Selenium server error: Unable to create new service chromedriverservice

Question

I am trying to run webdriverio on my windows 10 computer and keep running into the same issue when trying to run my test js file. So I run this -jar /your/download/directory/selenium-server-standalone-3.5.3.jar to start the server and that comes out with this output

13:06:19.471 INFO - Selenium build info: version: '3.5.3', revision: 'a88d25fe6b'
13:06:19.472 INFO - Launching a standalone Selenium Server
2018-02-16 13:06:19.503:INFO::main: Logging initialized @301ms to org.seleniumhq.jetty9.util.log.StdErrLog
13:06:19.564 INFO - Driver class not found: com.opera.core.systems.OperaDriver
13:06:19.600 INFO - Driver provider class org.openqa.selenium.safari.SafariDriver registration is skipped:
 registration capabilities Capabilities [{browserName=safari, version=, platform=MAC}] does not match the current platform WIN10
13:06:19.640 INFO - Using the passthrough mode handler
2018-02-16 13:06:19.673:INFO:osjs.Server:main: jetty-9.4.5.v20170502
2018-02-16 13:06:19.697:WARN:osjs.SecurityHandler:main: [email protected]@3e9b1010{/,null,STARTING} has uncovered http methods for path: /
2018-02-16 13:06:19.703:INFO:osjsh.ContextHandler:main: Started o.s.j.s.ServletContextHandler@3e9b1010{/,null,AVAILABLE}
2018-02-16 13:06:19.807:INFO:osjs.AbstractConnector:main: Started ServerConnector@4e7dc304{HTTP/1.1,[http/1.1]}{0.0.0.0:4444}
2018-02-16 13:06:19.808:INFO:osjs.Server:main: Started @605ms
13:06:19.808 INFO - Selenium Server is up and running

So after that I opened up a new command line prompt and ran my test.js file that looks like this

var webdriverio = require('webdriverio');
var options = {
    desiredCapabilities: {
        browserName: 'chrome'
    }
};

webdriverio
    .remote(options)
    .init()
    .url('http://www.google.com')
    .getTitle().then(function(title) {
        console.log('Title was: ' + title);
    })
    .end()
    .catch(function(err) {
        console.log(err);
    });

And this is the error I get

{ Error: A new session could not be created.
    at end() - C:\Users\KenyaThompson\Desktop\test.js:16:6
  details: undefined,
  message: 'Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService\nBuild info: version: \'3.5.3\', revision: \'a88d25fe6b\', time: \'2017-08-29T12:54:15.039Z\'\nSystem info: host: \'LAPTOP-9GIHGJ9I\', ip: \'10.0.0.243\', os.name: \'Windows 10\', os.arch: \'amd64\', os.version: \'10.0\', java.version: \'1.8.0_161\'\nDriver info: driver.version: unknown',
  type: 'RuntimeError',
  seleniumStack:
   { type: 'SessionNotCreatedException',
     message: 'A new session could not be created.',
     orgStatusMessage: 'Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService\nBuild info: version: \'3.5.3\', revision: \'a88d25fe6b\', time: \'2017-08-29T12:54:15.039Z\'\nSystem info: host: \'LAPTOP-9GIHGJ9I\', ip: \'10.0.0.243\', os.name: \'Windows 10\', os.arch: \'amd64\', os.version: \'10.0\', java.version: \'1.8.0_161\'\nDriver info: driver.version: unknown' } }

Could someone please explain to me what I am doing wrong here? Also yes I already installed chromedriver via npm as well as wdio-chromedriver-service.

Answer 1

Update your ChromeDriver version via webdriver-manager, as follows:

webdriver-manager clean
webdriver-manager update
webdriver-manager start

This will remove the older version, update with the latest stated in your built config, and restart the server. Hope this helps.

Answer 2

The error you are seeing does gives us some hint about whats going wrong as follows :

   { type: 'SessionNotCreatedException',
     message: 'A new session could not be created.',
     orgStatusMessage: 'Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService\nBuild info: version: \'3.5.3\', revision: \'a88d25fe6b\', time: \'2017-08-29T12:54:15.039Z\'\nSystem info: host: \'LAPTOP-9GIHGJ9I\', ip: \'10.0.0.243\', os.name: \'Windows 10\', os.arch: \'amd64\', os.version: \'10.0\', java.version: \'1.8.0_161\'\nDriver info: driver.version: unknown' }

It is clear from the error message that the ChromeDriver is not getting detected as you see the log message as Driver info: driver.version: unknown. The main reason of this error can be the incompatibility between the binaries you are using.

• Your Selenium Client version is 3.5.3 released 2017-08-29T12:54:15.039Z
• Your ChromeDriver version is unknown to us.
• Your Chrome Browser version is unknown to us.

Solution

A quick solution would be to :

• Update Selenium Client version to recent levels i.e. Selenium 3.9.1
• Update ChromeDriver version to recent levels i.e. ChromeDriver 2.35
• As per the Release Notes of ChromeDriver v2.35 update the Chrome Browser version to v62-64
• Run CCleaner tool to wipe off the OS chores before and after executing your Test Suite
• If your base version of Chrome Browser is olden uninstall Chrome Browser through Revo Uninstaller and install a recent GA released version of Chrome Browser
• Execute your Test.

Answer 3

When you start your Grid Node, make sure the path to the chromedriver.exe in -Dwebdriver.chrome.driver parameter is correct: Example:

java -Dwebdriver.chrome.driver="C:\DEV\eclipse\MainWorkspace\webdrivers\chromedriver.exe" -jar selenium-server-standalone-3.141.59.jar -role node  -hub http://localhost:4444/grid/register -nodeConfig node-config.json > node_output.log