[wkhtmltopdf] wkhtmltopdf: cannot connect to X server

I have been using wkthmltopdf to convert html to pdf documents on-the-fly on my linux web server. The program originally needed X11 or similar X server to run correctly, but through many requests by developers to have this run on servers without GUI, I am pretty sure it runs a virtual X server in the static version. I have been using the static (stand-alone) version of the program and it works great! I would put the executable file in a folder, and run:

./wkhtmltopdf file1.html file2.pdf

However I would like to install this program system-wide. I used the apt-get install wkhtmltopdf (just installed yesterday) and since I am running on a 64 bit system, I also needed apt-get install ia32-libs. After installation I can find the version like this:

wkhtmltopdf --version

output:

Name:
  wkhtmltopdf 0.9.9

License:
  Copyright (C) 2008,2009 Wkhtmltopdf Authors.



  License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
  This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO
  WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Authors:
  Written by Jakob Truelsen. Patches by Mário Silva, Benoit Garret and Emmanuel
  Bouthenot.

Now when I try to run the program installed via aptitude, I get the following error:

wkhtmltopdf: cannot connect to X server

Does anyone know how I can fix this? I guess this version is missing a virtual X server or something.

1. Download file from this link
2. Extract it and move executable file(/wkhtmltox/bin/wkhtmltopdf) to /usr/bin/
3. Rename it to wkhtmltopdf if current name is not wkhtmltopdf. So that now you have an executable at /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf
4. Set permissions: sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf
5. Install required support packages. sudo apt-get install openssl build-essential xorg libssl-dev
6. Now, check with wkhtmltopdf http://www.google.com test.pdf hint: detail information from this link

for 14.04.1-Ubuntu https://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html

wget https://downloads.wkhtmltopdf.org/0.12/0.12.4/wkhtmltox-0.12.4_linux-generic-amd64.tar.xz -O mktemp.tar.xz
tar xf mktemp.tar.xz
sudo cp wkhtmltox/bin/wkhtmltopdf /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf
sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf
rm mktemp.tar.xz
rm wkhtmltox -rf
apt-get update
apt-get install -y libxrender1 libxtst6 libxi6
wkhtmltopdf http://www.google.com test.pdf

It is recommended to use at least 0.12.2.1.

Starting from wkhtmltopdf >= 0.12.2 it doesn't require X server or emulation anymore. You can download new version from http://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html

For 64-bit Use:

wget http://wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com/files/wkhtmltopdf-0.9.9-static-amd64.tar.bz2

tar xvjf wkhtmltopdf-0.9.9-static-amd64.tar.bz2

sudo mv wkhtmltopdf-amd64 /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf

Just tell the Qt backend to not use X:

QT_QPA_PLATFORM=offscreen wkhtmltopdf <input> <outfile.pdf>

If you config wkhtmltopdf for Rails or Somethings in Centos, you can follow these step bellow:

1. Go to https://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html and copied the link of rpm file.

In centos server bash.

2. wget link_of_wkhtmltopdf_rpm.rpm

3. rpm -ivh link_of_wkhtmltopdf_rpm.rpm

4. which wkhtmltopdf

=> You will get path of wkhtmltopdf.

5. Setup for wicked_pdf or pdfkit with path in step 4. This is sample config with wickedpdf. config/initializers/wicked_pdf.rb

   if Rails.env != "production"
       path = %x[which wkhtmltopdf].gsub(/\n/, "")
   else
       path = "path_of_wkhtmltopdf_in_step_4"
   end
   WickedPdf.config = { exe_path: path }
   

6. Restart server.

DONE.

Expanding on Timothy's answer...

If you're a web developer looking to use wkhtmltopdf as part of your web app, you can simply install it into your /usr/bin/ folder like so:

cd /usr/bin/
curl -C - -O http://wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com/files/wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-i386.tar.bz2
tar -xvjf wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-i386.tar.bz2
mv wkhtmltopdf-i386 wkhtmltopdf

You can now run it anywhere using wkhtmltopdf.

