diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index a42759169149be71bd1f248f9e58b916bd231890..cc9377cec2a07fd954c152648a9feb06ff9d828e 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -871,6 +871,7 @@
             <argLine>-Xmx3g -XX:MaxPermSize=${MaxPermGen} -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=512m</argLine>
             <stderr/>
             <systemProperties>
+              <java.awt.headless>true</java.awt.headless>
               <spark.test.home>${session.executionRootDirectory}</spark.test.home>
               <spark.testing>1</spark.testing>
             </systemProperties>