Timed out waiting for the WebDriver server, using Node/JavaScript with Firefox on Windows

[Peter Bremer]

I am trying to Selenium WebDriver with the Node/JavaScript language, using the build-in Firefox support.

I've installed the node module "selenium-webdriver" (tried both locally and globally). Looking at the documentation, this should be the only requirement.

When I run an example script using "node examples\google_search.js" I see a Firefox windows popping up and disappearing, then there is a long delay on the command prompt, followed by this error message:

C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\promise.js:654
    throw error;
    ^

Error: Timed out waiting for the WebDriver server at http://127.0.0.1:51757/hub
    at Error (native)
    at onError (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\http\util.js:87:11)
    at ManagedPromise.invokeCallback_ (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\promise.js:1379:14)
    at TaskQueue.execute_ (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\promise.js:2913:14)
    at TaskQueue.executeNext_ (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\promise.js:2896:21)
    at C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\promise.js:2775:27
    at C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\promise.js:639:7
    at process._tickCallback (node.js:382:9)
From: Task: WebDriver.createSession()
    at Function.createSession (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\webdriver.js:329:24)
    at Driver (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\firefox\index.js:386:38)
    at Builder.build (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\builder.js:467:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\example\google_search.js:44:6)
    at Module._compile (module.js:399:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:406:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:345:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:302:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:431:10)
    at startup (node.js:141:18)
From: Task: WebDriver.navigate().to(http://www.google.com/ncr)
    at Driver.schedule (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\webdriver.js:377:17)
    at Navigation.to (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\webdriver.js:1027:25)
    at Driver.get (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\lib\webdriver.js:795:28)
    at Object.<anonymous> (C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\selenium-webdriver\example\google_search.js:46:8)
    at Module._compile (module.js:399:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:406:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:345:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:302:12)
    at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:431:10)
    at startup (node.js:141:18)

Am I doing something wrong?

[Shawn McCarthy]

What version of selenium? What version of firefox?

[Peter Bremer]

Both freshly installed and updated, so the selenium-webdriver is 2.53.3 (https://www.npmjs.com/package/selenium-webdriver), and Firefox is 47.0.1.

[Peter Bremer]

Ok, it seems Firefox 47 support is problematic. See https://github.com/SeleniumHQ/selenium/issues/2110 (which never showed up on any Google searches for my issue, but I found it in the comments when going to file an unrelated issue).

I will either try downgrading, or switching to Marionette driver, whichever has the best documentation.