Unable start Chrome in headless mode - ruby

Question

Using Windows Subsystem WSL2. I am trying to open browser in Ubuntu 20.04.
Followed commands to install google chrome and chrome-driver
https://tecadmin.net/setup-selenium-chromedriver-on-ubuntu/
Facing issue while starting chrome via terminal. Unable to initialise browser as well.
Versions:
Windows 10
Ubuntu 20.04
Google Chrome 102.0.5005.61
ChromeDriver 102.0.5005.61
selenium-webdriver (4.1.0)
watir (7.1.0)
When I tried to open google-chrome via terminal.
$google-chrome
Error: [0530/135205.172753:ERROR:exception_handler_server.cc(361)] getsockopt: Invalid argument (22)
$sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser
Selection Path Priority Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0 /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable 200 auto mode
1 /usr/bin/chromium-browser 40 manual mode
2 /usr/bin/google-chrome-stable 200 manual mode
3 /usr/bin/wslview 30 manual mode
I tried to initialise browser in IRB as well.
require 'watir'
browser = Watir::Browser.new(:chrome)
Error: Net::ReadTimeout
Tried reinstalling subsystem as well. Still facing same issue.

Answer 1

A few possible issues:
First, you mention that you are on WSL2, but the Chrome error you are receiving leads me to believe that you might be on WSL1. I see the same error if I run google-chrome on WSL1, but not on WSL2.
Double-check that with wsl.exe -l -v. You may need to convert the instance to WSL2 with wsl --set-version <distro> 2.
Second, running google-chrome like that, even on WSL2, will require an X server. WSL in Windows 10 does not support GUI applications, so you would need to install and configure an X server in Windows. You'll find other questions and answers on that topic, so I won't spend much time on it here, since your real question is about running Chrome headless.
As long as you are running WSL2 you should be able to run Chrome headless with Watir. It looks like the main thing you are missing is not calling Watir with the headless: true option for Chrome per this doc.
Here are the steps I took with Watir and Chromedriver. Note that the first line is a fixed version of the directions you linked to, since it requires sudo apt-key add rather than sudo curl:
curl -sS -o - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add
sudo bash -c "echo 'deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list"
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y google-chrome-stable
google-chrome --version # To check the Chromedriver version to download
cd ~
wget https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/102.0.5005.61/chromedriver_linux64.zip
unzip chromedriver_linux64.zip
mv chromedriver ~/.local/bin # A directory on your path
gem install --user-install watir
irb
In irb:
require 'watir'
browser = Watir::Browser.new :chrome, headless: true
browser.goto 'https://stackoverflow.com/q/72432711/11810933'
puts browser.title
Which returns the title of your question here.
It's also possible to use the headless package, as noted on this page.
Add the following:
sudo apt install xvfb
gem install --user-install headless
Then in irb:
require 'watir'
require 'headless'
headless = Headless.new
headless.start
browser = Watir::Browser.new(:chrome)
browser.goto 'https://stackoverflow.com/q/72432711/11810933'
puts browser.title
headless.destroy