ERROR: BrowserError: Could not start the browser with 3 tries

[alienbuild]

I've made a node app using webcoach to return JSON data for a bunch of urls stored in a text file. Everything works fine on my windows pc but on unix I get the error:
ERROR: BrowserError: Could not start the browser with 3 tries
I've ensured both Chrome and Firefox are installed and up to date and nothing is blocking the browsers from what I can see.

Full error can be seen here:

Repo for the app I created is here:
https://github.com/alienbuild/node-espionagex

Run with 'node app.js -u all'

[soulgalore]

Hi @alienbuild
usually when it can't start it's a mismatch between Firefox/Geckodriver and Chrome/Chromedriver. Geckodriver/Chromedriver should automatically be installed by latest version, can you verify that you run a recent version of Firefox/Chrome?

Best
Peter

[alienbuild]

Hi @soulgalore
Thanks for the quick reply. They're both latest versions installed on a new setup.

[soulgalore]

Latest released or latest in apt-get? :)

google-chrome --version
firefox --version

Just want to verify :)

[soulgalore]

Else do you run --headless or do you use xvfb or do you have a screen on your machine?

[satyadityasharma]

@soulgalore @alienbuild I did the following and it helped me fix this issue hope this helps you.

• First, I downgraded the webcoach version to 3.4.0

• Then I downgraded my google-chrome version to 75.0.3770.100

• Then I passed --no-sandbox flag after exec -a "$0" "$HERE/chrome" "$@" in /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome

That's it. :)

[leonardoraele]

@soulgalore Same issue here. I'm also running the latest versions of chrome and ss.io, running with --headless option, inside a debian:buster-slim-based docker container. (issue also happens the same without the --headless tag)

Any idea?

# Versions
root@96e5b2015900:/app# google-chrome --version
Google Chrome 79.0.3945.88 
root@96e5b2015900:/app# node_modules/.bin/sitespeed.io --version
11.9.3

# Sample run
root@cf22baf6fcab:/app# node_modules/.bin/sitespeed.io https://github.com/sitespeedio/coach/issues/329 --headless
[2019-12-21 00:52:26] INFO: Versions OS: linux 4.9.184-linuxkit nodejs: v11.15.0 sitespeed.io: 11.9.3 browsertime: 7.8.3 coach: 4.3.0
[2019-12-21 00:52:27] INFO: Running tests using Chrome - 3 iteration(s)
[2019-12-21 00:52:28] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 2 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:29] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 1 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:30] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 0 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:30] ERROR: BrowserError: Could not start the browser with 3 tries
    at SeleniumRunner.start (/app/node_modules/sitespeed.io/node_modules/browsertime/lib/core/seleniumRunner.js:85:13)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:86:5)
[2019-12-21 00:52:30] ERROR: No data to collect
[2019-12-21 00:52:31] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 2 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:32] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 1 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:33] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 0 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:33] ERROR: BrowserError: Could not start the browser with 3 tries
    at SeleniumRunner.start (/app/node_modules/sitespeed.io/node_modules/browsertime/lib/core/seleniumRunner.js:85:13)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:86:5)
[2019-12-21 00:52:33] ERROR: No data to collect
[2019-12-21 00:52:34] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 2 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:35] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 1 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:36] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 0 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-21 00:52:36] ERROR: BrowserError: Could not start the browser with 3 tries
    at SeleniumRunner.start (/app/node_modules/sitespeed.io/node_modules/browsertime/lib/core/seleniumRunner.js:85:13)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:86:5)
[2019-12-21 00:52:36] ERROR: No data to collect
[2019-12-21 00:52:37] INFO: HTML stored in /app/sitespeed-result/github.com/2019-12-21-00-52-26

[soulgalore]

Hi @leonardoraele does it work with Firefox? Chromedriver is very picky with Chrome version, they need to match exact, wonder if that's the problem. What Chrome version are you using?

[leonardoraele]

@soulgalore The installed google chrome version is 79.0.3945.88. I don't have firefox installed in this image. How can I know what version of google chrome sitespeed.io expects?

[soulgalore]

Hi @leonardoraele if you are using the latest, its 79. The way to see it is which Chromedriver version: https://github.com/sitespeedio/browsertime/blob/master/package.json#L9

Are you run headless with xvfb does that work?

Best
Peter

[leonardoraele]

@soulgalore Tried to run with xvfb, but got the same result.

> google-chrome --version
Google Chrome 79.0.3945.88
> sitespeed.io --version
11.9.3

> xvfb-run sitespeed.io https://www.github.com --headless
[2019-12-26 21:17:41] INFO: Versions OS: linux 4.9.184-linuxkit nodejs: v11.15.0 sitespeed.io: 11.9.3 browsertime: 7.8.3 coach: 4.3.0
[2019-12-26 21:17:41] INFO: Running tests using Chrome - 3 iteration(s)
[2019-12-26 21:17:42] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 2 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-26 21:17:43] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 1 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-26 21:17:44] INFO: Browser failed to start, trying 0 more time(s): unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
  (chrome not reachable)
  (The process started from chrome location /usr/bin/google-chrome is no longer running, so ChromeDriver is assuming that Chrome has crashed.)
[2019-12-26 21:17:44] ERROR: BrowserError: Could not start the browser with 3 tries
    at SeleniumRunner.start (/app/node_modules/sitespeed.io/node_modules/browsertime/lib/core/seleniumRunner.js:85:13)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:86:5)
[2019-12-26 21:17:44] ERROR: No data to collect

[leonardoraele]

Note: The issue only happens when using chrome. It works fine for me with -b firefox. (using firefox 71.0)

[vasilvestre]

I have the same issue on both docker distribution and npm package install

Google Chrome 118.0.5993.88
Mozilla Firefox 118.0.2
webcoach 7.0.0

[soulgalore]

Hi @vasilvestre can you share how you run and what OS you are using so I can see if I can reproduce it?
Thanks

[vasilvestre]

I use both webcoach https://www.domain.fr and docker run sitespeedio/coach:latest https://www.domain.fr/

Seems like a duplicate of #365 (maybe closing similar issue would be better for bug history)

[soulgalore]

Ah sorry that is my fault, that image hasn't been built in ages. I try to redirect people to use sitespeed.io directly but I see that I haven't updated the readme (and some other docs).

[vasilvestre]

Ah sorry that is my fault, that image hasn't been built in ages. I try to redirect people to use sitespeed.io directly but I see that I haven't updated the readme (and some other docs).

I also use sitespeed.io but I don't see recommendation. That's why I'm using coach directly, maybe I've missed it ?

[soulgalore]

I see. If you click the Coach tab in the sitespeed.io result, then you need to click the "show/hide details" button to see the extra information. I'll try to make that more visible in upcoming releases.

[vasilvestre]

Ooooh thank you !