node-huxley fails to start on elastic bamboo w/ubuntu

[gil box]

Locally on OSX, node-huxley using chromedriver works fine. In order to setup CI with huxley I installed chrome and chromedriver on an elastic bamboo instance running ubuntu. I get DevTools request failed over and over in the chromedriver log (abridged in the full output below). How do I get passed this error?

$ cat /tmp/chrome.log
    [15.188][INFO]: COMMAND InitSession {
       "desiredCapabilities": {
          "browserName": "chrome",
          "chromeOptions": {
             "args": [ "--test-type" ]
          }
       }
    }
    [15.188][INFO]: Populating Preferences file: {
       "alternate_error_pages": {
          "enabled": false
       },
       "autofill": {
          "enabled": false
       },
       "browser": {
          "check_default_browser": false
       },
       "distribution": {
          "import_bookmarks": false,
          "import_history": false,
          "import_search_engine": false,
          "make_chrome_default_for_user": false,
          "show_welcome_page": false,
          "skip_first_run_ui": true
       },
       "dns_prefetching": {
          "enabled": false
       },
       "profile": {
          "content_settings": {
             "pattern_pairs": {
                "https://*,*": {
                   "media-stream": {
                      "audio": "Default",
                      "video": "Default"
                   }
                }
             }
          },
          "default_content_settings": {
             "geolocation": 1,
             "mouselock": 1,
             "notifications": 1,
             "popups": 1,
             "ppapi-broker": 1
          },
          "password_manager_enabled": false
       },
       "safebrowsing": {
          "enabled": false
       },
       "search": {
          "suggest_enabled": false
       },
       "translate": {
          "enabled": false
       }
    }
    [15.188][INFO]: Populating Local State file: {
       "background_mode": {
          "enabled": false
       },
       "ssl": {
          "rev_checking": {
             "enabled": false
          }
       }
    }
    [15.189][INFO]: Launching chrome: /opt/google/chrome/google-chrome --disable-background-networking --disable-client-side-phishing-detection --disable-component-update --disable-default-apps --disable-hang-monitor --disable-prompt-on-repost --disable-sync --disable-web-resources --enable-logging --ignore-certificate-errors --load-extension=/tmp/.com.google.Chrome.EUout2/internal --log-level=0 --metrics-recording-only --no-first-run --password-store=basic --remote-debugging-port=12583 --safebrowsing-disable-auto-update --safebrowsing-disable-download-protection --test-type --use-mock-keychain --user-data-dir=/tmp/.com.google.Chrome.d9rGhd data:,
    [15.190][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [15.193][WARNING]: PAC support disabled because there is no system implementation
    [15.323][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [15.380][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [15.380][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [15.430][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [15.431][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [15.481][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [15.482][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [3039:3039:1121/232539:ERROR:browser_main_loop.cc(209)] Gtk: cannot open display:
    [15.532][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [15.533][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [15.583][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [15.583][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [15.634][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [15.634][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    
    ……
    
    [75.099][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [75.099][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [75.149][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [75.149][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [75.200][DEBUG]: DevTools request: http://127.0.0.1:12583/json/version
    [75.200][DEBUG]: DevTools request failed
    [75.201][INFO]: RESPONSE InitSession unknown error: Chrome failed to start: exited abnormally
    [75.201][DEBUG]: Log type 'driver' lost 0 entries on destruction
    [75.201][DEBUG]: Log type 'browser' lost 0 entries on destruction

[Krystian Brazulewicz · Accepted solution]

Looks like this tool needs actual X Server display. In order to make it work on a headless Ubuntu you'll need to install xvfb and use xvfb-run command to run your tool with a virtual display.

[gil box]

Thanks for you help! If anyone comes across this I also had to install chromium-browser and downgrade chromedriver because it's not compatible with the latest version of chromium-browser.