I’m having trouble running browser automation tools in GUI mode on my WSL setup. Everything works fine when I run headless mode, but I need to see the browser window for debugging purposes.
When I try to run my Python script with headless disabled, I get an error about missing XServer. The error suggests using xvfb-run or switching to headless mode.
I’ve tried installing and configuring Xvfb as suggested in various forums, but it keeps failing with different errors. Someone mentioned that Xvfb might not be fully compatible with WSL environments and only works properly on native Linux or Windows systems.
Is this actually a WSL limitation? Has anyone successfully got GUI browser automation working on WSL without switching to headless mode? I’m wondering if I should just move my development to a proper Linux VM instead.
Had this same problem six months ago and wasted way too much time on Xvfb. The issue isn’t WSL - it’s the display forwarding setup. Here’s what actually worked: install VcXsrv on Windows and configure it to accept WSL connections. Set your DISPLAY variable to your Windows host IP (something like 172.x.x.x:0.0) and run VcXsrv with “Disable access control” checked. Don’t forget the Windows firewall exception for VcXsrv - I missed this initially and it drove me crazy. Once that’s done, Selenium runs perfectly in GUI mode for debugging. Way better than messing with Xvfb configs.
You don’t need a Linux VM - this is totally fixable in WSL. Had the same problem last year. If you’re on Windows 11, use WSLg. It handles display forwarding automatically, unlike VcXsrv where you have to mess with network settings. Stuck on Windows 10? Skip VcXsrv and grab X410 from the Microsoft Store instead. It’s way more stable and you won’t need to tweak firewall settings. Also, Xvfb isn’t great for interactive debugging since you can’t actually see the virtual framebuffer it creates. I’ve been running Selenium with Chrome in GUI mode on WSL2 Ubuntu 22.04 for months now - works perfectly once you get the display server right.
wsLg really makes things easier with GUI apps! I had a rough time with Ubuntu 20.04 too, but moving to 22.04 def helped a lot. Make sure check your echo $DISPLAY too, that might just solve the problem!