MATLAB blank sreen uppon launch

This is a weird one so any help will be appreciated. I can open Matlab normally using a university computer connected via an ethernet port to a given cluster. However whenever I connect to that same computer remotely I get a blank screen and "Gtk-Message": Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module", "Gtk-Message": Failed to load module "pk-gtk-module".

I have no permission to install any modules, however I don't see how that would be even required when the only thing that has changed is the internet connection. In both cases the university computer is connected to the given cluster with the only difference being the way I access that computer.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

[Gayatri]

Hi Arsenios,

The error messages "Gtk-Message": Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module" and "Gtk-Message": Failed to load module "pk-gtk-module" are related to the GTK graphical user interface toolkit that MATLAB uses for rendering its interface on Linux systems.

The fact that this issue only occurs when you're connecting remotely suggests that there might be a difference in the environment configuration between local and remote sessions. Here are some possible workarounds:

1. Environment Variables: Remote sessions may not initialize all the same environment variables as local sessions. Check if the "LD_LIBRARY_PATH" and "GTK_PATH" environment variables are set correctly in the remote session.
2. If you need to use MATLAB remotely and cannot resolve the GTK module issue, you could consider using "MATLAB Online", which provides access to MATLAB from a web browser without any installation.
3. You could also try launching MATLAB in no-display mode (without the GUI) by using the '-nodesktop' option when starting MATLAB in the remote session.

>> matlab -nodesktop

I hope this helps!