I personally use the Snappy library in PHP. Here is an example of how easy it is to create a PDF:

<?php

// Create new PDF
$pdf = new \Knp\Snappy\Pdf('wkhtmltopdf');

// Set output header
header('Content-Type: application/pdf');

// Generate PDF from HTML
echo $pdf->getOutputFromHtml('<h1>Title</h1><p>Your content goes here.</p>');

This solved the issue for me:

sudo apt-get install xvfb
xvfb-run --server-args="-screen 0, 1024x768x24" wkhtmltopdf file1.html file2.pdf

Just made it:

1- To download wkhtmltopdf dependencies

# apt-get install wkhtmltopdf

2- Download from source

# wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/wkhtmltopdf/xxx.deb

# dpkg -i xxx.deb

3- Try

# wkhtmltopdf http://google.com google.pdf

Its working fine

It works!

Pay attention: your file could be wkhtmltopdf.sh or wkhtmltopdf, check it on second step

You must copy it into directory : /usr/local/bin, make sur it's executable and add symlink of wkhtmltopdf.sh like :

1- the command :

sudo apt-get install wkhtmltopdf

2 - insert the binary in directory /usr/bin so the browser can't have permission to execute in this directory. You must copy the wkhtmltopdf.sh to directory /usr/local/bin cause the browser have permission in this directory like:

sudo cp /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh

3 - After make sur the binary have permission of execution like :

sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh

4 - so now you can test, it's work like:

/usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh http://www.google.com google.pdf

it make download the pdf in the current directory in your terminal

5 - Optional now you can add symlink in your directory /usr/local/bin like

ln -s /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf

solution for Centos7:

yum -y install xorg-x11-fonts-75dpi \
               xorg-x11-fonts-Type1 \
&& rpm -Uvh http://download.gna.org/wkhtmltopdf/0.12/0.12.2.1/wkhtmltox-0.12.2.1_linux-centos7-amd64.rpm

We run into this problem inside docker containers and the above install has wkhtmltopdf with patched QT

I did follow the instructions here and made wkhtmltopdf work for me but I would like to offer a bit of perspective which I discovered while doing my own little dance with wkhtmltopdf - xvfb.

This is important because the same reason that causes it to throw the infamous cannot connect to X server error is also causing it to run with sever limitations even if you do provide it a X server. These limitations include not being able to take multiple input sources, set header and footers, etc (check the Reduced Functionality section of the manual).

wkhtmltox by itself doesn't require a X11, however it's making use of QT libraries which do. In newever versions of wkthmltox developers made a patch for QT which allows it to run with a X11.

Currently some versions are built against patched QT and some are not. You can check your version by running wkhtmltopds --version. There should be a line at the end saying Compiled against wkhtmltopdf patched qt.

So, to conclude, if you install and use a version that uses the patched libraries it should work on a linux server without the xvfb server, as I can confirm.

I found method to resolve this problem without fake X server. In newest version of wkhtmltopdf dont need X server for work, but it no into official linux repositories.

Solution for Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS (trusty) i386

$ sudo apt-get install xfonts-75dpi
$ wget http://download.gna.org/wkhtmltopdf/0.12/0.12.2/wkhtmltox-0.12.2_linux-trusty-i386.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i wkhtmltox-0.12.2_linux-trusty-i386.deb
$ wkhtmltopdf http://www.google.com test.pdf

Solution for Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS (trusty) amd64

$ sudo apt-get install xfonts-75dpi
$ wget http://download.gna.org/wkhtmltopdf/0.12/0.12.2/wkhtmltox-0.12.2_linux-trusty-amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i wkhtmltox-0.12.2_linux-trusty-amd64.deb
$ wkhtmltopdf http://www.google.com test.pdf

User felixhummel got very good solution, but repository with utilite has changed.

sudo -i
apt-get install wkhtmltopdf xvfb libicu48
mv /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf-origin
touch /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf && chmod +x /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf && cat > /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf << END
#!/bin/bash

/usr/bin/xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 1024x768x24" /usr/bin/wkhtmltopdf-origin  "\$@"
END

Problem is probably in old version of wkhtmltopdf - version 0.9 from distribution repository require running X server, but current version - 0.12.2.1 doesnt require it - can run headless.

