Watir/Selenium - browser.goto keep getting TimeOut error on Chrome and Firefox - ruby

Question

Got a very annoying problem with Watir webdriver..
I have debugged a little, and found out I always get TimeOut::Error on a simple #browser.goto line, even I can visually see the page has loaded fully...
The scenario is like this:
Open a browser, goto a url, click a few links, and then suddenly at one point, the script stops continue browsing, waiting about 30+ seconds and throw errors.
Tried both Chrome and FF: Chrome is much worse, normally a 2nd or 3nd link clicking will trigger; for FF, sometimes takes 10+ page browsing...
Bet there is some environment or comparability issue:
jd#deskbox:~$ uname -am
Linux deskbox 3.0.0-12-generic #20-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 7 14:56:25 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
jd#deskbox:~$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.2p290 (2011-07-09 revision 32553) [x86_64-linux]
jd#deskbox:~$ rails -v
Rails 3.2.1
jd#deskbox:~$ gem -v
1.8.15
jd#deskbox:~$ gem list|grep webdriver
selenium-webdriver (2.12.0)
watir-webdriver (0.5.3)
Can someone help on this? Source code here:
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
require 'watir-webdriver'
require 'pry'
class Search
attr_accessor :browser, :company_url, :company_name
def initialize()
#browser = Watir::Browser.start 'http://www.google.com', :chrome
end
def visit_company_home_via_google(company)
#company_name = company
#browser.goto "http://www.google.com/search?q=#{company}"
link = #browser.div(:id=>'ires').link
return nil unless link.exists?
#browser.goto link.href
#company_url ||= #browser.url
#company_url
end
def logoff()
#browser.close if #browser
end
end
s = Search.new
puts s.visit_company_home_via_google("github")
puts s.visit_company_home_via_google("Mashable")
puts s.visit_company_home_via_google("Barracuda Networks")
s.logoff
My result is like:
jd#deskbox:~/cuda$ ./search.rb
https://github.com/
/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:140:in `rescue in rbuf_fill': Timeout::Error (Timeout::Error)
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:134:in `rbuf_fill'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:116:in `readuntil'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/protocol.rb:126:in `readline'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2219:in `read_status_line'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:2208:in `read_new'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1191:in `transport_request'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1177:in `request'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1170:in `block in request'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:627:in `start'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.9.1/net/http.rb:1168:in `request'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.12.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb:81:in `response_for'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.12.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/default.rb:43:in `request'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.12.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/http/common.rb:39:in `call'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.12.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/bridge.rb:450:in `raw_execute'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.12.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/bridge.rb:428:in `execute'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.12.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/remote/bridge.rb:99:in `get'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/selenium-webdriver-2.12.0/lib/selenium/webdriver/common/navigation.rb:14:in `to'
from /usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.9.1/gems/watir-webdriver-0.5.3/lib/watir-webdriver/browser.rb:61:in `goto'
from ./search.rb:17:in `visit_company_home_via_google'
from ./search.rb:33:in `<main>'

Answer 1

I think there's a bug in Chromedriver that doesn't return the URL correctly. I got your example to work using:
require 'watir-webdriver'
class Search
attr_accessor :browser, :company_name
def initialize
#browser = Watir::Browser.start 'http://www.google.com', :chrome
end
def get_company_url(company, url=nil)
#company_name = company
#company_url = url
#browser.goto "http://www.google.com/search?q=#{company}"
link = #browser.div(:id=>'ires').link
return nil unless link.exists?
#company_url ||= #browser.driver.current_url
end
def logoff()
#browser.close if #browser
end
end
s = Search.new
puts s.get_company_url 'Barracuda Networks'