Amazon linux cannot render text

[vsarpe]

I have an Linux AWS EC2 instance imaged with "Amazon Linux AMI 2017.03.0.20170417 x86_64 HVM GP2". I am trying to generate avatars with letters based on initials.

My code:

const Canvas = require('canvas-prebuilt');
...
const canvas = new Canvas(size, size);
const ctx = canvas.getContext('2d');

ctx.fillStyle = colours[colourIndex - 1];
ctx.fillRect(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
ctx.font = Math.round(canvas.width / 2) + "px Arial";                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
ctx.textAlign = "center";                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
ctx.fillStyle = "#FF0000";                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
ctx.fillText(initials, size / 2, size / 1.5);     
...

On my OSX, it renders the image correctly. However, on the ec2-instance, it draws the background correctly, the the letters show up as unrecognized characters (□□) in small font.

No errors at all during npm install or when running my code. What could be missing?

[vsarpe]

I somehow missed the first issue regarding font on Linux.

[chearon]

Yeah sorry, I need to reopen that, because it is currently still an issue.

A while back I re-did the builds so that fonts worked correctly on Linux (which is why #6 is closed), but those builds depended on a very new version of Glib and broke everyone else's builds in Travis, which are on a very old version of Ubuntu (see all the madness in #8).

So I'm sort of stuck in a dilemma where I can't support fonts without ditching old versions of linux, and haven't yet figured out what to do

[chearon]

Actually @vsarpe did you try npm install canvas-prebuilt@1.6.5-prerelease.1? that one should have the new build, but you need to have a later version of GLib

[vsarpe]

What version glib would be required for that build? Currently, I have glibc 2.17.

I get the following error:

module.js:597
  return process.dlopen(module, path._makeLong(filename));
                 ^

Error: libpcre.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    at Error (native)
    at Object.Module._extensions..node (module.js:597:18)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:497:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/ec2-user/clickdishes-backend/node_modules/canvas-prebuilt/canvas/lib/bindings.js:3:18)
    at Module._compile (module.js:570:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:497:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/ec2-user/clickdishes-backend/node_modules/canvas-prebuilt/canvas/lib/canvas.js:13:14)
    at Module._compile (module.js:570:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:497:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/ec2-user/clickdishes-backend/utils/avatarUtils.js:3:16)
    at Module._compile (module.js:570:32)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:579:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:487:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:446:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:438:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:497:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:20:19)

libpcre is also latest (from amazon).