[Public] Troubleshooting Vulkan/ANGLE Initialization Errors in IronPDF Docker Environments

Overview

If you're using IronPDF inside a Docker container, especially in headless environments like AWS Lambda, Azure Functions, or Kubernetes, you may encounter an error like the one below:

This error originates from the Chrome Embedded Framework (CEF) used internally by IronPDF to render HTML into PDFs.

What This Error Means

This Vulkan-related error typically occurs in environments that:

• Don’t have GPU access (e.g., AWS Lambda)

• Are headless (no display driver or GUI system)

• Use restricted containers without graphical subsystems

CEF attempts to initialize GPU rendering using Vulkan, but fails due to the environment limitations.

Does This Affect PDF Output?

No. Despite the error message, IronPDF will usually:

• Continue rendering the PDF

• Produce a valid output file

• Experience no functional issue

This error is non-blocking and can be safely ignored in most use cases.

Disclaimer: This will not affect visual aspect of the PDF output

Recommended Solution

To prevent CEF from attempting GPU-based rendering, configure IronPDF to disable GPU modes and run in a single process mode:

using IronPdf;

// Disable GPU rendering
IronPdf.Installation.ChromeGpuMode = IronPdf.Engines.Chrome.ChromeGpuModes.Disabled;

// Run the browser engine in single-process mode
IronPdf.Installation.ChromeBrowserEngineSettings.SingleProcess = true;

These settings improve stability in headless and serverless environments by avoiding Vulkan and GPU initialization altogether.

Running IronPDF in Docker

If you're running IronPDF in Docker:

• Base your image on Debian/Ubuntu or Amazon Linux 2 with the necessary dependencies (GLib, libX11, etc.)

• Ensure that your container does not rely on GPU hardware unless explicitly needed

There is typically no need to modify your Dockerfile to resolve this error.

Common Environments Where This Happens

• AWS Lambda (with container support)

• Azure App Services

• Google Cloud Run

• Docker containers without a display server

• CI/CD pipelines using headless builds