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.
I just figured out that I can simply move the static executable to the /usr/bin/ directory and execute it from anywhere.