org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: crashed (headless chrome)

Question

I am running headless chrome on centos, with headless chrome version 2.38, and google-chrome-stable version 67.0

System.setProperty(\"webdriver.chrome.driver         


        

Answer 1

This error message...

org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: crashed

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

As you are using Headless Chrome on CentOS it is worth to mention that as per the discussion Getting Started with Headless Chrome --disable-gpu is Temporarily needed if running on Windows.

--disable-gpu \                # Temporarily needed if running on Windows.

However, your main issue is the incompatibility between the version of the binaries you are using as follows:

• You are using chromedriver=2.38
• You are using chrome=67.0
• Your Selenium Client version is 3.6.0 of 2017-09-27T15:28:36.4Z which is almost a year older.
• Your JDK version is 1.8.0_101 which is pretty ancient.

So there is a clear mismatch between the JDK v8u101 , Selenium Client v3.6.0 , ChromeDriver v2.38 and the Chrome Browser v67.0

Solution

• Upgrade JDK to recent levels JDK 8u171.
• Upgrade Selenium to current levels Version 3.12.0.
• Upgrade ChromeDriver to current ChromeDriver v2.40 level.
• Keep Chrome version between Chrome v66-68 levels. (as per ChromeDriver v2.40 release notes)
• Clean your Project Workspace through your IDE and Rebuild your project with required dependencies only.
• Use CCleaner tool to wipe off all the OS chores before and after the execution of your Test Suite.
• If your base Web Client version is too old, then uninstall it through Revo Uninstaller and install a recent GA and released version of Web Client.
• Take a System Reboot.
• Execute your @Test.
• Always invoke driver.quit() within tearDown(){} method to close & destroy the WebDriver and Web Client instances gracefully.