Tests fail immediately with unknown error: DevToolsActivePort file doesn't exist when running Selenium grid through systemd

Question

I've been trying to change the way I start the Selenium grid service from a shell script in .rclocal to a systemd service, but it is not working. The script is this:

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#!/bin/bash
java -jar /opt/selenium-server-standalone.jar -role hub -hubConfig hubconfig.json
xvfb-run --server-args="-screen 0 2048x1536x24" java -jar /opt/selenium-server-standalone.jar -role 
node -nodeConfig nodeconfig.json

I created two different services as follows:

(Stackoverflow won't let me put the contents of the services as it says it is not properly formated)

The services are starting correctly:

selenium-hub

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● selenium-hub.service - Selenium service
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/selenium-hub.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2019-10-01 15:53:10 UTC; 2min 41s ago
 Main PID: 23803 (java)
   CGroup: /system.slice/selenium-hub.service
           └─23803 /bin/java -jar /opt/selenium-server-standalone.jar -role hub -hubConfig /home/selenium/hubconfig.json

Oct 01 15:53:12 vm java[23803]: 15:53:12.163 INFO - Selenium build info: version: '3.9.1', revision: '63f7b50'
Oct 01 15:53:12 vm java[23803]: 15:53:12.164 INFO - Launching Selenium Grid hub on port 4444
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.384:INFO::main: Logging initialized @2790ms to org.seleniumhq.jetty9.util.log.StdErrLog
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.492:INFO:osjs.Server:main: jetty-9.4.7.v20170914, build timestamp: 2017-11-21T21:27:37Z, git hash: 82b8fb23f757335bb3329d540ce37a2a2615f0a8
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.524:INFO:osjs.session:main: DefaultSessionIdManager workerName=node0
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.524:INFO:osjs.session:main: No SessionScavenger set, using defaults
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.529:INFO:osjs.session:main: Scavenging every 660000ms
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.538:INFO:osjsh.ContextHandler:main: Started o.s.j.s.ServletContextHandler@60704c{/,null,AVAILABLE}
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.562:INFO:osjs.AbstractConnector:main: Started ServerConnector@1fe20588{HTTP/1.1,[http/1.1]}{0.0.0.0:4444}
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 2019-10-01 15:53:13.562:INFO:osjs.Server:main: Started @2968ms
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 15:53:13.562 INFO - Selenium Grid hub is up and running
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 15:53:13.562 INFO - Nodes should register to http://1.2.3.4:4444/grid/register/
Oct 01 15:53:13 vm java[23803]: 15:53:13.562 INFO - Clients should connect to http://1.2.3.4:4444/wd/hub
Oct 01 15:53:14 vm java[23803]: 15:53:14.797 INFO - Registered a node http://1.2.3.4:5555

selenium-node:

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● selenium-node.service - Selenium nodes
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/selenium-node.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2019-10-01 15:53:10 UTC; 6min ago
 Main PID: 23813 (xvfb-run)
   CGroup: /system.slice/selenium-node.service
           ├─23813 /bin/sh /bin/xvfb-run --server-args="-screen 0 2048x1536x24" java -jar /opt/selenium-server-standalone.jar -role node -nodeConfig /home/selenium/nodeconfig.json
           ├─23856 java -jar /opt/selenium-server-standalone.jar -role node -nodeConfig /home/selenium/nodeconfig.json
           ├─24326 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=1713
           ├─24327 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=26741
           ├─24328 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=20065
           ├─24329 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=6459
           ├─24331 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=15872
           ├─24332 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=29475
           ├─24333 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=30216
           ├─24334 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=6955
           ├─24558 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=2425
           ├─24559 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=19304
           ├─24560 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=12150
           ├─24561 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=26147
           ├─24562 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=16545
           ├─24570 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=12780
           ├─24602 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=10959
           ├─24603 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=8970
           ├─24753 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=13438
           ├─24754 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=15725
           └─24772 /usr/local/bin/chromedriver --port=28829

Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: Starting ChromeDriver 77.0.3865.40 (f484704e052e0b556f8030b65b953dce96503217-refs/branch-heads/3865@{#442}) on port 15725
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: Only local connections are allowed.
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.112 INFO - /session: Executing POST on /session (handler: BeginSession)
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.113 INFO - Capabilities are: Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.114 INFO - Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm-usage, window-siz
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.115 INFO - Found handler: org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.commandhandler.BeginSession@53702c02
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.115 INFO - Found handler: org.openqa.selenium.remote.server.commandhandler.BeginSession@4ae12041
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.116 INFO - /session: Executing POST on /session (handler: BeginSession)
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.117 INFO - Capabilities are: Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.118 INFO - Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm-usage, window-siz
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.118 INFO - /session: Executing POST on /session (handler: BeginSession)
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.120 INFO - Capabilities are: Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.120 INFO - Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm-usage, window-siz
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.121 INFO - /session: Executing POST on /session (handler: BeginSession)
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.123 INFO - Capabilities are: Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.123 INFO - Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm-usage, window-siz
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.124 INFO - /session: Executing POST on /session (handler: BeginSession)
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.139 INFO - Capabilities are: Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: 15:55:19.139 INFO - Capabilities {browserName: chrome, goog:chromeOptions: {args: [enable-automation, disable-infobars, disable-notifications, no-sandbox, --disable-dev-shm-usage, window-siz
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: Starting ChromeDriver 77.0.3865.40 (f484704e052e0b556f8030b65b953dce96503217-refs/branch-heads/3865@{#442}) on port 26147
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: Only local connections are allowed.
Oct 01 15:55:19 vm xvfb-run[23813]: Please protect ports used by ChromeDriver and related test frameworks to prevent access by malicious code.

However all tests fails with the same error:

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
(unknown error: DevToolsActivePort file doesn't exist)
(The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
Build info: version: '3.9.1', revision: '63f7b50', time: '2018-02-07T22:42:28.403Z'

The problem with DevToolsActivePort is derived from /dev/shm being too small and sometimes crashing the browser (https://stackoverflow.com/a/50642913/5364231, https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=736452#c64) so I already added --disable-dev-shm-usage to the capabilities.

The problem, I think, resided in the service selenium-hub not being able to communicate with selenium-node. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Thumb rule

A common cause for Chrome to crash during startup is running Chrome as root user (administrator) on Linux. While it is possible to work around this issue by passing --no-sandbox flag when creating your WebDriver session, such a configuration is unsupported and highly discouraged. You need to configure your environment to run Chrome as a regular user instead.

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This error message...

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
(unknown error: DevToolsActivePort file doesn't exist)
(The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
Build info: version: '3.9.1', revision: '63f7b50', time: '2018-02-07T22:42:28.403Z'

...implies that the ChromeDriver was unable to initiate/spawn a new WebBrowser i.e. Chrome Browser session.

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Your main issue is the incompatibility between the version of the binaries you are using as follows:

• You are using the latest chromedriver=77.0
• Presumably you are using chrome= 77.0.
• Your Selenium Client version is 3.9.1 of 2018-02-07T22:42:28.403Z which is almost 1.5 years older.

So there is a clear mismatch between the Selenium Client v3.9.1 , ChromeDriver v77.0 and the Chrome Browser v77.0

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Solution

Ensure that:

• JDK is upgraded to current levels JDK 8u221.
• Selenium is upgraded to current levels Version 3.141.59.
• ChromeDriver is updated to current ChromeDriver v77.0 level.
• Chrome is updated to current Chrome Version 77.0 level. (as per ChromeDriver v77.0 release notes)
• Clean your Project Workspace through your IDE and Rebuild your project with required dependencies only.
• If your base Web Client version is too old, then uninstall it and install a recent GA and released version of Web Client.
• Take a System Reboot.
• Execute your @Test as non-root user.

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Reference

You can find a couple of detailed discussions in:

• org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: DevToolsActivePort file doesn't exist while trying to initiate Chrome Browser
• unknown error: DevToolsActivePort file doesn't exist error while executing Selenium UI test cases on ubuntu

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Outro

Here is the link to the Sandbox story.