Python Firefox webdriver can fail on slow systems

[jacekn]

When I try to load Firefox webdriver in python using:
webdriver.Firefox()

It occasionally fails after around 30 seconds with below traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/selenium/webdriver/firefox/webdriver.py", line 77, in __init__
    self.binary, timeout),
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/selenium/webdriver/firefox/extension_connection.py", line 49, in __init__
    self.binary.launch_browser(self.profile)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/selenium/webdriver/firefox/firefox_binary.py", line 68, in launch_browser
    self._wait_until_connectable()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/selenium/webdriver/firefox/firefox_binary.py", line 103, in _wait_until_connectable
    raise WebDriverException("Can't load the profile. Profile "
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: Can't load the profile. Profile Dir: %s If you specified a log_file in the FirefoxBinary constructor, check it for details.

I am almost sure it's to do with hardcoded 30 seconds timeout in firefox_binary.py:101. When I changed that value to 60 it started working.

I tried to load webdriver like this:
webdriver.Firefox(timeout=60)

but after looking at the code the timeout is not actually used so made no difference

How to replicate:

• this issue can only be seen on slow systems (like RaspberryPi) where firefox takes over 30 seconds to start
• the following python code can be used to replicate the problem:

from selenium import webdriver
browser = webdriver.Firefox()

[jacekn]

I started working on possible fix here:
https://github.com/jacekn/selenium/commits/issue1300

Note that the above branch is untested and not ready for merge, posting here for reference to help anybody else interested in troubleshooting

Seeing the same issue

[willpz]

I am getting this error everytime I start FF with this command: "browser = webdriver.Firefox()" , even if I change this hardcoded timeout value to a bigger number (in my test was 100s).
Test environment:

• Raspberry Pi model B running Raspbian Wheezy
• python 2.7 or python 3.2
• Selenium 2.48
• Iceweasel 38.4.0

[samsun387]

Seeing the exact same issue..

[peletiah]

Issue does not seem to be caused by a slow machine. I'm running into the same problem with an i5-4570T.

[willa75]

Sorry, if this has been asked elsewhere, but is there a way to temporarily work around this issue?

[agude]

@willa75 The only way I know is to apply the patch yourself to where ever the code resides on your system.

The simplest workaround is to change this hardcoded value (count == 30) to something higher:

selenium/py/selenium/webdriver/firefox/firefox_binary.py

Line 101 in 9c2e49e

if count == 30:

This is the solution I used until the patch was merged.

[willa75]

Thanks @agude but even after I hardcoded the value to 120 I still got the error, I will probably just have to wait for the issue to be resolved or use Chrome only for testing at the moment. Thanks for the help!

[scttech1967]

Please make sure to update this ticket when the issue is resolved. I'm having the same problem with the WebDriverException: Message: Can't load the profile. Thank you!!

[JivanAmara]

Getting the same behaviour as @willa75. It's not a slow machine & changing the timeout to 120 doesn't change the error. Happy to test potential fixes.