Webdriver does not go to the specified url (Laravel 5.1)

[brazenvoid]

Since a composer update after 3 weeks on our servers, our Acceptance cest tests are failing indiscriminately. All of them throw;

[ModuleException] WebDriver: Current url is blank, no page was opened

Setup

Laravel 5.1.28
Codeception 2.1.5
PhantomJS 2.0.0 

Acceptance Configuration

modules:
    enabled:
        - Asserts
        - WebDriver:
            url: http://platform.work.com
            browser: firefox
            http_proxy: direct
        - \Helper\Acceptance

Composer

"require": {
    "php": ">=5.5.9",
    "laravel/framework": "5.1.*",
    "barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper": "^2.0",
    "sboo/multiauth": "4.0.*",
    "dingo/api": "0.10.*",
    "doctrine/dbal": "2.3.*",
    "rtconner/laravel-kint": "~2.0",
    "factual/factual-php-driver": "dev-master",
    "weblee/mandrill": "dev-master",
    "barryvdh/laravel-debugbar": "^2.0",
    "laravel/envoy": "~1.0",
    "jeremeamia/superclosure": "~2.0",
    "illuminate/html": "~5.0",
    "predis/predis": "^1.0",
    "guzzlehttp/guzzle": "~5.3|~6.0",
    "laravelcollective/html": "5.1.*",
    "exeu/apai-io": "dev-master",
    "codeception/codeception": "*"
},
"require-dev": {
    "mockery/mockery": "0.9.*",
    "phpunit/phpunit": "~4.0",
    "phpspec/phpspec": "~2.1",
    "fzaninotto/faker": "~1.0"
}

Example

public function test(AcceptanceTester $I) 
{
    $I->amOnUrl("http://swaggable.com");
    $I->canSeeCurrentUrlEquals("/");
}

Failed to check correct credentials in _001PlatformSignupCest::checkCorrectCredentials (tests\acceptance\_001PlatformSIgnupCest.php)


  [ModuleException] WebDriver: Current url is blank, no page was opened


Scenario Steps:

 3. $I->canSeeCurrentUrlEquals("/")
 2. $I->amOnUrl("http://swaggable.com")
 1. $I->resizeWindow(1280,720)

Investigations

• We have traced the following package updates;

barryvdh/laravel-debugbar             2.0.6 -> 2.1.1
barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper           2.1.0 -> 2.1.2
codeception/codeception               2.1.4 -> 2.1.5
doctrine/cache                        1.5.2 -> 1.6.0
laravel/framework                     5.1.26 -> 5.1.28
league/flysystem                      1.0.15 -> 1.0.16
maximebf/debugbar                     1.10.5 -> 1.11.0
phpspec/phpspec                       2.4.0 -> 2.4.1
phpunit/phpunit                       4.8.20 -> 4.8.21
symfony/browser-kit                   2.8.0 -> 2.8.1
symfony/class-loader                  2.8.0 -> 2.8.1
symfony/console                       2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/css-selector                  2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/debug                         2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/dom-crawler                   2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/event-dispatcher              2.8.0 -> 2.8.1
symfony/finder                        2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/http-foundation               2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/http-kernel                   2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/polyfill-php56                1.0.0 -> 1.0.1
symfony/polyfill-util                 1.0.0 -> 1.0.1
symfony/process                       2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/routing                       2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/translation                   2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/var-dumper                    2.7.7 -> 2.7.8 
symfony/yaml                          2.8.0 -> 3.0.1

• We have tried downgrading laravel and codeception but to no avail. The machines which have been updated once will always throw that error even if they are downgraded till codeception 2.1.0. So it is apparent that some dependent package doesn't get downgraded with the parent. While the machine which passed all tests was on codeception 2.1.4 and webdriver 1.1.0.
• Installed selenium just to check and it works.
• We have tried downgrading Phantom on a machine which starts to work at v1.9.7. We will try it on more machines to ascertain the right highest version.

[brazenvoid]

It was confirmed that v1.9.7 is the latest working version with the new updates and also Laravel 5.2 so we have downgraded all of our phantomJS deployments on our servers to it.
Though it works, there are plugins which are just not compatible with it so we are again in a troublesome state...

[stale]

Due to our very limited maintenance capacity, we need to prioritize our development focus on other tasks. Therefore, this issue will be automatically closed (see #15395 for more details). In the future, if we see the need to attend to this issue again, then it will be reopened. Thank you for your contribution!