[CentOS] Failed to start new browser session: Error while launching browser on session null

Mon Mar 28 19:31:37 UTC 2011
ken <gebser at mousecar.com>

On 03/28/2011 05:58 AM Roland RoLaNd wrote:
> Hope this email finds you well.
> 
> I need your advice with something if you can help out.
> 
> I have an RC serer (selenium rc) which is running on a centos 5.2 and
> another on a 5.4 machine.
> if i run it through X server, in other words if i run the server while
> connected to VNC.
> it works fine.
> but if i run it through ssh, it will start normally though upon test
> execution it will fail with the following error:
> 
> 
> 11:05:01.571 INFO - Preparing Firefox profile...
> Error: no display specified
> 11:05:21.818 ERROR - Failed to start new browser session, shutdown
> browser and clear all session data
> java.lang.RuntimeException: Timed out waiting for profile to be created!
>      
> 11:05:21.833 INFO - Got result: Failed to start new browser session:
> Error while launching browser on session null
> 
> 
> any idea how i can solve this?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> --Roland

Like the error says, you need to specify the display.  I.e., on the
remote machine you must set the environmental variable "DISPLAY"...
something like

(export DISPLAY=192.168.1.42:0.0 & firefox)

Though this may work, this may well reveal another, different error, one
having to do generally with permissions.  But we'll take them one at a time.

hth.