Ubuntu 14.04 – Install Selenium as service (headless)

This tutorial will show you how to install Selenium as a service on a Ubuntu 14.04 server. An Ubuntu server doesn’t have a GUI in contrast to Ubuntu desktop, so we will also need to setup a virtual screen where firefox will run.

Perform all actions as root!

Selenium is a Java application, so make sure Java is installed. Installation instructions: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-java-on-ubuntu-with-apt-get.

Install Firefox and Xvfb.

apt-get update
apt-get install firefox xvfb

Create a virtual screen a (re)boot.

crontab -e

Add the following line as first cronjob:

@reboot sh -c 'Xvfb :99 -ac -screen 0 1024x768x8 > /tmp/xvfb.log 2>&1 &'

Create the Selenium directory.

mkdir /usr/lib/selenium
cd /usr/lib/selenium

Replace the following link with the latest version. Find the latest version here: http://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/index.html.

wget http://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/2.43/selenium-server-standalone-2.43.1.jar
ln -s selenium-server-standalone-2.43.1.jar selenium-server-standalone.jar
mkdir -p /var/log/selenium
chmod a+w /var/log/selenium

Create a service file.

nano /etc/init.d/selenium

Paste the following code in the file. I added the -trustAllSSLCertificates option to accept self signed SSL certificates (for example in testing and staging environments). Remove it if you only want to allow valid and verified SSL certificates.

#!/bin/bash

case "${1:-''}" in
    'start')
        if test -f /tmp/selenium.pid
        then
            echo "Selenium is already running."
        else
            export DISPLAY=localhost:99.0
            java -jar /usr/lib/selenium/selenium-server-standalone.jar -port 4444 -trustAllSSLCertificates > /var/log/selenium/output.log 2> /var/log/selenium/error.log & echo $! > /tmp/selenium.pid
            echo "Starting Selenium..."

            error=$?
            if test $error -gt 0
            then
                echo "${bon}Error $error! Couldn't start Selenium!${boff}"
            fi
        fi
    ;;
    'stop')
        if test -f /tmp/selenium.pid
        then
            echo "Stopping Selenium..."
            PID=`cat /tmp/selenium.pid`
            kill -3 $PID
            if kill -9 $PID ;
                then
                    sleep 2
                    test -f /tmp/selenium.pid && rm -f /tmp/selenium.pid
                else
                    echo "Selenium could not be stopped..."
                fi
        else
            echo "Selenium is not running."
        fi
        ;;
    'restart')
        if test -f /tmp/selenium.pid
        then
            kill -HUP `cat /tmp/selenium.pid`
            test -f /tmp/selenium.pid && rm -f /tmp/selenium.pid
            sleep 1
            export DISPLAY=localhost:99.0
            java -jar /usr/lib/selenium/selenium-server-standalone.jar -port 4444 -trustAllSSLCertificates > /var/log/selenium/output.log 2> /var/log/selenium/error.log & echo $! > /tmp/selenium.pid
            echo "Reload Selenium..."
        else
            echo "Selenium isn't running..."
        fi
        ;;
    *)      # no parameter specified
        echo "Usage: $SELF start|stop|restart"
        exit 1
    ;;
esac
chmod 755 /etc/init.d/selenium

Add the Selenium service as startup script, so Selenium will start every time when the server starts.

update-rc.d selenium defaults

Reboot the Ubuntu server and Selenium should be running fine!

reboot

Troubleshooting

To check if Selenium is indeed running on port 4444:

netstat -tln

Log files:

PHPUnit

An example to use Selenium with PHPUnit:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<phpunit bootstrap="test/Bootstrap.php" colors="true">
    <testsuites>
        <testsuite name="Project">
            <directory suffix="Test.php">module</directory>
            <directory suffix="Test.php">test</directory>
        </testsuite>
    </testsuites>
    <filter>
        <whitelist>
            <directory suffix=".php">module</directory>
            <directory suffix=".php">test</directory>
        </whitelist>
    </filter>
</phpunit>
/**
 * @group SeleniumFunctionalTest
 */
class SeleniumTest extends PHPUnit_Extensions_SeleniumTestCase
{
    public static $seleneseDirectory = 'test/selenium';

    protected $captureScreenshotOnFailure = true;
    protected $screenshotUrl = 'https://testing.example.com/selenium-screenshots';

    protected function setUp()
    {
        parent::shareSession(true);

        $this->screenshotPath = __DIR__ . '/../test/selenium/screenshots';

        $this->setBrowser('*firefox');
        $this->setTimeout(180);
        $this->setBrowserUrl('https://testing.example.com');
    }
}
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