Managing ChromeDriver version (long term)

[jywarren]

Follow-up to latest issue solved in #6094 --

and, i see! so dependabot can't update that line. Ideally we can point at a .zip file that's the latest release... let's look into this.

Here's the last time we updated the version number:

099a1ab#diff-354f30a63fb0907d4ad57269548329e3R36

Linking to: #5725, grew out of long-ago issue #5683

Noting chromedriver versions can be found here: https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/

[jywarren]

Also noting this guidance on version number URLs:

https://sites.google.com/a/chromium.org/chromedriver/downloads/version-selection

We always provide ChromeDriver for the current Stable and Beta versions of Chrome. However, if you use Chrome from Dev or Canary channel, or build your own custom version of Chrome, It is possible that there is no available ChromeDriver that officially supports it. In this case, please try the following:
First, construct a LATEST_RELEASE URL using Chrome's major version number. For example, with Chrome version 73.0.3683.86, use URL "https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/LATEST_RELEASE_73". Try to download a small file from this URL. If it successful, the file contains the ChromeDriver version to use.
If the above step failed, reduce the Chrome major version by 1 and try again. For example, with Chrome version 75.0.3745.4, use URL "https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/LATEST_RELEASE_74" to download a small file, which contains the ChromeDriver version to use.
Please don't rely on the LATEST_RELEASE file without a version suffix. It exists for backward compatibility only, and will be removed in the near future.

[jywarren]

I want to change the chrome version to fix it to a specific chrome version, but I can't find a version-pegged link to substitute instead of https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb -- hmm!

https://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/download-chromium

Hm. That says old versions are not provided as they lack security updates. It shows a pathway to finding old binaries but it's complicated and I wasn't able to find one for 75 on my first try. I feel like it's not a best practice to point at old chromes, but we're stuck as chromedriver isn't working.

Reporting back here!

[jywarren]

Solved by @alaxalves! Reopening to track long term solutions per comment here:

#6099 (comment)

[jywarren]

So the latest is that @alaxalves was able to pin to a 3rd party repository of Chrome versions, at https://github.com/webnicer/chrome-downloads, in #6099. It has Chrome 78, latest updated version 4 days ago, so this seems viable...

So we're pinned at Chrome 75 ChromeDriver 74:

plots2/Dockerfile

Lines 30 to 34 in 2d44ec3

	RUN wget https://github.com/webnicer/chrome-downloads/raw/master/x64.deb/google-chrome-stable_75.0.3770.142-1_amd64.deb \
	-O google-chrome.deb && \
	dpkg -i google-chrome.deb && \
	apt-get -fy install && \
	wget https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/74.0.3729.6/chromedriver_linux64.zip && \

With @nstjean seeing an issue, do we need to bump the whole thing up to 78?

Also: better documentation from the README on this issue, which seems to come up again every ~3 months.

[RuthNjeri]

Hi, sharing my steps in how I fixed this locally for me...I am using a MacOS and the first thing I did was upgrade the Chromedriver version I have by using the command brew upgrade chromedriver I had some issues with that so I uninstalled the chromedriver brew uninstall chromedriver then reinstalled it brew install chromdriver.

I read that the chromedriver should match the chrome version. I did not need to downgrade or update both, just one...the chromedriver...

On the suggestion, you've shared @jywarren

Also: better documentation from the README on this issue, which seems to come up again every ~3 months.

Does this apply to local installations or is it in relation to the docker image?