from selenium import webdriver from selenium.webdriver.firefox.service import Service

public class FirefoxTest public static void main(String[] args) System.setProperty("webdriver.gecko.driver", "/usr/local/bin/geckodriver"); WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver(); driver.get("http://localhost"); driver.quit();

The error "Cannot start the driver service" is sometimes a polite way of saying "The OS blocked the executable."

process or cannot establish a connection to it within the expected timeout.

If none of the above works, reset the entire ecosystem:

If you have multiple failed runs, background processes may still be bound to ports or consuming resources, preventing new services from starting. Stack Overflow Open a terminal as Administrator and run: taskkill /f /im geckodriver.exe taskkill /f /im firefox.exe Use code with caution. Copied to clipboard Ensure you always call driver.Quit() block to prevent this in the future. Stack Overflow 3. Check Proxy and Localhost Settings