Install or update Chromedriver on Linux

Option 0: Download from the official page (preferred)

• Open https://googlechromelabs.github.io/chrome-for-testing/ Show archive.org snapshot
• In Section "Stable" > chromedriver / linux64 > Download ZIP from URL
• Take the chromedriver binary from the ZIP file and put it e.g. into ~/bin.

Chromedriver must be available in your path. You can add ~/bin to your path like this:

Copyecho "export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin" >> $HOME/.bash_profile

If you're also using Geordi, disable automatic updating of chromedriver in ~/.config/geordi/global.yml:

Copyauto_update_chromedriver: false

Option 1: Use Geordi

Warning

This geordi command is currently broken Show archive.org snapshot (for geordi releases < 9.6.1. You can update geordi with gem update geordi).

The geordi Show archive.org snapshot gem can upgrade to the correct version of chromedriver:

Copygeordi chromedriver-update

Geordi can also be configured to automatically update chromedriver each time you run tests. For that, edit the global configuration file ~/.config/geordi/global.yml and add the line

Copyauto_update_chromedriver: true

Chromedriver must be available in your path. You can add ~/bin to your path like this:

Copyecho "export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin" >> $HOME/.bash_profile

Option 2: Use apt source

Warning

Wo no longer recommend this option. After a chrome update, the chromedriver package sometimes lags behind and is not compatible.

Install via

Copyapt install chromium-chromedriver

Option 3: Install via npm

Warning

Wo no longer recommend this option. After a chrome update, the chromedriver package sometimes lags behind and is not compatible.

There's a handy npm package Show archive.org snapshot .

Copysudo npm -g install chromedriver
ln -sf /usr/lib/node_modules/chromedriver/lib/chromedriver/chromedriver ~/bin/chromedriver

Option 4: Shell script

Warning

This shell script hasn't been maintained for a while.

Updating Chromedriver is often a hassle: If you use chromium-chromedriver from the Ubuntu sources, it usually won't be updated when a new Chrome version is released. Manually downloading it from the official page is a very manual process. And I don't really want to use remote code like the "webdrives" gem because of paranoia.

Cry no more, for here is a tiny bash script that will download the latest chromedriver version and place it inside ~/bin. (If you use a different location, adjust accordingly).

Copy#!/bin/bash

VERSION_URL="https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/LATEST_RELEASE"
VERSION=$(curl -f --silent $VERSION_URL)
if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
  echo "Failed to read current version from $VERSION_URL. Aborting."
  exit 1
else
  echo "Current version is $VERSION"
fi

# Abort script if any of the next commands fails.
set -e
set -o pipefail

ZIPFILEPATH="/tmp/chromedriver-$VERSION.zip"
echo "Downloading to $ZIPFILEPATH"
curl -f --silent "https://chromedriver.storage.googleapis.com/$VERSION/chromedriver_linux64.zip" > "$ZIPFILEPATH"

BINFILEPATH="$HOME/bin/chromedriver-$VERSION"
echo "Extracting to $BINFILEPATH"
unzip -p "$ZIPFILEPATH" chromedriver > "$BINFILEPATH"

echo Setting execute flag
chmod +x "$BINFILEPATH"

echo Updating symlink
ln -nfs "$BINFILEPATH" ~/bin/chromedriver

echo Removing ZIP file
rm "$ZIPFILEPATH"

echo Done
chromedriver -v

Simply place it wherever you place your shell scripts (I use ~/bin/update-chromedriver) and give execute permissions (e.g. via chmod +x ~/bin/update-chromedriver).

Then, whenever your Chrome is updated, run update-chromedriver and after one second you are ready to go.

Example output:

Copy$ update-chromedriver 
Current version is 77.0.3865.40
Downloading to /tmp/chromedriver-77.0.3865.40.zip
Extracting to /home/arne/bin/chromedriver-77.0.3865.40
Setting execute flag
Updating symlink
Removing ZIP file
Done
ChromeDriver 77.0.3865.40 (f484704e052e0b556f8030b65b953dce96503217-refs/branch-heads/3865@{#442})