Error: ChromeDriver did not start within 5000ms

[devwithin]

I'm trying to run the getting started script from here (slightly modified).

const Application = require("spectron").Application;
const path = require("path");
const assert = require("assert");

const electronPath = require("electron");
const appPath = path.join(__dirname, "..");

const app = new Application({
  path: electronPath,
  args: [appPath]
});

describe("application launch", function () {
  this.timeout(15000);

  beforeEach(function () {
    return app.start();
  });

  afterEach(function () {
    if (app && app.isRunning()) {
      return app.stop();
    }
  });

  it("shows an initial window", function () {
    return app.client.getWindowCount().then(function (count) {
      assert.equal(count, 1);
    });
  });
});

I've tried to run this script but I'm getting following error

bash-3.2$ ./node_modules/.bin/mocha ./test/main.js 


  application launch
    1) "before each" hook for "shows an initial window"


  0 passing (6s)
  1 failing

  1) application launch "before each" hook for "shows an initial window":
     Error: ChromeDriver did not start within 5000ms
      at Error (native)
      at node_modules/spectron/lib/chrome-driver.js:63:25
      at Request._callback (node_modules/spectron/lib/chrome-driver.js:121:45)
      at Request.self.callback (node_modules/request/request.js:186:22)
      at Request.<anonymous> (node_modules/request/request.js:1081:10)
      at IncomingMessage.<anonymous> (node_modules/request/request.js:1001:12)
      at endReadableNT (_stream_readable.js:974:12)
      at _combinedTickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:74:11)
      at process._tickCallback (internal/process/next_tick.js:98:9)

I'm on osx 10.11 with

• Electron 1.4.8
• Spectron 3.4.0
• Mocha 3.1.2
• node 6.5 and npm 3.10

[Siilwyn]

I'm having the same issue but on a Docker container running node:6.
Simplified commands I run before testing are:

 - "apt install -y xvfb"
 - "export DISPLAY=:99.0"
 - "Xvfb &"
 - "sleep 3"

Maybe relevant I'm running my tests without building the app. Like:

new Application({
    path: path.resolve(__dirname, '../node_modules/.bin/electron'),
    args: [path.resolve(__dirname, '../')],
});

• Electron 1.3.3
• Spectron 3.4.0
• Ava 0.17.0

[armoucar]

Same issue... 'ChromeDriver did not start within 5000ms'

[armoucar]

I could get ChromeDriver working by adding a proxy exception in my terminal.

export {no_proxy,NO_PROXY}="127.0.0.1,localhost"

[Siilwyn]

Sadly that did not solve the issue for me. @armoucar how is that related? Maybe I can try out some other things related to it.

[armoucar]

At work I have to have proxies configuration on my terminal and I think ChromeDriver is a server running locally... When at home, with all proxies deactivated, I tested the same project I was trying to run the tests and it worked normally. I could then assume it was a proxy problem, in my case.

[jwood803]

@devwithin @armoucar Is the application not starting at all when running the tests? I have a demo repo if you want to reference that to see if it works for you.

[armoucar]

In my environment you demo works fine, as long as I set my locahost,127.0.0.1 proxy exceptions.

[Siilwyn]

@jwood803 your demo doesn't work for me but it seems to be an issue in the test file:
https://gitlab.com/Siilwyn/spectron-test-gh-project/builds/7790833

[devwithin]

@armoucar Thanks a lot. Your solution worked for me.

export {no_proxy,NO_PROXY}="127.0.0.1,localhost"

Turns out this was a problem with proxy setting.

[jwood803]

@Siilwyn Interesting! I haven't seen that error locally. Simple fix, though :)

[Siilwyn]

Can this be re-opened please? I'm still struggling with the same problem.
The logs: https://gitlab.com/Siilwyn/try-building-electri/builds/8062089

Or should I open a new issue?

[devwithin]

@Siilwyn I'll reopen this issue as your problem looks very similar to mine.

I suspect that this might be because of some network or proxy config problem.

[Siilwyn]

@devwithin thank you!
Would you know any way to get more debugging info out of it so I can check if it's a network problem? It's weird that export {no_proxy,NO_PROXY}="127.0.0.1,localhost" works for you but not for me.

[jwood803]

That is weird, indeed. I've never even needed to use that in any of my tests.

[Siilwyn]

Alright I solved it on my end by installing display server related packages that are needed for chrome driver to run.

    # Install display server dependencies
    - "apt install xvfb libxtst6 libxss1 libgtk2.0-0 -y"
    # Install core libraries for chromium driver
    - "apt install libnss3 libasound2 libgconf-2-4 -y"

Think I'm going to find and try a docker image that already has the required chrome driver dependencies.
Finally solved! 🎉

[akashnimare]

@Siilwyn could you please tell me why it's failing - logs - https://travis-ci.org/zulip/zulip-electron/jobs/189773598

[Siilwyn]

@akashnimare your error is not related to the issue described above. And sorry I don't know why it's failing.

[BenBergman]

I'm experiencing the same error as Siilwyn, but when I try to install the packages he mentions I get errors that such packages do not exist. I am using the node:9 docker container instead of 6. The proxy solution is also not working for me.

[BenBergman]

I ended up using a different docker image which was already setup for doing headless electron testing: aheuermann/electron

[gireeshcse]

Same Issue Error: ChromeDriver did not start within 5000ms

In Windows set the environmental variable
NO_PROXY to 127.0.0.1,localhost

This is a proxy problem as said by @armoucar
thanks a lot @armoucar

[HaNdTriX]

I had a similar problem, after switching from mocha to ava. Reinstalling all node_modules solved the issue for me.

yarn install --force

[artemv]

In my case (spectron 5.0.0) solution was to run yarn upgrade spectron which upgraded webdriverio and some other spectron' deps (but not spectron itself)

[daisyjanepueblos]

I had a similar problem, after switching from mocha to ava. Reinstalling all node_modules solved the issue for me.

yarn install --force

this helped me! thanks!

[majedur-rahaman]

I just removed that runner and started fresh one. New Runner downloaded Spectron and ChromeDriver on start and Chrome worked.