wkhtmltopdf: cannot connect to X server

sasa_buklijas

When I run
wkhtmltopdf http://google.com google.pdf
error is
wkhtmltopdf: cannot connect to X server

If I need to install it locally, that is also fine for me (will use it from crontab), just please git detail instructions how to install and use it

P.S. wanted to use imgkit (Python package), that is how I found this issue

sean

You have to run wkhtmltopdf through xvfb, like this:

xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 640x480x16" wkhtmltopdf http://google.com google.pdf

turpialdev

sean Hello Sean:

I tried your command and it certainly runs wkhtmltopdf but it seems that it never actually produces the PDF:

$ xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 640x480x16" wkhtmltopdf http://google.com google.pdf
Loading page (1/2)
[============================================================] 100%

It's been in that "loading page 1/2" for at least half an hour. I was hoping you could guide me.

Also, it was my understanding that in recent versions of wkhtmltopdf (>0.12.2) there was no need to use some kind of wrapper (I don't recall having to use xvfb to run it in past projects).

Maybe I have to update the version? I'm not sure. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

sasa_buklijas

for imgkit and Python, PyVirtualDisplay (pip install PyVirtualDisplay) is also needed

import imgkit
from pyvirtualdisplay import Display

display = Display()
display.start()
imgkit.from_url('google.com', 'img.jpg')

sean

turpialdev I've tested the command exactly as shown on several servers and the only place it seems to fail is on our single-CPU 2GB VPS servers.

I tried it a second time rendering a very simple "hello world" static page on your server and that worked fine.

I then tried google.com again on your server but with JS disabled, eg:

xvfb-run -a -s "-screen 0 640x480x16" wkhtmltopdf --disable-javascript http://google.com google.pdf

That ran very quickly and produced the expected output.

So, I suspect that wkhtmltopdf JS rendering is what's slowing things down.

Regarding the wkhtmltopdf version, we're using v0.12.4 here. It's always required a functioning X server, which is what xvfb-run is providing here. If you've been using wkhtmltopdf on a Linux desktop or a server with a functioning X server then you probably already have a working X server and would not need to run wkhtmltopdf via xvfb-run.