Skip to content

[web] Fix occasional failure to find Chrome tab#183737

Merged
auto-submit[bot] merged 1 commit intoflutter:masterfrom
mdebbar:chrome_start_fail
Mar 17, 2026
Merged

[web] Fix occasional failure to find Chrome tab#183737
auto-submit[bot] merged 1 commit intoflutter:masterfrom
mdebbar:chrome_start_fail

Conversation

@mdebbar
Copy link
Contributor

@mdebbar mdebbar commented Mar 16, 2026

I got the following error several times locally:

Failed to load "<name>_test.dart": Failed to run browser process: Null check operator used on a null value.
  ../../dev/chrome.dart 400:58          setupChromiumTab
  ===== asynchronous gap ===========================
  ../../dev/chrome.dart 129:9           new Chrome.<fn>
  ===== asynchronous gap ===========================
  ../../dev/browser_process.dart 25:33  new BrowserProcess.<fn>

For some reason, newer versions of Chrome allow the WIP connection to be established before tabs have had a chance to launch. This results in the code failing to find any tabs to connect to. The fix in this PR is to retry for a few seconds until tabs are available.

We had a similar report of this issue happening in the web_benchmark package. A similar fix will be implemented there.

@flutter-dashboard
Copy link

It looks like this pull request may not have tests. Please make sure to add tests or get an explicit test exemption before merging.

If you are not sure if you need tests, consider this rule of thumb: the purpose of a test is to make sure someone doesn't accidentally revert the fix. Ask yourself, is there anything in your PR that you feel it is important we not accidentally revert back to how it was before your fix?

Reviewers: Read the Tree Hygiene page and make sure this patch meets those guidelines before LGTMing. If you believe this PR qualifies for a test exemption, contact "@test-exemption-reviewer" in the #hackers channel in Discord (don't just cc them here, they won't see it!). The test exemption team is a small volunteer group, so all reviewers should feel empowered to ask for tests, without delegating that responsibility entirely to the test exemption group.

@github-actions github-actions bot added engine flutter/engine related. See also e: labels. platform-web Web applications specifically labels Mar 16, 2026
Copy link
Contributor

@gemini-code-assist gemini-code-assist bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

Code Review

This pull request fixes an occasional failure to find a Chrome tab by introducing a retry mechanism. The issue, caused by a race condition where the debugger connection is established before Chrome launches any tabs, is addressed by adding a 5-second retry when attempting to get a tab in setupChromiumTab and _connectToChromeDebugPort. This change is applied in engine/src/flutter/lib/web_ui/dev/chrome.dart and dev/devicelab/lib/framework/browser.dart to make the tab acquisition more robust.

Copy link
Contributor

@harryterkelsen harryterkelsen left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

The reason will be displayed to describe this comment to others. Learn more.

LGTM

@mdebbar mdebbar added the autosubmit Merge PR when tree becomes green via auto submit App label Mar 17, 2026
auto-submit bot pushed a commit to flutter/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 17, 2026
DevTools has been experiencing a [flake](flutter/flutter#183335) with `package:web_benchmark`'s launching of Chrome. I've also noticed several times a similar failure when running web engines locally.

Turns out (from trial and error) that newer versions of Chrome seem to establish the WIP connection before tabs have had a chance to open. It's a race between the two, and when the WIP connections is faster, we fail to find any tab to connect to, and therefore we fail. The fix in this PR is to allow a grace period of 5 seconds of retrying to find the tab.

I made a [similar fix](flutter/flutter#183737) in the flutter/flutter repo.
@auto-submit auto-submit bot added this pull request to the merge queue Mar 17, 2026
reidbaker pushed a commit to flutter/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 17, 2026
DevTools has been experiencing a [flake](flutter/flutter#183335) with `package:web_benchmark`'s launching of Chrome. I've also noticed several times a similar failure when running web engines locally.

Turns out (from trial and error) that newer versions of Chrome seem to establish the WIP connection before tabs have had a chance to open. It's a race between the two, and when the WIP connections is faster, we fail to find any tab to connect to, and therefore we fail. The fix in this PR is to allow a grace period of 5 seconds of retrying to find the tab.

