GitHub Actions · Ubuntu 26.04 · Checked November 4, 2026

"Error: write EINVAL" from every WebdriverIO worker on Ubuntu 26.04

ubuntu-latest is moving from Ubuntu 24.04 to 26.04 between October 19 and November 19, 2026 (what else changes). The xvfb package goes from 2:21.1.12 to 2:21.1.22 (Ubuntu's package list, November 4). WebdriverIO v9 starts each worker as xvfb-run ... node with its IPC channel on file descriptor 3, and the 26.04 xvfb-run does not keep that descriptor open for the command it runs. The worker's first message to the launcher fails, and no spec starts (webdriverio #15685).

What it looks like

[0-0] Error: write EINVAL
[0-0]     at target._send (node:internal/child_process:878:20)
[0-0]     at target.send (node:internal/child_process:751:19)
[0-0]     at file:///home/runner/work/app/app/node_modules/@wdio/local-runner/build/run.js:18:11
Spec Files:	 0 passed, 3 failed, 3 total (100% completed) in 00:00:05

Every worker fails the same way within seconds, so the run reports every spec file as failed without a single test result. WebdriverIO's own Jasmine boilerplate hit it on its first runs on 26.04 (jasmine-boilerplate #1566).

Who gets it

v9's local runner wraps workers in xvfb-run on Linux when there is no DISPLAY, and also when it sees a headless browser flag such as --headless (@wdio/xvfb). On a GitHub-hosted runner there is no DISPLAY, so the wrap happens for headless Chrome and Firefox, and for Appium and cloud capabilities that never use a local display at all.

Fix: update every @wdio package to 9.33.1

9.33.1 (November 3) keeps the IPC channel off the descriptor xvfb-run closes (webdriverio #16180). @wdio/local-runner pins @wdio/xvfb to its own version, so updating the runner brings the fix; keep all @wdio/* packages on the same version.

npm install --save-dev @wdio/cli@9.33.1 @wdio/local-runner@9.33.1

Add the framework, reporter and service packages you use to the same command. Two catches:

npm's latest tag still points to 9.32.0, which has the bug. 9.33.x is published under the v9 tag, so npm install @wdio/local-runner@latest and the "Latest" column of npm outdated give you 9.32.0. Name the version, or use @v9.
9.33.1 also narrows the Node.js versions it supports to releases with the October 2026 CA store fix: 18.20.8, 20.20.2, 22.23.4 or later 22.x, 24.22.1 or later 24.x, and 26.12.1 or later (webdriverio #16218). actions/setup-node with node-version: 24 gets a recent 24.x; a pinned older patch release does not satisfy it, and package managers that enforce engines stop the install.

Workarounds without updating

Headless suites: set autoXvfb: false in wdio.conf. Headless browsers need no X server, and the runner then starts workers with a plain fork.
Suites that need a display: start one before the runner, so DISPLAY is set and workers are not wrapped. For example run the whole command under xvfb-run --auto-servernum npx wdio run wdio.conf.js, or start Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1280x1024x24 & and set DISPLAY=:99.
runs-on: ubuntu-24.04 for the test job, until GitHub retires that image.

v10, in alpha on November 4, replaces @wdio/xvfb with @wdio/display-server, which fixes this according to the comments on webdriverio #15685.

Telling it apart

The stack trace ends in @wdio/local-runner/build/run.js and Spec Files: 0 passed comes within seconds: it is this. A spec that fails after the browser started is something else.
Your own scripts can hit the same thing: any Node.js program that spawns xvfb-run node child.js with an 'ipc' entry in stdio gets write EINVAL on the child's first process.send on 26.04. The issue has a two-file reproduction; fork without xvfb-run works on both images.
Look at "Set up job": the Runner Image group shows the image. Until November 19 a re-run can land on 24.04 and pass, so a green re-run proves nothing.

Other 26.04 failures

pg_dump 18 on Ubuntu 26.04: PostgreSQL on the image and from apt is 18, so dumps start with SET transaction_timeout = 0 and a PostgreSQL 16 service rejects them with "unrecognized configuration parameter".
Postgres never starts in Docker on Ubuntu 26.04: newer kernels such as 7.0.0-42 run container processes as docker-default//&unconfined, so they cannot signal each other and gosu hangs at 100% CPU; reported on self-hosted runners so far.
"version `GLIBC_2.43' not found" after building on Ubuntu 26.04: glibc is 2.43, so binaries built there can need GLIBC_2.42 or GLIBC_2.43 and fail to start on Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13 and older; build releases on an older image and check the floor in CI.
Playwright on Ubuntu 26.04: Playwright 1.50 to 1.60 says it "does not support chromium on ubuntu26.04-x64".
apt on Ubuntu 26.04: renamed and removed packages.
"coreutils: unknown program": most core tools are uutils.

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