process still alive after 90 seconds (ChildProcess::TimeoutError) when starting FF

[lukeis]

Originally reported on Google Code with ID 6992

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. upgrade FF to v25, upgrade selenium-webdriver to 2.39.0
2. run automation  on FF (using watir-webdriver) in a win2k3 box

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
FF should start
But sometimes this works and sometimes not (10% of the time FF fails to start with
"process still alive after 90 seconds (ChildProcess::TimeoutError)" exception. May
be because we are seeing this in our CI pipeline on Jenkins slave boxes (win2k3) where
multiple FF instances will be running on the same box via various jobs at the same
time.

Selenium version: 2.39.0
OS: Win2k3 SP2
Browser: FF
Browser version: v25

We never encountered this issue until we upgraded to FFv25 two weeks ago.

cucumber : 1.3.4
childprocess: 0.4.0
Watir-webdriver : 0.6.4

Full stack trace
13:26:16 process still alive after 90 seconds (ChildProcess::TimeoutError)
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/childprocess-0.4.0/lib/childprocess/abstract_process.rb:142:in
`poll_for_exit'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/firefox/binary.rb:47:in
`wait'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/firefox/launcher.rb:71:in
`start_silent_and_wait'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/firefox/launcher.rb:35:in
`block in launch'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/firefox/socket_lock.rb:20:in
`locked'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/firefox/launcher.rb:32:in
`launch'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/firefox/bridge.rb:24:in
`initialize'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/common/driver.rb:31:in
`new'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/common/driver.rb:31:in
`for'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.39.0/lib/selenium/webdriver.rb:67:in
`for'
13:26:16 e:/jenkins/workspace//gems/ruby/1.9.1/gems/watir-webdriver-0.6.4/lib/watir-webdriver/browser.rb:46:in
`initialize'
13:26:16 E:/jenkins/workspace//src/core/browser_overrides/watir_webdriver_override.rb:62:in
`new'
13:26:16 E:/jenkins/workspace//src/core/browser_overrides/watir_webdriver_override.rb:62:in
`__start'

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-14 14:48:16

[lukeis]

Reported by barancev on 2014-02-14 20:00:10

• Labels added: Browser-Firefox, Lang-Ruby

[lukeis]

Please run your code with `$DEBUG = true` (or pass -d to Ruby on the command line) and
attach the full output  (stdout and stderr) to this issue.

The error occurs during Firefox startup where we start Firefox once with the `-silent`
flag to verify that the profile is valid. This should exit by itself within a few seconds.

Reported by jari.bakken on 2014-02-14 20:37:34

• Status changed: NeedsClarification
• Labels removed: Status-Untriaged

[lukeis]

sure will be providing this soon

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-17 11:30:39

[lukeis]

i have attached the full log with $DEBUG=true

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-18 15:34:44

---

• Attachment: ChildProcessTimeoutErrorFFv25.txt

[lukeis]

OK, so there's no output from Firefox, which is a bit unexpected. What happens if you
run this command manually in cmd.exe?

c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe -no-remote -silent

Reported by jari.bakken on 2014-02-18 15:54:48

[lukeis]

i get the Firefox Update dialog box with title "Incompatible Adon" with
"The following ad ons are not compatible with this version of FF and have been disabled"
Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-18 16:22:28

[lukeis]

once i update  this ad on to latest and execute c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe
-no-remote -silent again, nothing happened.

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-18 17:53:04

[lukeis]

So what does "nothing happened" mean precisely - does the process exit? Does it solve
the original problem as well? If not, do you see the a dialog / browser during the
90 second timeout?

Reported by jari.bakken on 2014-02-18 17:55:22

[lukeis]

i wasn't clear,sorry about that. When i execute the command, there was no output, the
dialog didn't appear as well.
C:\>c:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe -no-remote -silent
C:\>
I am going to try updating the Ad-On using our build a/c on one jenkins box where this
is frequently happening, i believe this should solve the issue, will update this thread.

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-18 18:22:26

[lukeis]

previously i tried with my own personal a/c

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-18 18:23:06

[lukeis]

OK. In any case, it's probably a good idea to get things set up on your build system
so you can get alerted and inspect the state of the Firefox process during those 90
seconds.

Reported by jari.bakken on 2014-02-18 18:24:26

[lukeis]

looks like this issue is gone after the Ad On is upgraded to match latest FF version
on one box. We are doing this on all boxes now and hopefully this should resolve this
issue. will report if otherwise.

Thanks Jari for the guidance here, really appreciate it.

Reported by eelam.ragavan on 2014-02-19 11:28:50

[lukeis]

Thanks for getting us know!

Reported by barancev on 2014-02-20 20:28:13

• Status changed: WontFix

[lukeis]

Reported by jari.bakken on 2015-02-26 23:02:13

[lukeis]

Reported by luke.semerau on 2015-09-17 18:22:06

• Labels added: Restrict-AddIssueComment-Commit