[🐛 Bug]: Random TimeoutException errors when loading pages only when using --headless

[adrenaline681]

What happened?

When using GUI mode I have no issues, I can get any page quickly using driver.get() without any error:

Loading Page Started: https://manos.ca/
Page Loaded in 0.73 seconds. Title: Mano's Restaurant & Lounge in Saskatoon | We Saved You A Spot
Loading Page Started: https://thecanadianbrewhouse.com/locations/saskatoon/
Page Loaded in 2.05 seconds. Title: Saskatoon’s Best Sports Bar | Locations | The Canadian Brewhouse

But when I switch to --headless or --headless=new some pages seem to freeze when loading, and this ends up triggering a TimeoutException. This doesn't happen on all pages, but only on some URLs that seem to have issues with the headless mode. In my example, I show 2 of these URLs that seem to be having issues.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\Pycharm Projects\Tests\selenium-error-testing.py", line 15, in <module>
    driver.get(url)
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\tests-JpSX7oic-py3.12\Lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 363, in get
    self.execute(Command.GET, {"url": url})
  File "C:\Users\AlvDesktopro\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\tests-JpSX7oic-py3.12\Lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 354, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\tests-JpSX7oic-py3.12\Lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 229, in check_response
    raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.TimeoutException: Message: timeout: Timed out receiving message from renderer: 299.926
  (Session info: chrome-headless-shell=127.0.6533.101)

In some rare cases, maybe 1 out of 10 times, one of the pages is able to load but takes much longer, over 20 seconds.

Loading Page Started: https://manos.ca/
Page Loaded in 23.59 seconds. Title: Mano's Restaurant & Lounge in Saskatoon | We Saved You A Spot

How can we reproduce the issue?

from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.chrome.options import Options
import time

options = Options()
options.add_argument("--headless")
driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)

urls = ['https://manos.ca/', 'https://thecanadianbrewhouse.com/locations/saskatoon/']
for url in urls:
    start_time = time.time()
    print("Loading Page Started:", url)
    driver.get(url)
    print(f"Page Loaded in {round(time.time() - start_time, 2)} seconds. Title:", driver.title)

Relevant log output

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\Pycharm Projects\Tests\selenium-error-testing.py", line 15, in <module>
    driver.get(url)
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\tests-JpSX7oic-py3.12\Lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 363, in get
    self.execute(Command.GET, {"url": url})
  File "C:\Users\AlvDesktopro\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\tests-JpSX7oic-py3.12\Lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\webdriver.py", line 354, in execute
    self.error_handler.check_response(response)
  File "C:\Users\Desktop\AppData\Local\pypoetry\Cache\virtualenvs\tests-JpSX7oic-py3.12\Lib\site-packages\selenium\webdriver\remote\errorhandler.py", line 229, in check_response
    raise exception_class(message, screen, stacktrace)
selenium.common.exceptions.TimeoutException: Message: timeout: Timed out receiving message from renderer: 299.926
  (Session info: chrome-headless-shell=127.0.6533.101)

Operating System

Windows 10

Selenium version

Python selenium = "4.23.1"

What are the browser(s) and version(s) where you see this issue?

Chrome

What are the browser driver(s) and version(s) where you see this issue?

Version 127.0.6533.101 (Official Build) (64-bit)

Are you using Selenium Grid?

No and Yes, I've tried with both local selenium and remote using Grid and the issue happens in both.

[github-actions]

@adrenaline681, thank you for creating this issue. We will troubleshoot it as soon as we can.

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Thank you!

[pujagani]

Thank you for sharing the details. There is a good chance this is a Chrome/ChromeDriver issue since Selenium just passes the headless options alone and routes the WebDriver APIs to the ChromeDriver.

[github-actions]

Hi, @adrenaline681.
This issue has been determined to require fixes in ChromeDriver.

You can see if the feature is passing in the Web Platform Tests.

If it is something new, please create an issue with the ChromeDriver team.
Feel free to comment the issues that you raise back in this issue. Thank you.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity since it was closed. Please open a new issue for related bugs.