selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Failed to create a Chrome process

Question

I am working on a web application, and was attempting to run a basic test script with seleium, just to make sure my code was working

from selenium import webdriver
import time
import os

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()
options.add_argument('--ignore-certificate-errors')
options.add_argument("--test-type")
options.binary_location = os.getcwd()
driver = webdriver.Chrome(chrome_options=options, executable_path=r'./chromedriver')
driver.get('http://codepad.org')

I have the chromedriver in the current directory, and I think I am using the correct version of the chromedriver (75.0.3770.90). The full error I am getting is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 9, in <module>
    driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options, executable_path=r'./chromedriver')
  File "/Users/kylerood/Documents/summer19/makeFriends/env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/chrome/webdriver.py", line 81, in __init__
    desired_capabilities=desired_capabilities)
  File "/Users/kylerood/Documents/summer19/makeFriends/env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webdriver.py", line 157, in __init__
    self.start_session(capabilities, browser_profile)
  File "/Users/kylerood/Documents/summer19/makeFriends/env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webdriver.py", line 252, in start_session
    response = self.execute(Command.NEW_SESSION, parameters)
  File "/Users/kylerood/Documents/summer19/makeFriends/env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/webdriver.py", line 321, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "/Users/kylerood/Documents/summer19/makeFriends/env/lib/python3.7/site-packages/selenium/webdriver/remote/errorhandler.py", line 242, in check_response
    raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: unknown error: Failed to create a Chrome process.

If anyone has any insight into a fix I could try that would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

Remove/comment the below line.

options.binary_location = os.getcwd()

As the binary is not located in the current working directory you are getting this error message.

binary_location is the location where your chrome.exe is located.

And make sure you have the chromedriver in the same folder you have this test located. Otherwise your script will fail with below error message.

selenium.common.exceptions.WebDriverException: Message: 'chromedriver` executable needs to be in PATH. Please see https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/home

Answer 2

The value binary_location must be an .exe file which specify the chrome.exe you want to run.

So this code works for me:

chrome_options = Options()
chrome_options.binary_location = '****\\chrome.exe'
driver = webdriver.Chrome(executable_path=os.path.abspath("chromedriver\\chromedriver.exe"),   options=chrome_options)

Hope it helps you