[🐛 Bug]: Unable to obtain browser driver

[GT-VMC876]

What happened?

Unable to get side runner working on any new machine or -reinstalled- machine where side runner was working on before reinstallation.

How can we reproduce the issue?

Fresh install of Windows 11 (x64) (or spin up a new  x64 VM)
Download (and install) Firefox ("Firefox Setup 121.0.1.exe" | x64)
Download (and install) NodeJS (node-v20.11.0-x64.msi)

==reboot==

Start cmd. All below commands are entered in the user dir

npm install -g selenium-side-runner
npm install -g geckodriver
selenium-side-runner --version >>>>>> 4.0.0-alpha.63
geckodriver --version >>>>>> driver file is being downloaded to directory: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp

close cmd
Add %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Temp to PATH user variable

== reboot (and check if new PATH location is present with echo %PATH%) ==

start cmd
selenium-side-runner -c "browserName=firefox" Desktop\test.side

Result: "Unable to obtain browser driver."

Relevant log output

C:\Users\QQQ>selenium-side-runner -c "browserName=firefox" Desktop\test.side
info: Running test test
info: Building driver for firefox
 FAIL  AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/selenium-side-runner/dist/main.test.js
  Running project test
    Running suite Default Suite
      × Running test test (49 ms)

  ● Running project test › Running suite Default Suite › Running test test

    Unable to obtain browser driver.
            For more information on how to install drivers see
            https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/troubleshooting/errors/driver_location/. Error: Error executing command for C:\Users\QQQ\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-side-runner\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\bin\windows\selenium-manager.exe with --browser,firefox,--output,json: undefined

      at getPath (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/common/driverFinder.js:35:11)
      at Function.createSession (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/firefox.js:603:45)
      at createDriver (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/index.js:152:33)
      at Builder.build (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/index.js:688:16)
      at WebDriverExecutor.init (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/webdriver.ts:170:10)
      at Playback.init (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/playback.ts:140:25)
      at Playback.play (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/playback.ts:162:46)
      at src/run.ts:157:11

Test Suites: 1 failed, 1 total
Tests:       1 failed, 1 total
Snapshots:   0 total
Time:        2.099 s, estimated 11 s
Ran all test suites within paths "C:\Users\QQQ\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-side-runner\dist\main.test.js".

C:\Users\QQQ>

Operating System

Windows 11 Pro (up-to-date)

Selenium version

selenium-side-runner: 4.0.0-alpha.63. .side file is created with IDE (firefox) plugin

What are the browser(s) and version(s) where you see this issue?

all (in example above Firtefox 121.0.1 was used)

What are the browser driver(s) and version(s) where you see this issue?

geckodriver 0.34.0

Are you using Selenium Grid?

no

[github-actions]

@GT-VMC876, thank you for creating this issue. We will troubleshoot it as soon as we can.

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Thank you!

[toddtarsi]

@GT-VMC876 - I have a fun question. If you don't install geckodriver at all and run it like this, what happens? (I think Selenium Manager, part of selenium-webdriver, should do a lot of this work for us now).

[GT-VMC876]

I just did a full win11 reinstall.
If I run the selenium-side-runner **.side command right after 'npm install -g selenium-side-runner' I get the same error, unfortunately.

[lino76]

@GT-VMC876 Strange as it sounds, I have a Windows 11 machine and installed node, npm, chromedrivers (in my case) and had the same failure.

node version: 20.11.0
npm version: 10.2.4

After I run the command:
selenium-side-runner --filter "1 THE-DT-myTest-Create-Project" "C:\Users\computer\Documents\the-dt-test-suites-main\Instrument\myTest\myTest Automated Test.side"

The output is:
C:\Users\computer>selenium-side-runner --filter "1 THE-DT-myTest-Create-Project" "C:\Users\computer\Documents\the-dt-test-suites-main\Instrument\myTest\myTest Automated Test.side"
console.info

      Project Create myTest Test Project doesn't have any suites matching filter 1 THE-DT-myTest-Create-Project,
      attempting to iterate all tests in project

  at src/main.test.ts:169:15
      at Array.forEach (<anonymous>)

info: Running test 1 THE-DT-myTest-Create-Project
info: Building driver for chrome
FAIL AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/selenium-side-runner/dist/main.test.js
Running project Create myTest Test Project
× Running test 1 THE-DT-myTest-Create-Project (122 ms)

● Running project Create myTest Test Project › Running test 1 THE-DT-myTest-Create-Project

