiting.

----------

Platform: linux-x64 (Ubuntu - 22.04)
Cypress Version: 14.2.1
Error: exit status 123
Error: exit status 123

Exited with code exit status 1

The pnpm installation logs looks fine

> e2e-tests-cypress@1.0.0 cypress:install:build /home/circleci/nodejs-doctrine/e2e-tests/cypress
> cypress install

Installing Cypress (version: 14.2.1)



You can now open Cypress by running one of the following, depending on your package manager:

- npx cypress open
- yarn cypress open
- pnpm cypress open

https://on.cypress.io/opening-the-app

Cypress Version

14.2.1

Node version

22.13.0

Package Manager

pnpm

Package Manager Version

10.8.0

Operating system

Linux

Operating System Version

22.04

Other

I know you probably cannot really help directly. But I want to know if I am the only one experiencing it 👀 or if other are having it.

[MikeMcC399]

@JeremieDoctrine

Cypress 14.2.1 was released 2 weeks ago on Mar 26, 2025
pnpm 10.8.0 was released 4 days ago on Apr 7, 2025

so this doesn't explain why your issues started yesterday if nothing else changed

[JeremieDoctrine]

I Forgot to mention it. But it happens on 5% of our build.

[MikeMcC399]

@JeremieDoctrine

I can't explain the issue, however if it only happens sometimes then that could possibly be a caching problem.

Do you have an .npmrc file in the project which contains the following?

side-effects-cache=false

(for an explanation see cypress-io/cypress-documentation#6147).

I imagine you already have the config set up to install the Cypress binary, but for completeness it would be:

package.json

  "pnpm": {
    "onlyBuiltDependencies": [
      "cypress"
    ]
  },

or the equivalent in:

pnpm-workspace.yaml

onlyBuiltDependencies:
  - cypress

[JeremieDoctrine]

I think it is an issue with CircleCI having X server not running somehow.

I've come up with a reproducible scenario without cache that fails from time to time.

> e2e-tests-cypress@1.0.0 cypress:install:build /home/circleci/nodejs-doctrine/e2e-tests/cypress
> cypress install

  cypress:cli:cli cli starts with arguments ["/usr/local/bin/node","/home/circleci/nodejs-doctrine/e2e-tests/cypress/node_modules/cypress/bin/cypress","install"] +0ms
  cypress:cli NODE_OPTIONS is not set +0ms
  cypress:cli:cli program parsing arguments +1ms
  cypress:cli parsed cli options {} +290ms
  cypress:cli installing with options {} +0ms
  cypress:cli detecting arch { osPlatform: 'linux', osArch: 'x64' } +1ms
  cypress:cli arm uname -m result: { stdout: 'x86_64' }  +10ms
  cypress:cli version in package.json is 14.2.1, version to install is 14.2.1 +12ms
  cypress:cli Reading binary package.json from: /home/circleci/.cache/Cypress/14.2.1/Cypress/resources/app/package.json +0ms
  cypress:cli no binary installed under cli version +9ms
  cypress:cli checking local file /home/circleci/nodejs-doctrine/14.2.1 cwd /home/circleci/nodejs-doctrine/e2e-tests/cypress +0ms
  cypress:cli preparing to download and unzip version  14.2.1 to path /home/circleci/.cache/Cypress/14.2.1 +0ms
Installing Cypress (version: 14.2.1)


  cypress:cli needed Cypress version: 14.2.1 +0ms
  cypress:cli source url https://download.cypress.io/desktop/14.2.1?platform=linux&arch=x64 +0ms
  cypress:cli downloading cypress.zip to "/tmp/cypress-212.zip" +0ms
  cypress:cli Downloading package {
  url: 'https://download.cypress.io/desktop/14.2.1?platform=linux&arch=x64',
  proxy: null,
  downloadDestination: '/tmp/cypress-212.zip'
} +1ms
  cypress:cli expected file size 81 +277ms
  cypress:cli redirect version: 14.2.1 +1ms
  cypress:cli redirect url: https://cdn.cypress.io/desktop/14.2.1/linux-x64/cypress.zip +0ms
  cypress:cli Downloading package {
  url: 'https://cdn.cypress.io/desktop/14.2.1/linux-x64/cypress.zip',
  proxy: null,
  downloadDestination: '/tmp/cypress-212.zip'
} +0ms
  cypress:cli expected checksum 1afe99d2072139c64c37f981a23a9573fbf842ad074e0b4ecbe86205c0e1fbd45d14362eb1e07b2b5f750612c88222ac212db6df2b7cceb4e90b6ca81c9d39e8 +31ms
  cypress:cli expected file size 202580972 +0ms
  cypress:cli downloading finished +748ms
  cypress:cli verifying checksum and file size +0ms
  cypress:cli downloaded file has the expected checksum and size ✅ +539ms
  cypress:cli verified +0ms
  cypress:cli finished downloading file: /tmp/cypress-212.zip +2s
  cypress:cli:unzip unzipping from /tmp/cypress-212.zip +0ms
  cypress:cli:unzip into /home/circleci/.cache/Cypress/14.2.1 +0ms
  cypress:cli:unzip zipFile entries count 25183 +2ms
  cypress:cli:unzip unzipping via `unzip` +0ms
  cypress:cli:unzip unzip tool close with code 0 +7s
  cypress:cli:unzip unzip completed { yauzlMs: 2, unzipMs: 6876 } +0ms
  cypress:cli removing zip file /tmp/cypress-212.zip +7s


