How to Setup Selenium with ChromeDriver on Debian Linux

This tutorial will help you to set up Selenium with ChromeDriver on Debian 9 and Debian 8. This tutorial also includes an example of a Java program that uses Selenium standalone server and ChromeDriver and runs a sample test case.

Xvfb (X virtual framebuffer) is an in-memory display server for a UNIX-like operating system (e.g., Linux). It implements the X11 display server protocol without any display. This is helpful for CLI applications like CI services.

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Step 1 – Prerequisites

Login to your Debian system as sudo privileged user and execute the following commands to install the required packages on your system.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y curl unzip xvfb libxi6 libgconf-2-4

Also, install Java on your system. Use below command to install OpenJDK on your system, If you like install Oracle Java 8 on your Debian system.

sudo apt-get install default-jdk 

Step 2 – Install Google Chrome

Now install Latest Google chrome on your Debian system using commands below. Google chrome headless feature opens multipe doors for the automation.

sudo curl -sS -o - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | apt-key add -
sudo echo "deb [arch=amd64]  http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install google-chrome-stable

Step 3 – Install ChromeDriver

ChromeDriver is a standalone server which implements WebDriver’s wire protocol for Chromium. The WebDriver is an open source tool for automated testing of web apps across multiple browsers.

wget https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/2.41/chromedriver_linux64.zip
unzip chromedriver_linux64.zip

You can find the latest ChromeDriver on its official download page. Now execute below commands to configure ChromeDriver on your system.

sudo mv chromedriver /usr/bin/chromedriver
sudo chown root:root /usr/bin/chromedriver
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/chromedriver

Step 4 – Download Required Jar Files

The Selenium Server is required to run Remote Selenium WebDrivers. You need to download the Selenium standalone server jar file using the below commands or visit here to find the latest version of Jar file.

wget https://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/3.13/selenium-server-standalone-3.13.0.jar

Also, download the testng-6.8.7.jar file to your system.

wget http://www.java2s.com/Code/JarDownload/testng/testng-6.8.7.jar.zip
unzip testng-6.8.7.jar.zip

Step 5 – Start Chrome via Selenium Server

Your server setup is ready. Start the Chrome via standalone selenium server using Xvfb utility.

Run Chrome via Selenium Server

xvfb-run java -Dwebdriver.chrome.driver=/usr/bin/chromedriver -jar selenium-server-standalone.jar

Use -debug option at end of command to start server in debug mode.

You can also Start Headless ChromeDriver by typing the below command on terminal.

chromedriver --url-base=/wd/hub

Your Selenium server is now running with Chrome. Use this server to run your test cases written in Selenium using the Google Chrome web browser. The next step is an optional step and doesn’t depend on Step 5.

Step 6 – Sample Java Program (Optional)

This is an optional step. It describes running a single test case using Selenium standalone server and ChromeDriver. Let’s create a Java program using the Selenium server and Chrome Driver. This Java program will open a specified website URL and check if the defined string is present on the webpage or not.

Create a Java program by editing a file in text editor.

vim TecAdminSeleniumTest.java

Add the below content to the file.

You can change the URL “https://google.com” with any other URL of your choice, Then also change the search string like “I’m Feeling Lucky” used in the above Java program. Save your java program and execute it. First, you need to set the Java CLASSPATH environment variable including the selenium-server-standalone.jar and testng-6.8.7.jar. Then compile the java program and run it.

export CLASSPATH=".:selenium-server-standalone.jar:testng-6.8.7.jar"
javac TecAdminSeleniumTest.java
java TecAdminSeleniumTest

You will see the results below. If the defined search string is found, You will get the message “Pass” and if the string is not found on the webpage, you will get the “Fail” message on the screen.