chrome-launcher does not work on docker ubuntu (even with xvfb-run)

The problem: Running karma + karma-chrome-launcher on ubuntu docker container does not work

Steps tried:

• Fix dbus issues
• Attempt to fix google-chrome container issues
• Wrap npm test with xvfb-run

Anyone have other ideas?

Example tiny project with docker container. This repo contains a replicable error:

root@e69e39f2f599:/karma# xvfb-run npm test

> @ test /karma
> ./node_modules/karma/bin/karma start karma.conf.js --single-run --log-level debug

22 11 2016 17:20:02.713:DEBUG [config]: Loading config /karma/karma.conf.js
22 11 2016 17:20:02.720:DEBUG [config]: autoWatch set to false, because of singleRun
22 11 2016 17:20:02.722:DEBUG [plugin]: Loading karma-* from /karma/node_modules
22 11 2016 17:20:02.724:DEBUG [plugin]: Loading plugin /karma/node_modules/karma-chrome-launcher.
22 11 2016 17:20:02.745:DEBUG [plugin]: Loading plugin /karma/node_modules/karma-jasmine.
22 11 2016 17:20:02.747:DEBUG [plugin]: Loading inlined plugin (defining launcher:my_chrome).
22 11 2016 17:20:02.757:DEBUG [web-server]: Instantiating middleware
22 11 2016 17:20:02.818:INFO [karma]: Karma v1.3.0 server started at http://localhost:9876/
22 11 2016 17:20:02.819:INFO [launcher]: Launching browser my_chrome with unlimited concurrency
22 11 2016 17:20:02.828:INFO [launcher]: Starting browser Chrome
22 11 2016 17:20:02.829:DEBUG [temp-dir]: Creating temp dir at /karma/karma-95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:02.831:DEBUG [launcher]: google-chrome --user-data-dir=/karma/karma-95080039 --no-default-browser-check --no-first-run --disable-default-apps --disable-popup-blocking --disable-translate --disable-background-timer-throttling --disable-device-discovery-notifications --disable-gpu --no-sandbox http://localhost:9876/?id=95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.011:DEBUG [launcher]: Process Chrome exited with code 0
22 11 2016 17:20:03.011:ERROR [launcher]: Cannot start Chrome

22 11 2016 17:20:03.012:DEBUG [temp-dir]: Cleaning temp dir /karma/karma-95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.016:INFO [launcher]: Trying to start Chrome again (1/2).
22 11 2016 17:20:03.017:DEBUG [launcher]: Restarting Chrome
22 11 2016 17:20:03.017:DEBUG [temp-dir]: Creating temp dir at /karma/karma-95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.018:DEBUG [launcher]: google-chrome --user-data-dir=/karma/karma-95080039 --no-default-browser-check --no-first-run --disable-default-apps --disable-popup-blocking --disable-translate --disable-background-timer-throttling --disable-device-discovery-notifications --disable-gpu --no-sandbox http://localhost:9876/?id=95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.174:DEBUG [launcher]: Process Chrome exited with code 0
22 11 2016 17:20:03.175:ERROR [launcher]: Cannot start Chrome

22 11 2016 17:20:03.175:DEBUG [temp-dir]: Cleaning temp dir /karma/karma-95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.178:INFO [launcher]: Trying to start Chrome again (2/2).
22 11 2016 17:20:03.179:DEBUG [launcher]: Restarting Chrome
22 11 2016 17:20:03.180:DEBUG [temp-dir]: Creating temp dir at /karma/karma-95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.181:DEBUG [launcher]: google-chrome --user-data-dir=/karma/karma-95080039 --no-default-browser-check --no-first-run --disable-default-apps --disable-popup-blocking --disable-translate --disable-background-timer-throttling --disable-device-discovery-notifications --disable-gpu --no-sandbox http://localhost:9876/?id=95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.342:DEBUG [launcher]: Process Chrome exited with code 0
22 11 2016 17:20:03.343:ERROR [launcher]: Cannot start Chrome

22 11 2016 17:20:03.344:DEBUG [temp-dir]: Cleaning temp dir /karma/karma-95080039
22 11 2016 17:20:03.346:ERROR [launcher]: Chrome failed 2 times (cannot start). Giving up.
22 11 2016 17:20:03.347:DEBUG [karma]: Run complete, exiting.
22 11 2016 17:20:03.347:DEBUG [launcher]: Disconnecting all browsers
npm ERR! Test failed.  See above for more details.

[myitcv]

Replying to self… I’ve still not managed to track down what’s going wrong here… despite resorting to strace to try and see where things are hanging within the Chrome process.

But I have found a (temporary) solution, an alternative to the approach @jadekler describes above (which we needed because @jadekler’s solution did not work for us)

This solution works for us with Google Chrome 57.0.2987.54 beta

It involves defining a custom launcher and taking advantage of Chrome’s new --headless flag:

// karma.conf.js

// ...

  browsers: ['OurChrome'],
  customLaunchers: {
    OurChrome: {
      base: 'Chrome',
      flags: ['--headless', '--disable-gpu', '--remote-debugging-port=9222']
    }
  },

// ...

At this point I also note https://github.com/karma-runner/karma/issues/2489

@dignifiedquire is it worth trying to debug further with the strace output I have? Or is https://github.com/karma-runner/karma/issues/2489 really the best way forward here?

[ain]

Could anyone please explain why was this ticket closed?

With the latest karma-chrome-launcher it still isn’t working out of the box on GitLab CI, incl. with the @myitcv’s suggestion above.