Download package for your distribution from http://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html and install it - for Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install xfonts-75dpi
sudo dpkg -i wkhtmltox-0.12.2.1_linux-trusty-amd64.deb

wkhtmltopdf > 0.11 doesn't have this X-server issue.
So installing 0.12.2.1 on a linux server.

1. At first install xvfb server:

   sudo apt-get install xvfb
   

2. Get needed version of wkhtmltopdf from http://wkhtmltopdf.org/downloads.html

3. Install wkhtmltopdf:

   sudo dpkg -i wkhtmltox-0.12.2.1_linux-trusty-amd64.deb
   

   or install with wget

   URL='http://download.gna.org/wkhtmltopdf/0.12/0.12.2.1/wkhtmltox-0.12.2.1_linux-trusty-amd64.deb'; FILE=`mktemp`; wget "$URL" -qO $FILE && sudo dpkg -i $FILE; rm $FILE
   

4. Install dependency (if needed):

   sudo apt-get -f install
   

5. Create symblic link in /usr/local/bin/:

   echo 'exec xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 640x480x16" wkhtmltopdf "$@"' | sudo tee /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh >/dev/null
   sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh
   

6. Now try below and it should work,

   /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf http://www.google.com test.pdf
   

Just install a version 0.12.4 or higher. This seems to solve the problem.

See How can I install the latest wkhtmltopdf on Ubuntu 16.04?.

or try this (from http://drupal.org/node/870058)

1. Download wkhtmltopdf. Or better install it with a package manager:

   sudo apt-get install wkhtmltopdf
   

2. Extract it and move it to /usr/local/bin/

3. Rename it to wkhtmltopdf so that now you have an executable at /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf
4. Set permissions: sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf

5. Install required support packages.

   sudo apt-get install openssl build-essential xorg libssl-dev
   

6. Check to see if it works: run

   /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf http://www.google.com test.pdf
   

   If it works, then you are done. If you get the error "Cannot connect to X server" then continue to number 7.

7. We need to run it headless on a 'virtual' x server. We will do this with a package called xvfb.

   sudo apt-get install xvfb
   

8. We need to write a little shell script to wrap wkhtmltopdf in xvfb. Make a file called wkhtmltopdf.sh and add the following:

   xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 640x480x16" wkhtmltopdf "$@"
   

9. Move this shell script to /usr/local/bin, and set permissions:

   sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh
   

10. Check to see if it works once again: run

    /usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf.sh http://www.google.com test.pdf
    

Note that http://www.google.com may throw an error like "A finished ResourceObject received a loading finished signal. This might be an indication of an iframe taking to long to load." You may want to test with a simpler page like http://www.example.com.

Update to latest wkhtmltopdf version from SourceForge (0.12 as of this writing). It does not need an X Server to run.

Example for Ubuntu 14.04:

$ cd /tmp/                                                                                                                                                                                                       
$ wget -q http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/wkhtmltopdf/0.12.2.1/wkhtmltox-0.12.2.1_linux-trusty-amd64.deb
$ dpkg -x wkhtmltox-0.12.2.1_linux-trusty-amd64.deb foo

$ echo '<p>hi</p>' | ./foo/usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf - /tmp/hi.pdf
Loading pages (1/6)
Counting pages (2/6)                                               
Resolving links (4/6)                                                       
Loading headers and footers (5/6)                                           
Printing pages (6/6)
Done                                                                      

$ head -n3 /tmp/hi.pdf 
%PDF-1.4
1 0 obj
<<

I tried to do sudo apt-get install wkhtmltopdf but without any success. Instead I recommend you try:

1. Download the latest executable (.11 rc1) :

   wget https://wkhtmltopdf.googlecode.com/files/wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-i386.tar.bz2

2. uncompress it :

   tar -vxf wkhtmltopdf-0.11.0_rc1-static-i386.tar.bz2

3. rename it :

   mv wkhtmltopdf-i386 wkhtmltopdf

4. chmod it to executable :

   chmod a+x wkhtmltopdf

5. place it into /usr/bin :

   sudo mv wkhtmltopdf /usr/bin