You can now open Cypress by running one of the following, depending on your package manager:

- npx cypress open
- yarn cypress open
- pnpm cypress open

https://on.cypress.io/opening-the-app

The installation is OK

But it fails right after:

  cypress:cli Solution: Unset the DISPLAY variable and try again:
  cypress:cli   DISPLAY= npx cypress run ... +0ms
  cypress:cli needs Xvfb? false +1ms
  cypress:cli spawning, should retry on display problem? true +0ms
  cypress:cli disabling Electron sandbox +0ms
  cypress:cli running smoke test +0ms
  cypress:cli using Cypress executable /home/circleci/.cache/Cypress/14.2.1/Cypress/Cypress +0ms
  cypress:cli smoke test command: /home/circleci/.cache/Cypress/14.2.1/Cypress/Cypress --no-sandbox --smoke-test --ping=535 +0ms
  cypress:cli smoke test timeout 30000 ms +0ms
  cypress:cli Smoke test failed: Error: Command was killed with SIGSEGV (Segmentation fault): /home/circleci/.cache/Cypress/14.2.1/Cypress/Cypress --no-sandbox --smoke-test --ping=535
[258:0415/070114.246246:ERROR:bus.cc(407)] Failed to connect to the bus: Failed to connect to socket /run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory
2025-04-15T07:01:14.533Z cypress:snapshot:info Caching 3358, defining 4200 modules! Using cache
2025-04-15T07:01:14.534Z cypress:snapshot:debug initializing packherd require
2025-04-15T07:01:14.697Z cypress:server:performance-benchmark elapsed time at v8-snapshot-startup-time: 170.118ms
2025-04-15T07:01:14.761Z cypress:server:appdata path: /home/circleci/.config/Cypress/cy/production/browsers
2025-04-15T07:01:14.767Z cypress:server appending default switches for electron: [

[MikeMcC399]

@JeremieDoctrine

Would you like to share your CircleCI pipeline YAML source?

Cypress uses CircleCI internally and intensively for CI tests without encountering this issue, so it looks like this is something influenced by your configuration / pipeline.

Are you self-hosting CircleCI or are you running in a CircleCI cloud environment?

[JeremieDoctrine]

We are using CircleCI in cloud environment.

version: 2.1

commands:
  install_pnpm:
    description: 'Install pnpm package manager'
    steps:
      - run:
          name: install pnpm
          command: |
            sudo npm install -g corepack@latest
            corepack enable --install-directory ~/bin
            corepack install
            pnpm config set global-bin-dir ~/bin
            pnpm install -g turbo@2

jobs:
  cypress_dev_db:
    docker:
      - image: cimg/node:22.13.0-browsers
    working_directory: ~/nodejs-doctrine
    parallelism: 10
    resource_class: medium
    steps:
      - run: checkout
      - run: |
          sudo npm install -g corepack@latest
          corepack enable --install-directory ~/bin
          corepack install
          pnpm config set global-bin-dir ~/bin
          pnpm install -g turbo@2
      - run:
          name: Install dependencies
          command: |
            CYPRESS_INSTALL_BINARY=0 pnpm install  --filter e2e-tests-cypress --frozen-lockfile --ignore-scripts # Ignore scripts for faster installation and avoid OOM
            DEBUG=cypress:cli* pnpm --filter e2e-tests-cypress cypress:install:build # Install cypress binary
      - run:
          name: run cypress
          command: |
            set -e
            cd e2e-tests/cypress
            DEBUG=cypress:* npm run cypress:run:parallel -- cypress/e2e/dev-db/**/*

workflows:
  pr_or_merge_on_master:
    jobs:
      - cypress_dev_db:
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          name: cypress_dev_db_1
      - cypress_dev_db:
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          name: cypress_dev_db_2
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_1
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_3
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_2
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_4
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_3
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_5
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_4
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_6
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_5
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_7
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_6
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_8
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_7
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_9
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_8
      - cypress_dev_db:
          name: cypress_dev_db_10
          context: ['aws-oidc']
          requires:
            - cypress_dev_db_9

cypress:install:build being cypress install

It only happens once every 80 builds or so. Hence the parallel thing. To prevent blocking other pipelines I run batch of 10 runs.

[JeremieDoctrine]

I can fix the issue somehow by forcing X to start in background.

#!/bin/bash -eo pipefail
Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1280x1024x24

My jobs are not failing anymore this way.

[MikeMcC399]

@JeremieDoctrine

Good you found a workaround!

There are some related comments in https://docs.cypress.io/app/continuous-integration/overview#Xvfb about starting Xvfb manually.

[JeremieDoctrine]

But this workaround seems super hacky. I have to start Xfvb sometimes and sometimes not 🤔

[MikeMcC399]

@JeremieDoctrine

But this workaround seems super hacky. I have to start Xfvb sometimes and sometimes not 🤔

It sounds like this could be a timing issue where the Xvfb server is sometimes slow to start.

[MikeMcC399]

@JeremieDoctrine

It is probably unrelated, but you may like to take advantage of configuration fixes in pnpm@10.8.1 and the updated pnpm configuration information for Cypress on https://docs.cypress.io/app/get-started/install-cypress#pnpm-Configuration.

One way to do this is to execute the following in your project:

corepack up
pnpm config set side-effects-cache false --location project