How do I resolve WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally in Docker? - google-chrome

Question

I am trying to run tests in a Docker, which currently run on a Jenkins slave, so bare metal. To make it more portable I try to get the Robot Framework running inside it, but so far with no luck.
This is my Dockerfile to create the robot image:
FROM ubuntu:16.04
ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
dbus \
libgtk2.0-0 \
libgconf-2-4 \
libnss3 \
nginx \
python3 \
python3-pip \
xvfb
# google chrome requirements
RUN apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
fonts-liberation \
gconf-service \
libappindicator1 \
lsb-release \
wget \
libasound2 \
ibatk-bridge2.0-0 \
libgtk-3-0 \
libxss1 \
libxtst6 \
xdg-utils
COPY google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb /tmp
RUN dpkg --install /tmp/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb && \
apt-get install -f -y && \
rm /tmp/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
# update pip & install robot framework
RUN pip3 install --upgrade pip \
setuptools && \
pip3 install robotframework \
robotframework-selenium2library \
robotframework-xvfb
COPY chromedriver /usr/local/bin
RUN chmod +x /usr/local/bin/chromedriver
WORKDIR /usr/src/robot
CMD /etc/init.d/nginx start && python3 -m robot --include ready BasicTest.robot
Then I run the test image by calling:
$ docker run -ti --rm -v "$PWD/src/test/robot-framework":/usr/src/robot -v "$PWD/dist":/var/www/html:ro --add-host databasehost:10.10.10.10 robot
src/test/robot-framework contains the BasicTest.robot file and the dist folder is the created dist folder for an Angular-based project I want to test.
The messages I get, after waiting a longer time, look like this:
Correct Login :: *Description:* | FAIL |
Setup failed:
WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
(Driver info: chromedriver=2.35.528139 (47ead77cb35ad2a9a83248b292151462a66cd881),platform=Linux 4.9.60-linuxkit-aufs x86_64)
I start the virtual display in the BasicTest.robot by:
Start Virtual Display 1024 768
${chrome_options}= Evaluate sys.modules['selenium.webdriver'].ChromeOptions() sys, selenium.webdriver
Call Method ${chrome_options} add_argument headless
Call Method ${chrome_options} add_argument disable-gpu
Call Method ${chrome_options} add_argument no-sandbox
Open Browser #{url} #{browser} --auto-ssl-client-auth

Answer 1

I am not sure what is the purpose of your project, but here is my Dockerfile that uses puppeteer that is a Google Lib that wraps chrome_headless and allow you to use it more easily.
Here you can find an official example and here is the official documentation of puppeteer with great community suppport.
This is my Docker file that runs a npm script after building a container with puppeteer, node and chromium dependencies.
# Most part taken from https://github.com/GoogleChrome/puppeteer/blob/master/docs/troubleshooting.md
FROM node:8-slim
# # Manually install missing shared libs for Chromium.
RUN apt-get update && \
apt-get install -yq gconf-service libasound2 libatk1.0-0 libc6
libcairo2 libcups2 libdbus-1-3 \
libexpat1 libfontconfig1 libgcc1 libgconf-2-4 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
libglib2.0-0 libgtk-3-0 libnspr4 \
libpango-1.0-0 libpangocairo-1.0-0 libstdc++6 libx11-6 libx11-xcb1
libxcb1 libxcomposite1 \
libxcursor1 libxdamage1 libxext6 libxfixes3 libxi6 libxrandr2
libxrender1 libxss1 libxtst6 \
ca-certificates fonts-liberation libappindicator1 libnss3 lsb-release
xdg-utils wget
COPY . /app/
WORKDIR app
# Install deps for server.
RUN npm install -g
# Install puppeteer so it can be required by user code that gets run in
# server.js. Cache bust so we always get the latest version of puppeteer when
# building the image.
ARG CACHEBUST=1
RUN npm install puppeteer#0.13.0
# Add pptr user.
RUN groupadd -r pptruser && useradd -r -g pptruser -G audio,video pptruser \
&& mkdir -p /home/pptruser/Downloads \
&& chown -R pptruser:pptruser /home/pptruser \
&& chown -R pptruser:pptruser /app
# Run user as non privileged.
USER pptruser
EXPOSE 9222
CMD ["npm", "start"]
Inside that npm start script you can run your tests I guess.
The trick about using puppeteer inside a Docker container is that Docker does not install chromium dependencies automatically and then it fails when you try to use it.
Despite the fact of using puppeteer or not, that container will allow you to use chrome_headless inside and in my opinion is less heavy than the other examples that I found inside the documentation.
For running just type
docker run -d -i --rm --cap-add=SYS_ADMIN --network=${yourNetwork} --name ${image_name} ${container_name}
Hope that helps