AWTProblem Error After Migrating to Java 11

1 minute readKnowledge base

Issue

After migrating to Java 11, Jenkins fails to come up with the following error in the logs:

SEVERE	hudson.util.BootFailure#publish: Failed to initialize Jenkins
java.lang.NullPointerException
	at java.desktop/sun.awt.FontConfiguration.getVersion(FontConfiguration.java:1262)
	at java.desktop/sun.awt.FontConfiguration.readFontConfigFile(FontConfiguration.java:225)
	at java.desktop/sun.awt.FontConfiguration.init(FontConfiguration.java:107)
	at java.desktop/sun.awt.X11FontManager.createFontConfiguration(X11FontManager.java:719)
	at java.desktop/sun.font.SunFontManager$2.run(SunFontManager.java:367)
	at java.base/java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.desktop/sun.font.SunFontManager.<init>(SunFontManager.java:312)
	at java.desktop/sun.awt.FcFontManager.<init>(FcFontManager.java:35)
	at java.desktop/sun.awt.X11FontManager.<init>(X11FontManager.java:56)
...
Caused: hudson.util.AWTProblem
	at hudson.WebAppMain.contextInitialized(WebAppMain.java:218)
	at com.cloudbees.jenkins.ha.HASwitcher.contextInitialized(HASwitcher.java:59)
	at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.callContextInitialized(ContextHandler.java:1073)
	at org.eclipse.jetty.servlet.ServletContextHandler.callContextInitialized(ServletContextHandler.java:572)
	at org.eclipse.jetty.server.handler.ContextHandler.contextInitialized(ContextHandler.java:1002)
...
▼

Environment

Resolution

From the error, we can see java.desktop/sun.awt.FontConfiguration just under the NullPointerException - in this case, the fontconfig library is missing and must be installed. Installation can be performed via commands such as sudo yum install fontconfig etc. depending on your OS.

Tested product/plugin versions

This article is part of our Knowledge Base and is provided for guidance-based purposes only. The solutions or workarounds described here are not officially supported by CloudBees and may not be applicable in all environments. Use at your own discretion, and test changes in a safe environment before applying them to production systems.