Running Robot Test on Ubuntu GUI/RDP server with cron job

Robot Framework
1

I just want to ask why my cron job is not running on my gui but when I run it on my ssh terminal and gui terminal it runs perfectly.

this is my bash script:
export DISPLAY=:10

Start virtual display

xvfb-run --auto-servernum --server-args=“-screen 0 1920x1080x24”
/path/to/my/bash.sh

and this is my crontab
*/3 * * * * export DISPLAY=:10 && /path/to/my/bash.sh

2

You have to start the Xvfb before the call to the script (and probably this what you do manually).
So, the command xvfb-run --auto-servernum --server-args=“-screen 0 1920x1080x24” should be in the bash.sh file.

3

Hello HelioGuilherme66, actually xvfb-run --auto-servernum --server-args=“-screen 0 1920x1080x24” is already on my bash script. When I manually run that, it runs perfectly on my terminal. When I edit my crontab and put that path of my bash script, it doesnt.
This is my crontab:
*/3 * * * * export DISPLAY=:10 && /path/to/my/bash.sh

4

I don’t have much experience with cron jobs, but I would experiment:

  • having a single path to the command, moving the DISPLAY export to inside the script
  • try to find logs about the execution
  • is this your user cron, or root’s? Maybe is running for different user?
  • you mention “my GUI”, but the process should not be interactive (I think)
5

Hi Erick,

Are you sure xvfb-run is starting on display 10? the default when using --auto-servernum is 99

https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/xvfb-run.1.html

I would suggest first you try replaceing --auto-servernum with --server-num=10 so you can be sure which display is used by xvfb-run.

Hopefully that helps,

Dave.

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