OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally while executing tests through Selenium start on linux

I created an application that use Selenium using .NetCore for use it on Linux, actually this is my code implementation:

public class Program 
{
    public static async Task Main(string[] args)
    {
        //Settings for chrome
        var chromeOpts = new ChromeOptions();
        chromeOpts.AddArgument("headless");
        chromeOpts.AddArgument("no-sandbox");

        //Get assembly path where chrome driver is located
        string codeBase = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase;
        UriBuilder uri = new UriBuilder(codeBase);
        string path = Uri.UnescapeDataString(uri.Path);
        path = Path.GetDirectoryName(path);

        var driver = new ChromeDriver(path, chromeOpts, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(180));
    }
}

as you can see I am using as driver Chrome, I downloaded it here, I also added the driver inside the folder of the assembly, in this way the ChromeDriver knows already where to search it.

On linux I changed the folder permission using chmod -R 777, but when I run my Dotnet application I get this:

Seems that Selenium cannot start the application. Looking at the Exception I get:

Cannot find Chrome binary

Unfortunately I didn't find anything similar on the web, someone could help me?

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE

I Just reinstalled Chrome on my linux machine and now the error above went away, but there is another problem now, infact I get this error:

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally  (Driver info: chromedriver=2.9.248304,platform=Linux 4.4.0-130-generic x86_64)   
  at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.UnpackAndThrowOnError(Response errorResponse)   
  at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.Execute(String driverCommandToExecute, Dictionary`2 parameters)   
  at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver.StartSession(ICapabilities desiredCapabilities)   
  at OpenQA.Selenium.Remote.RemoteWebDriver..ctor(ICommandExecutor commandExecutor, ICapabilities desiredCapabilities)   
  at OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome.ChromeDriver..ctor(ChromeDriverService service, ChromeOptions options, TimeSpan commandTimeout)   
  at OpenQA.Selenium.Chrome.ChromeDriver..ctor(String chromeDriverDirectory, ChromeOptions options, TimeSpan commandTimeout)\   at ODS.Program.Main(String[] args)

Solution 1:

This error message...

OpenQA.Selenium.WebDriverException: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally

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

Your main issue is the incompatibility between the version of the binaries you are using as follows:

• You are using chromedriver=2.9 which is pretty ancient.

So there is a clear mismatch between the ChromeDriver version (v2.33) and the recent Chrome Browser version (vVersion 68.0)

Solution

• Upgrade ChromeDriver to current ChromeDriver v2.41 level.
• Keep Chrome version between Chrome v67-69 levels. (as per ChromeDriver v2.41 release notes)
• Clean your Project Workspace through your IDE and Rebuild your project with required dependencies only.
• 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.
• Execute your @Test.

References

You can find a couple of relevant discussions in:

• WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally with ChromeDriver Chrome and Selenium on debian server
• Message: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally on AWS Cloud9 with Linux 4.9.85-38.58.amzn1.x86_64 x86_64
• WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally with ChromeDriver Chrome and Selenium through Python on VPS