Next.js 15 server crashes with segmentation fault on Linux when loading images (works with sudo or unoptimized: true)

[pawelgontarz]

Summary

I'm having a really weird issue with Next.js 15.2.3 on Linux Ubuntu 22(Node 22.20.0, pnpm 10.18.0). My dev server compiles fine, but when I navigate to any page with next/image components, I get a chunk loading error in the browser and the dev server just exits without any error message.

Here's the strange part - it works perfectly if I either:

• Run with sudo pnpm run dev
• Set images: { unoptimized: true } in next.config.ts
• Run the exact same code on Windows (no issues at all)

The browser error looks like this:

Unhandled Runtime Error
Error: Failed to load chunk /_next/static/chunks/%5Bturbopack%5D_browser_dev_hmr-client_hmr-client_ts_61dcf9ba._.js

And the terminal just shows:

pnpm run dev
> [email protected] dev /home/user/project
> next dev --turbo
   ▲ Next.js 15.2.3 (Turbopack)
   - Local:        http://localhost:3000
 ✓ Starting...
 ✓ Ready in 1119ms
 ○ Compiling / ...
 ✓ Compiled / in 3.9s
thinkpad@ThinkPad:~/project$ 

No error, it just exits. If I curl the page from the terminal it works fine - the issue only happens when loading in a browser, which I assume triggers the image optimization.

Even worse, when I try to run production mode (pnpm build && pnpm start), I get a segmentation fault:

pnpm start
> [email protected] start /home/user/project
> next start
   ▲ Next.js 15.5.4
   - Local:        http://localhost:3000
 ✓ Starting...
 ⚠ "next start" does not work with "output: standalone" configuration.
 ✓ Ready in 658ms
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
 ELIFECYCLE  Command failed with exit code 139.

My next.config.ts is pretty simple:

import type { NextConfig } from "next";

const nextConfig: NextConfig = {
  output: 'standalone',
  experimental: {
    serverActions: {
      bodySizeLimit: '3mb',
    },
  },
};

export default nextConfig;

I'm running with Turbopack (next dev --turbo) but the issue happens without it too.

Sharp is installed at node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/sharp/ and all the permissions look correct - everything is owned by my user, not root.

Things I've already tried:

• Completely removed node_modules, .next, .turbo, pnpm-lock.yaml and reinstalled everything
• Fixed all file permissions with chmod -R u+rwX node_modules and chown -R $USER:$USER
• Verified Sharp can be loaded in a standalone Node.js script (it works)
• Tried without Turbopack - same issue

The fact that it works with sudo but not as a regular user suggests some kind of permissions issue, but I can't figure out what permission is missing. The segmentation fault in production is really concerning and makes me think this might be an issue with Sharp's native binaries on Linux rather than just permissions.

Has anyone encountered something similar? This is driving me crazy because the exact same code works perfectly on Windows.

Additional information

No response

Example

No response

[icyJoseph]

Have you done pnpm approve-builds? And also start with standalone mode is a bit odd to try, maybe turn off standalone and try next start again to see what error surfaces there.

I'll try to search around a bit more too.

[pawelgontarz]

Hello @icyJoseph , thanks for the suggestion.

I tried running pnpm approve-builds, but it reported that there are no packages awaiting approval.
I also disabled output: 'standalone' in my next.config.ts and re-ran the app, but unfortunately the issue still occurs — the server starts normally and then immediately crashes with a segmentation fault:

thinkpad@ThinkPad-T14:~/workspace/my_project/frontend$ pnpm approve-builds
There are no packages awaiting approval

thinkpad@ThinkPad-T14:~/workspace/my_project/frontend$ pnpm start

> [email protected] start /home/thinkpad/workspace/my_project/frontend
> next start

   ▲ Next.js 15.5.4
   - Local:        http://localhost:3000
   - Network:      http://192.168.0.45:3000

 ✓ Starting...
 ✓ Ready in 1037ms
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
 ELIFECYCLE  Command failed with exit code 139.
thinkpad@ThinkPad-T14:~/workspace/my_project/frontend$ 

Still the same behavior — works with sudo or with images.unoptimized: true, but crashes otherwise.

[icyJoseph]

Ok, trying to collect some literature didn't help so much, besides this other report:

• Bug: Next.js 15 build segfaults on Linux systems using LD_PRELOAD (e.g., Ubuntu Unity) #81220

Though, their fails the build, your builds seem to work fine? I reckon it has to be similar issue though 🤔

[pawelgontarz]

Yes, my build works fine, but the issue appears when opening the page in the browser. I also noticed that the issue persists only on pages that contain Next.js Image components, which could confirm that it’s related to image optimization.

[icyJoseph]

If sharps' the problem, then I wonder if someone has already reported this issue over at their repository