Comments on: Running Selenium Headless

By: Martin Dale Lyness

Martin Dale Lyness — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:04:52 +0000

This was the first thing i looked at when I searched google for setting up my selenium tests on my fresh Ubuntu 9.10 server. I learned there is an issue with the default install for the new Ubuntu release.

In case anyone else has issues with the Ubuntu 9.10 Xvfb package I’ve uploaded the 4 step fix I discovered, after a few hours of Googling, to my blog: http://blog.martin-lyness.com/archives/installing-xvfb-on-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala

By: A Curious Use For Selenium – Slideshows | Kevin W. Gisi

A Curious Use For Selenium – Slideshows | Kevin W. Gisi — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:38:47 +0000

[...] screenshots), set up the X virtual frame buffer out on my server (big thanks to this tutorial: Running Selenium Headless), and boom! Now, I’ve got PNG images of every slide in the deck, ready and available. Throw [...]

By: Matthew Hager

Matthew Hager — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:36:00 +0000

If you are getting garbage screenshots try starting Xvfb like this: Xvfb :99 -screen 0 1024×768x24 -noreset &

By: Prashant Shah

Prashant Shah — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:41:32 +0000

I opened the .png in an image viewver and I don’t see the google webpage for which I made a request.

I could sent you the png via email if required. I am not sure what is that I am doing wrong….

$DISPLAY=:99 firefox http://www.google.com

The cursor never came back after I entered this command on the shell. Is firefox running and has it successfully launched google webpage?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:43:52 +0000

Hi Prashant,

The .png file is an image. You need to open it in an image viewer. Also, please don’t dump huge binary files in comments (I will delete the existing one).

By: Prashant Shah

Prashant Shah — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 07:34:07 +0000

Hi Jason,

I tried the below mentioned commands and got the screenshot.png file which is not human readable. It has bunch of encoding stuff I believe. I also tried opening google homepage as:

$DISPLAY=:99 firefox http://www.google.com

The cursor never came back after I entered this command on the shell. Is firefox running and has it successfully launched google webpage? Then I said:

$import -window root screenshot.png and fedora created the png file in the root folder. Although when I open it I don’t see Google webpage being launched…?

Please help

By: Jason

Jason — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:51:28 +0000

Hi Prashant,

It may be that Xvfb is working despite this error. Did you try running something graphical after exporting your DISPLAY? If you try, say, an xterm, and it runs OK, then things are probably working. You can also take a screenshot of that display to check how things are looking. An easy way is with the import tool from ImageMagick:

$ sudo yum install ImageMagick
…
$ Xvfb :99 -ac &
$ export DISPLAY=:99
$ xterm &
# Pause for a few moments
$ import -window root screenshot.png

Then open screenshot.png and see if your xterm is running.

By: Prashant Shah

Prashant Shah — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:03:14 +0000

I am getting an exception from Fedora after installing Xvfb. It states (error opening security policy file /usr/lib/xserver/SecurityPolicy) on typing the command Xvfb :99 -ac. Any idea how I can fix this error?

By: songkai

songkai — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 10:27:39 +0000

How come I always get the below error:

Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType, removing from list!

I already install xfonts-base xfonts-75dpi xfonts-100dpi

By: Ankit

Ankit — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:31:04 +0000

hi,
It was really helpful post. Keep it up. But one thing I like to tell that DISPLAY=:99 does not work for tty terminal. As I want use so coz I want test this on server which has no X server running. Then What to do???
I found one solution net which we can get screenshot using TTY terminal. I modified the script according to my need. Hope, you guys may find it helpful.

http://translate.google.co.in/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.linuxwiki.de/BildschirmFoto&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dxvfb%2Bscreen%2Bshot%2Busing%2Btty%2Bterminal%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dcom.ubuntu:en-US:unofficial%26hs%3Dyzh%26sa%3DG

If have any more Query, then feel free to contact. Catch me on,
ankitsingh.05@gmail.com

Cheers,