Setting up Selenium Python environment with X virtual framebuffer on Ubuntu server

1. Install relevant APT packages:

   $ sudo apt-get install xorg
   $ sudo apt-get install xfvd
   $ sudo apt-get install firefox
   $ sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre
   $ sudo apt-get install python-pip
   

2. Download Selenium server and Python bindings:

   $ sudo pip install selenium
   $ wget https://selenium.googlecode.com/files/selenium-server-standalone-2.34.0.jar
   

3. Start virtual framebuffer X server for server number 1 (for DISPLAY) in the background:

   $ sudo Xvfb :1 &
   $ sudo Xvfb :1 -screen 0 1280x1024x8
   

4. Start Selenium server in the background (without sudo):

   $ java -jar selenium-server-standalone-2.34.0.jar &
   

5. Write sample Python code in sample.py:

   from selenium import webdriver
   from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
   
   
   driver = webdriver.Firefox()
   driver.get("http://www.python.org")
   assert "Python" in driver.title
   elem = driver.find_element_by_name("q")
   elem.send_keys("selenium")
   elem.send_keys(Keys.RETURN)
   assert "Google" in driver.title
   driver.close()
   

6. Run sample.py with environment variable DISPLAY=:1:

   $ DISPLAY=:1 python sample.py