Unable to launch Firefox 38.0.5 with Selenium 2.46.0

Question

I'm using Selenium-java 2.46.0 and Firefox 38.0.5 but when I launch firefox using selenium like - WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();

Opening of firefox fails with 'Firefox has stopped working' popup:

However if I open firefox manually, there is no issue.

Could you please help me to understand what could be wrong here and how this can be resolved?

It gives following error:

Exception in thread "main" org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: Failed to connect to binary FirefoxBinary(C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe) on port 7055; process output follows: 
BUG Save changes
1435762652130   addons.xpi  DEBUG   Updating XPIState for {"id":"{D19CA586-DD6C-4a0a-96F8-14644F340D60}","syncGUID":"e6CXkfz5RFLW","location":"winreg-app-global","version":"IDS_SS_VERSION","type":"extension","internalName":null,"updateURL":null,"updateKey":null,"optionsURL":null,"optionsType":null,"aboutURL":null,"iconURL":"chrome://vscore/content/ScriptFF.gif","icon64URL":null,"defaultLocale":{"name":"IDS_SS_NAME","description":null,"creator":"McAfee, Inc.","homepageURL":null},"visible":true,"active":false,"userDisabled":true,"appDisabled":false,"descriptor":"C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Common Files\\McAfee\\SystemCore","installDate":1401346981596,"updateDate":1401346981596,"applyBackgroundUpdates":1,"bootstrap":false,"size":1724679,"sourceURI":null,"releaseNotesURI":null,"softDisabled":false,"foreignInstall":true,"hasBinaryComponents":false,"strictCompatibility":false,"locales":[],"targetApplications":[{"id":"{ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}","minVersion":"1.5","maxVersion":"9.9"}],"targetPlatforms":[],"multiprocessCompatible":false}
1435762652131   addons.xpi  DEBUG   Updating database with changes to installed add-ons
1435762652131   addons.xpi-utils    DEBUG   Updating add-on states
1435762652135   addons.xpi-utils    DEBUG   Writing add-ons list
1435762652178   addons.manager  DEBUG   Registering shutdown blocker for XPIProvider
1435762652179   addons.manager  DEBUG   Provider finished startup: XPIProvider
1435762652179   addons.manager  DEBUG   Starting provider: LightweightThemeManager
1435762652179   addons.manager  DEBUG   Registering shutdown blocker for LightweightThemeManager
1435762652179   addons.manager  DEBUG   Provider finished startup: LightweightThemeManager
1435762652180   addons.manager  DEBUG   Starting provider: GMPProvider
1435762652190   addons.manager  DEBUG   Registering shutdown blocker for GMPProvider
1435762652190   addons.manager  DEBUG   Provider finished startup: GMPProvider
1435762652190   addons.manager  DEBUG   Starting provider: PluginProvider
1435762652191   addons.manager  DEBUG   Registering shutdown blocker for PluginProvider
1435762652191   addons.manager  DEBUG   Provider finished startup: PluginProvider
1435762652192   addons.manager  DEBUG   Completed startup sequence
1435762652766   addons.manager  DEBUG   Starting provider: <unnamed-provider>
1435762652766   addons.manager  DEBUG   Registering shutdown blocker for <unnamed-provider>
1435762652767   addons.manager  DEBUG   Provider finished startup: <unnamed-provider>
1435762652925   DeferredSave.extensions.json    DEBUG   Starting timer
1435762653270   DeferredSave.extensions.json    DEBUG   Starting write
1435762653333   addons.manager  DEBUG   shutdown
1435762653333   addons.manager  DEBUG   Calling shutdown blocker for XPIProvider
1435762653334   addons.xpi  DEBUG   shutdown
1435762653334   addons.xpi-utils    DEBUG   shutdown
1435762653335   addons.manager  DEBUG   Calling shutdown blocker for LightweightThemeManager
1435762653336   addons.manager  DEBUG   Calling shutdown blocker for GMPProvider
1435762653339   addons.manager  DEBUG   Calling shutdown blocker for PluginProvider
1435762653339   addons.manager  DEBUG   Calling shutdown blocker for <unnamed-provider>
1435762653591   DeferredSave.extensions.json    DEBUG   Write succeeded
1435762653592   addons.xpi-utils    DEBUG   XPI Database saved, setting schema version preference to 16
1435762653592   addons.xpi  DEBUG   Notifying XPI shutdown observers
1435762653599   addons.manager  DEBUG   Async provider shutdown done
JavaScript error: resource://gre/modules/BookmarkHTMLUtils.jsm, line 897: NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED: Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsINavBookmarksService.removeFolderChildren]
JavaScript error: resource://gre/modules/BookmarkHTMLUtils.jsm, line 897: NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED: Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsINavBookmarksService.removeFolderChildren]
JavaScript error: jar:file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Mozilla%20Firefox/browser/omni.ja!/components/nsBrowserGlue.js, line 1890: NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED: Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIAnnotationService.getItemsWithAnnotation]

Build info: version: '2.43.1', revision: '5163bceef1bc36d43f3dc0b83c88998168a363a0', time: '2014-09-10 09:43:55'
System info: host: 'W-GAMAHAJA-19', ip: '172.28.144.15', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.7.0_40'
Driver info: driver.version: FirefoxDriver
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.internal.NewProfileExtensionConnection.start(NewProfileExtensionConnection.java:134)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.startClient(FirefoxDriver.java:246)
    at org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver.<init>(RemoteWebDriver.java:114)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.<init>(FirefoxDriver.java:191)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.<init>(FirefoxDriver.java:186)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.<init>(FirefoxDriver.java:182)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver.<init>(FirefoxDriver.java:95)
    at org.test.tutorials.DisableJS.main(DisableJS.java:22)
Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.WebDriverException: java.lang.InterruptedException: Process timed out after waiting for 45000 ms.
Build info: version: '2.43.1', revision: '5163bceef1bc36d43f3dc0b83c88998168a363a0', time: '2014-09-10 09:43:55'
System info: host: 'W-GAMAHAJA-19', ip: '172.28.144.15', os.name: 'Windows 7', os.arch: 'amd64', os.version: '6.1', java.version: '1.7.0_40'
Driver info: driver.version: FirefoxDriver
    at org.openqa.selenium.os.CommandLine.waitFor(CommandLine.java:131)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxBinary.waitFor(FirefoxBinary.java:222)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxBinary.clean(FirefoxBinary.java:242)
    at org.openqa.selenium.firefox.internal.NewProfileExtensionConnection.start(NewProfileExtensionConnection.java:91)
    ... 7 more
Caused by: java.lang.InterruptedException: Process timed out after waiting for 45000 ms.
    at org.openqa.selenium.os.UnixProcess.waitFor(UnixProcess.java:148)
    at org.openqa.selenium.os.CommandLine.waitFor(CommandLine.java:129)
    ... 10 more

Answer 1

Although others have had success with 2.46 and the latest version of Firefox, I've had similar issues running selenium on Firefox. In each case I've been able to bypass them by downgrading to an older version of Firefox.