Getting Response Code 500 --user-data-dir error when running as systemctl

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Julian Swales

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Jun 29, 2025, 10:28:45 AMJun 29

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I have a selenium grid running. The nodes work fine on macOS and Windows 11 and work fine on Ubuntu if I run as the user. However if I attempt to use chrome on Ubuntu from a systemctl service it always returns the Response code 500 error saying probably user data directory is already in use.. I'm suspecting a file permission issue, but can't see what path it may be using...

I've tried various environment variables and PrivateTmp in the .service file but so far no luck.

/usr/bin/java -jar /home/user/seleniumgrid/selenium-server-4.33.0.jar node --selenium-manager true --hub http://192.168.1.20:4444 --log /home/user/seleniumgrid/debug --log-level FINEST

When I run this as the user, in the debug log I see that the userDataDir is set to /tmp/.org.chromium.Chromium.xxxx

I do not get any info on the userDataDir when I run from systemctl I presume because it's failing before that point.