Selenium Grid and Linux Debian Squeeze

This is just a quick reminder how to install or extend your (and ours) development environment with selenium grid.

First of all, set up a fresh debian installation (actually "Squeze" 6.0.1).

First step is to install Java JRE and Ant. Mostly i'm using Sun Java JRE, so first we need to add the non-free target to our sources.list:
/etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ squeeze main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ squeeze/updates main contrib non-free

# squeeze-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/ squeeze-updates main contrib non-free

Ant is needed by selenium grid.

Now we can install Java JRE and Ant:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install sun-java6-jre ant ant-optional zip rake

rake is optional, but the easiest way to run hub and remote controls in background

Next we fetch selenium grid and extract the package:

cd /opt
wget http://release.seleniumhq.org/selenium-grid/selenium-grid-1.0.8-bin.zip
unzip selenium-grid-1.0.8-bin.zip
cd selenium-grid-1.0.8

Now we are able to test and start selenium and continue with testing;

ant sanity-check
mkdir pid
rake hub:start BACKGROUND=true

The Hub starts listening on port 4444 by default. To kill the hub, just send a HTTP POST request:

wget -q -t1 --post-data action=shutdown http://localhost:4444/lifecycle-manager

so long,

cheers!