JS Views that render images via headless Chrome failing with Avast

[RNovak]

The first time JavaScript views that render image output using headless Chrome load when Avast protection is active fail to initialize the renderer. Resetting the node and re-executing fixes the problem, which makes this seem like a timing issue. This started happening after upgrading to 4.2.x and persists in 4.3.x.

ERROR Scatter Plot 0:55 Initializing view failed: timeout: Timed out receiving message from renderer: 60.000
(Session info: headless chrome=83.0.4103.116)
Driver info: org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver
Capabilities {acceptInsecureCerts: false, browserName: chrome, browserVersion: 83.0.4103.116, chrome: {chromedriverVersion: 83.0.4103.39 (ccbf011cb2d2b…, userDataDir: C:\Users\TestUser\AppData…}, goog:chromeOptions: {debuggerAddress: localhost:6454}, javascriptEnabled: true, networkConnectionEnabled: false, pageLoadStrategy: normal, platform: WINDOWS, platformName: WINDOWS, proxy: Proxy(), setWindowRect: true, strictFileInteractability: false, timeouts: {implicit: 0, pageLoad: 300000, script: 30000}, unhandledPromptBehavior: dismiss, webauthn:virtualAuthenticators: true}
Session ID: 2dee2251c7fac5a0ac0a75fcf41ebd46
ERROR Scatter Plot 0:55 Retrieving image from view failed: Error retrieving image: Chrome driver was not initialized. Could not retrieve image.

Anyone else seeing this? Even if I put the entire KNIME directory in Avast’s exclude list, this happens. I can only “fix” it by temporarily disabling Avast protection when running a flow using the Chrome renderer for the first time in a KNIME session.

[julian.bunzel]

Hi @RNovak,

sorry for the late response. We have already filed a ticket with respect to these issues as they also occur with Windows Defender.
The workaround for Windows Defender is to exclude the KNIME installation folder, set exceptions for knime.exe and Chromium processes and allow Controlled Folder Access for knime.exe and chrome.exe (which resides in the KNIME installation folder in plugins\org.knime.ext.chromium.bin.win32.x86_75….\win32\x86).

However, I’m not sure how this translates to Avast. I think the Controlled Folder Access option is turned off anyway, in case another AV tool is used instead of Windows Defender, but I think making exceptions for knime.exe as well as any chromium processes and chrome.exe might be worth a try.

Best regards,
Julian