Unable to create new service: GeckoDriverService

Question

I am a beginner in Web Automation. I tried to run the Nightwatch tutorial from This YouTube Tutorial.

I have installed the following tools on Windows 10:

• node.js
• selenium-server-standalone-3.9.1
• nightwatch.js 0.9.19

When I execute command

node nightwatch.js -t tests/google.js

I got an error

'{ value: { message: 'Unable to create new service: GeckoDriverService\nBuild info: version: \'3.9.1\', revision: \'63f7b50\', time: \'2018-02-07T22:42:28.403Z\'\nSystem info: host: \'DESKTOP-I986AE6\', ip: \'172.29.218.145\', os.name: \'Windows 10\', os.arch: \'amd64\', os.version: \'10.0\', java.version: \'9.0.4\'\nDriver info: driver.version: unknown',
 error: 'session not created' },status: 33 }

I have seen This Post. Then I downloaded the drivers (geckodriver and chromedriver) and put the drivers on the same directory as my json file. Then I insert the path of the driver on the json file, but I still got the same error. How do I fix this?

My nightwatch.json file:

{
  "src_folders" : ["tests"],
  "output_folder" : "reports",
  "custom_commands_path" : "",
  "page_objects_path" : "",
  "custom_assertions_path" : "",
  "globals_path" : "",
  "live_output" : false,
  "parallel_process_delay" : 10,
  "disable_colors": false,
  "test_workers" : false,

  "selenium" : {
    "start_process" : false,
    "server_path" : "",
    "log_path" : "",
    "host" : "127.0.0.1",
    "port" : 4445,
    "cli_args" : {
      "webdriver.chrome.driver" : "chromedriver.exe",
      "webdriver.gecko.driver" : "geckodriver.exe",
      "webdriver.firefox.profile" : ""
    }
  },

  "test_settings" : {
    "default" : {
      "launch_url" : "http://localhost",
      "selenium_host" : "127.0.0.1",
      "selenium_port" : 4444,
      "silent" : true,
      "disable_colors": false,
      "screenshots" : {
        "enabled" : false,
        "path" : ""
      },
      "desiredCapabilities" : {
        "browserName" : "firefox",
        "javascriptEnabled" : true,
        "acceptSslCerts" : true
      }
    },

    "saucelabs" : {
      "selenium_host" : "ondemand.saucelabs.com",
      "selenium_port" : 80,
      "username" : "${SAUCE_USERNAME}",
      "access_key" : "${SAUCE_ACCESS_KEY}",
      "use_ssl" : false,
      "silent" : true,
      "output" : true,
      "screenshots" : {
        "enabled" : false,
        "on_failure" : true,
        "path" : ""
      },
      "desiredCapabilities": {
        "name" : "test-example",
        "browserName": "firefox"
      },
      "globals" : {
        "myGlobal" : "some_sauce_global"
      },
      "selenium" : {
        "start_process" : false
      }
    },

    "phantomjs" : {
      "desiredCapabilities" : {
        "browserName" : "phantomjs",
        "javascriptEnabled" : true,
        "acceptSslCerts" : true,
        "phantomjs.binary.path" : "/path/to/phantomjs"
      }
    },

    "browserstack" : {
      "selenium" : {
        "start_process" : false
      },
      "selenium_host" : "hub.browserstack.com",
      "selenium_port" : 80,
      "silent" : true,
      "desiredCapabilities": {
        "name" : "test-example",
        "browserName": "firefox",
        "browserstack.user" : "...",
        "browserstack.key" : "..."
      }
    },

    "testingbot" : {
      "selenium_host" : "hub.testingbot.com",
      "selenium_port" : 80,
      "apiKey" : "${TB_KEY}",
      "apiSecret" : "${TB_SECRET}",
      "silent" : true,
      "output" : true,
      "screenshots" : {
        "enabled" : false,
        "on_failure" : true,
        "path" : ""
      },
      "desiredCapabilities": {
        "name" : "test-example",
        "browserName": "firefox"
      },
      "selenium" : {
        "start_process" : false
      }
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

No, it is not mandatory. The driver can be anywhere, as long as it is reachable. In your first example, try putting ./ before the executable to explicitly point they're in the same directory as your JSON, like this:

 "cli_args" : {
  "webdriver.chrome.driver" : "./chromedriver.exe",
  "webdriver.gecko.driver" : "./geckodriver.exe",
  "webdriver.firefox.profile" : ""
}

Answer 2

I solved it by putting the driver (chromedriver and/or geckodriver) to the same folder where Selenium is located and changed the json file to

"webdriver.chrome.driver" : "C:/Projects/selenium/chromedriver.exe",
"webdriver.gecko.driver" : "C:/Projects/selenium/geckodriver.exe",

You can put the path anywhere as long as it is reachable.