I made a [similar fix](flutter/flutter#183737) in the flutter/flutter repo.
Merged via the queue into flutter:master with commit 5ffb474 Mar 17, 2026
187 checks passed
@flutter-dashboard flutter-dashboard bot removed the autosubmit Merge PR when tree becomes green via auto submit App label Mar 17, 2026
engine-flutter-autoroll added a commit to engine-flutter-autoroll/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 18, 2026
engine-flutter-autoroll added a commit to engine-flutter-autoroll/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 18, 2026
engine-flutter-autoroll added a commit to engine-flutter-autoroll/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 18, 2026
engine-flutter-autoroll added a commit to engine-flutter-autoroll/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 18, 2026
engine-flutter-autoroll added a commit to engine-flutter-autoroll/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 18, 2026
engine-flutter-autoroll added a commit to engine-flutter-autoroll/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 18, 2026
auto-submit bot pushed a commit to flutter/packages that referenced this pull request Mar 19, 2026
flutter/flutter@d117642...dd64978

2026-03-18 [email protected] Roll Skia from 2fb5fa71eb12 to f0a13e5efbad (2 revisions) (flutter/flutter#183830)
2026-03-18 [email protected] Roll Skia from ae3d36cb9e29 to 2fb5fa71eb12 (3 revisions) (flutter/flutter#183823)
2026-03-18 [email protected] Linux reuse sibling (flutter/flutter#183653)
2026-03-18 [email protected] Roll Skia from 84a180a1fa80 to ae3d36cb9e29 (4 revisions) (flutter/flutter#183812)
2026-03-18 [email protected] fix(web): handle asynchronously disposed platform views (flutter/flutter#183666)
2026-03-17 [email protected] (Test cross-imports) Remove legacy Material import from sliver_constraints_test (flutter/flutter#183351)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Fix Android Studio pluginsPath when version is unknown (do not use 0.0) (flutter/flutter#182681)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Fixes animation glitch into bottom sheet (flutter/flutter#183303)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Handle#6537 second grouped test (flutter/flutter#182529)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Add a Clarification for the docs of suggestionsBuilder of SearchAnchor (flutter/flutter#183106)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Remove obsolete null checks from style guide (flutter/flutter#181703)
2026-03-17 [email protected] [Impeller] Do not delete the GL object in a HandleGLES if the handle has a cleanup callback (flutter/flutter#183561)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Encode source file patches as UTF-8 in the code formatter script (flutter/flutter#183761)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Fix widget inspector control layout and add safe area regression test (flutter/flutter#180789)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Reland "[Android] Add mechanism for setting Android engine flags via Android manifest (take 2)" (flutter/flutter#182522)
2026-03-17 [email protected] fix(web): fix crash in Skwasm when transferring non-transferable texture sources (flutter/flutter#183799)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Roll Skia from dba893a44d7a to 84a180a1fa80 (7 revisions) (flutter/flutter#183803)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Framework: Improve DropdownButton selectedItemBuilder assertion (flutter/flutter#183732)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Add mainAxisAlignment to NavigationRail (flutter/flutter#183514)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Update android triage process to not look at unassigned p1s every week (flutter/flutter#183805)
2026-03-17 [email protected] Adds macos impeller new gallery transition perf test. (flutter/flutter#183802)
2026-03-17 [email protected] fix(web_ui): move prepareToDraw after raster to improve concurrency and stability (flutter/flutter#183791)
2026-03-17 [email protected] [build] Generate debug info for assembly. (flutter/flutter#183425)
2026-03-17 [email protected] [web] Fix occasional failure to find Chrome tab (flutter/flutter#183737)

If this roll has caused a breakage, revert this CL and stop the roller
using the controls here:
https://autoroll.skia.org/r/flutter-packages
Please CC [email protected],[email protected] on the revert to ensure that a human
is aware of the problem.

To file a bug in Packages: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/new/choose

To report a problem with the AutoRoller itself, please file a bug:
https://issues.skia.org/issues/new?component=1389291&template=1850622

Documentation for the AutoRoller is here:
https://skia.googlesource.com/buildbot/+doc/main/autoroll/README.md
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

CICD Run CI/CD engine flutter/engine related. See also e: labels. platform-web Web applications specifically

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

2 participants