wdio - ERROR: Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService - selenium

Question

When I try to run tests with wdio I am getting ERROR: Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService It also says Driver info: driver.version: unknown
In my wdio.conf.js file, I have
seleniumArgs: {
version: '3.141.0',
drivers: {
chrome: {
version: '2.43'
},
firefox: {
version: '0.23.0'
}
}
},
seleniumInstallArgs: {
version: '3.141.0',
drivers: {
chrome: {
version: '2.43'
},
firefox: {
version: '0.23.0'
}
}
},
Any idea what I am doing wrong here, or what other information I could provide? The full error is:
ERROR: Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService
Build info: version: '3.141.0', revision: '2ecb7d9a', time: '2018-10-31T20:22:52'
System info: host: '<me>', ip: '<my_ip>', os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.14.6', java.version: '1.8.0_212'
Driver info: driver.version: unknown

Answer 1

I don't know if this will help anyone, but the way I fixed this was to do locate selenium on my machine and just delete everything. I wonder if global selenium was messed up or something? After I did npm install in my repository again, the tests were able to run with ChromeDriverService.

Answer 2

This error message...
ERROR: Unable to create new service: ChromeDriverService
Build info: version: '3.141.0', revision: '2ecb7d9a', time: '2018-10-31T20:22:52'
System info: host: '<me>', ip: '<my_ip>', os.name: 'Mac OS X', os.arch: 'x86_64', os.version: '10.14.6', java.version: '1.8.0_212'
Driver info: driver.version: unknown
...implies that the ChromeDriver was unable to initiate/spawn a new WebBrowser i.e. Chrome Browser session.
Your main issue is the incompatibility between the version of the binaries you are using as follows:
You are trying to use chrome=2.43 which is an invalid version.
Your chromedriver version is unknown to us.
Release Notes of chromedriver=77.0 clearly mentions the following :
Your Selenium Client version is 3.141.0 of 2018-10-31T20:22:52 which is almost a year older.
Your JDK version is 1.8.0_111 which is pretty ancient.
So there is a clear mismatch between the Selenium Client v3.141.0 , ChromeDriver and the Chrome Browser
Solution
Ensure that:
Selenium is upgraded to current levels Version 3.141.59.
ChromeDriver is updated to current ChromeDriver v77.0 level.
Chrome is updated to current Chrome Version 77.0 level. (as per ChromeDriver v77.0 release notes)
Clean your Project Workspace through your IDE and Rebuild your project with required dependencies only.
If your base Web Client version is too old, then uninstall it through Revo Uninstaller and install a recent GA and released version of Web Client.
Take a System Reboot.
Execute your #Test as non-root user.