Unable to obtain browser driver.
        For more information on how to install drivers see
        https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/troubleshooting/errors/driver_location/. Error: Error executing command for C:\Users\computer\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-side-runner\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\bin\windows\selenium-manager.exe with --browser,chrome,--output,json: undefined

  at getPath (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/common/driverFinder.js:35:11)
  at Function.createSession (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/chromium.js:696:45)
  at Function.createSession (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/chrome.js:223:13)
  at createDriver (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/index.js:152:33)
  at Builder.build (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/index.js:680:16)
  at WebDriverExecutor.init (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/webdriver.ts:170:10)
  at Playback.init (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/playback.ts:140:25)
  at Playback.play (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/playback.ts:162:46)
  at src/run.ts:157:11

Test Suites: 1 failed, 1 total
Tests: 1 failed, 1 total
Snapshots: 0 total
Time: 1.905 s, estimated 2 s
Ran all test suites within paths "C:\Users\computer\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-side-runner\dist\main.test.js".

It works fine on my windows 10 pro machine.

[GT-VMC876]

I just reinstalled a Win10 machine, unfortunately the same behavior. The problem really occurred only when I started to reinstall a machine. I still have one working WIN11 set-up left which was installed in November/December.

@lino76 Did you recently install side runner on your win10 machine or a few weeks ago?

[lino76]

@GT-VMC876 I actually installed it yesterday.

Windows 10 pro
node version: 16.14.0
npm version: 9.5.0
selenium-side-runner: 4.0.0-alpha.63
Java Version:
java 11.0.16.1 2022-08-18 LTS
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment 18.9 (build 11.0.16.1+1-LTS-1)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 18.9 (build 11.0.16.1+1-LTS-1, mixed mode)
FYI both machines Windows 11 and Windows 10 have the same java versions

On my Windows 11 machine, its fails when it try to run the AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/selenium-side-runner/dist/main.test.js

[toddtarsi]

Okay, so this happens, and a question that commonly arises for me is like "how can i tell where the problem is coming from in this ecosystem". I think I need to add a command to selenium-side-runner to debug this sort of thing. Let me add a command onto selenium-side-runner focused on debugging ability to connect to a driver instance or something.

[GT-VMC876]

@toddtarsi sounds good! Looking forward testing that version.

[toddtarsi]

Okay, there is a new flag in the latest version (x.64) going out '-X'. Using this will attempt to connect, and if it fails, give you a code snippet to try executing that will help decide if the source issue is in the ide or in selenium core.

[GT-VMC876]

@toddtarsi hereby the output of a fresh installed WIN11 Pro machine (Azure VM Standard D2as v4).

Installed latest firefox, NodeJS LTS & NPM side-runner as mentioned in the first post.

The below output is the same before and after running 'npm install -g geckodriver'.

////////

C:\Users\QQQ>selenium-side-runner -c "browserName=firefox" Desktop\YYY.side -X
console.log
Beginning test session

  at Object.<anonymous>.exports.default (src/connect.ts:9:11)

console.info
Building driver for firefox

  at WebDriverExecutor.init (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/webdriver.ts:165:19)

FAIL AppData/Roaming/npm/node_modules/selenium-side-runner/dist/main.test.js
× Testing driver connection (88 ms)

● Testing driver connection

Unable to obtain browser driver.
        For more information on how to install drivers see
        https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/webdriver/troubleshooting/errors/driver_location/. Error: Error executing command for C:\Users\QQQ\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-side-runner\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\bin\windows\selenium-manager.exe with --browser,firefox,--output,json: undefined

  at getPath (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/common/driverFinder.js:35:11)
  at Function.createSession (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/firefox.js:603:45)
  at createDriver (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/index.js:152:33)
  at Builder.build (node_modules/selenium-webdriver/index.js:688:16)
  at WebDriverExecutor.init (node_modules/@seleniumhq/side-runtime/src/webdriver.ts:170:10)
  at Object.<anonymous>.exports.default (src/connect.ts:10:16)
  at Object.<anonymous> (src/main.test.ts:130:25)

Test Suites: 1 failed, 1 total
Tests: 1 failed, 1 total
Snapshots: 0 total
Time: 0.996 s, estimated 2 s
Ran all test suites within paths "C:\Users\QQQ\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-side-runner\dist\main.test.js".

[toddtarsi]

@GT-VMC876 - If you tack on a -X to the arguments in your CLI command, do you get a really long error message asking you to run a code snippet?

[GT-VMC876]

@toddtarsi the above output is a 100% copy paste of what I see in CMD (I only obscured the username and filename). The -X was already added to the command in the example above. Am I missing something?