WebDriverException: org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost

Question

I must not be setting the System properties correctly. Otherwise I can't at all understand why the exception below is cannot connect to localhost. Or, might this be some sort of networking or other problem?

crash:

thufir@doge:~/NetBeansProjects/selenium$ 
thufir@doge:~/NetBeansProjects/selenium$ gradle clean fatJar;java -jar build/libs/selenium-all.jar 

BUILD SUCCESSFUL in 50s
4 actionable tasks: 4 executed
Jul 09, 2017 12:48:57 PM net.bounceme.dur.web.selenium.Main main
INFO: init..
Exception in thread "main" org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost:11551 [localhost/127.0.0.1] failed: Connection refused (Connection refused)
Build info: version: 'unknown', revision: 'unknown', time: 'unknown'
System info: host: 'doge', ip: '127.0.1.1', os.name: 'Linux', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '4.4.0-21-generic', java.version: '1.8.0_111'
Driver info: driver.version: FirefoxDriver
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverCommandExecutor.execute(DriverCommandExecutor.java:91)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.execute(RemoteWebDriver.java:637)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.startSession(RemoteWebDriver.java:250)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.startSession(RemoteWebDriver.java:236)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:137)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.<init>(FirefoxDriver.java:191)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.<init>(FirefoxDriver.java:108)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.<init>(FirefoxDriver.java:104)
    at net.bounceme.dur.web.selenium.Scraper.scrape(Scraper.java:24)
    at net.bounceme.dur.web.selenium.Main.run(Main.java:20)
    at net.bounceme.dur.web.selenium.Main.main(Main.java:15)
Caused by: org.apache.http.conn.HttpHostConnectException: Connect to localhost:11551 [localhost/127.0.0.1] failed: Connection refused (Connection refused)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultHttpClientConnectionOperator.connect(DefaultHttpClientConnectionOperator.java:159)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.connect(PoolingHttpClientConnectionManager.java:359)
    at org.apache.http.impl.execchain.MainClientExec.establishRoute(MainClientExec.java:381)
    at org.apache.http.impl.execchain.MainClientExec.execute(MainClientExec.java:237)
    at org.apache.http.impl.execchain.ProtocolExec.execute(ProtocolExec.java:185)
    at org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RetryExec.execute(RetryExec.java:89)
    at org.apache.http.impl.execchain.RedirectExec.execute(RedirectExec.java:111)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.InternalHttpClient.doExecute(InternalHttpClient.java:185)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient.execute(CloseableHttpClient.java:72)
    at org.apache.http.impl.client.CloseableHttpClient.execute(CloseableHttpClient.java:56)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.internal.ApacheHttpClient.fallBackExecute(ApacheHttpClient.java:139)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.internal.ApacheHttpClient.execute(ApacheHttpClient.java:87)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake.createSession(ProtocolHandshake.java:343)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.ProtocolHandshake.createSession(ProtocolHandshake.java:159)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.HttpCommandExecutor.execute(HttpCommandExecutor.java:142)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.service.DriverCommandExecutor.execute(DriverCommandExecutor.java:82)
    ... 10 more
Caused by: java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused (Connection refused)
    at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.doConnect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:350)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:206)
    at java.net.AbstractPlainSocketImpl.connect(AbstractPlainSocketImpl.java:188)
    at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:392)
    at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:589)
    at org.apache.http.conn.socket.PlainConnectionSocketFactory.connectSocket(PlainConnectionSocketFactory.java:75)
    at org.apache.http.impl.conn.DefaultHttpClientConnectionOperator.connect(DefaultHttpClientConnectionOperator.java:142)
    ... 25 more
thufir@doge:~/NetBeansProjects/selenium$ 

code:

package net.bounceme.dur.web.selenium;

import java.util.Properties;
import java.util.logging.Logger;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;

public class Scraper {

    private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(Scraper.class.getName());

    public Scraper() {
    }

    public void scrape(Properties p) {
        log.fine(p.toString());

        String key = "webdriver.gecko.driver";
        String url = p.getProperty("url");
        String value = p.getProperty(key);
        System.setProperty(key, value);
        // System.setProperties(p);

        log.info(url);
        log.info(value);

        WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
        driver.get(url);
    }

}

properties file:

url:http://www.google.com
url2:file:///home/thufir/wget/foo.html
webdriver.gecko.driver:/usr/bin/firefox

Answer 1

The webdriver.gecko.driver property needs to be pointed to a geckodriver executable (reference), not firefox browser itself. Make sure geckodriver executable has "x" (execution) permissions.

You can also add it to PATH:

export PATH=$PATH:/path/to/geckodriver

and then just start the driver without setting the system properties:

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

Answer 2

The official documentation mozilla/geckodriver states:

Selenium client bindings will pick up the geckodriver binary executable from your system’s PATH environmental variable unless you override it by setting the webdriver.gecko.driver Java VM system property:

System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", "/home/user/bin");

Or by passing it as a flag to the java(1) launcher:

% java -Dwebdriver.gecko.driver=/home/user/bin YourApplication

So you can install gecko-driver and export it as environment path. Then, Selenium is able to find the driver itself. In Mac OS, you can install gecko-driver using brew, and the command is exported automatically:

$ brew install geckodriver
$ type geckodriver
geckodriver is /usr/local/bin/geckodriver

Now, in the Java code, there's no need to override the gecko-driver path:

WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();