[Bug]: Timeline & preview disappear after timeout in fixture cleanup

[tobz1000]

Version

1.44.0

Steps to reproduce

Edit: Minimal reproduction: https://github.com/tobz1000/playwright-30718

1. Create a test fixture which causes an error during the cleanup phase. Edit: The fixture should have a timeout configured, and the error must cause faillure by timeout.
2. Create a test which uses the fixture.
3. Run the test UI and start the test (I reproduced via UI port): npx playwright test --ui-port 3031
4. Once the test has failed during fixture cleanup, the timeline and preview window will disappear:
   

I can create a minimal reproduction repo if requested.

Expected behavior

Timeline and window preview should be visible once the test has finished.

Actual behavior

Timeline and window preview are not visible.

Additional context

A similar bug was reported and puportedly fixed in a previous version: #29826

Environment

System:
  OS: Linux 5.15 Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 11 (bullseye)
  CPU: (12) x64 AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
  Memory: 6.89 GB / 15.63 GB
  Container: Yes
Binaries:
  Node: 20.12.2 - /usr/local/share/nvm/versions/node/v20.12.2/bin/node
  Yarn: 1.22.19 - /usr/bin/yarn
  npm: 10.5.0 - /usr/local/share/nvm/versions/node/v20.12.2/bin/npm
  pnpm: 9.0.3 - /usr/local/share/nvm/versions/node/v20.12.2/bin/pnpm
  bun: 1.1.4 - ~/.bun/bin/bun
IDEs:
  VSCode: 1.88.1 - /vscode/vscode-server/bin/linux-x64/e170252f762678dec6ca2cc69aba1570769a5d39/bin/remote-cli/code
Languages:
  Bash: 5.1.4 - /bin/bash

[mxschmitt]

I can create a minimal reproduction repo if requested.

That would be helpful! Probably its different to the bug before, since the bug before was covered with a test which passes.

[tobz1000]

This should do it: https://github.com/tobz1000/playwright-30718

[yury-s]

The fixture that times out prevents the context from being closed and the trace from being saved upon closure. You need to make sure the fixtures are reliable. We consider fixtures to be a part of the test harness and if they break it's like playwright runner breaks. We can add best effort recovery for such cases, but you should make sure that your fixtures behave.

[tobz1000]

@yury-s I agree that fixtures shouldn't fail, but it still happens occasionally, especially when developing the fixture in the first place. In this scenario, it's helpful if I'm still able to view the timeline & preview to see what went wrong. It seems like a bug that that the UI essentially breaks when this happens. I'm unfamiliar with the internals, but hopefully it's possible to handle a timeout in the fixture gracefully.