MATLAB 2019b on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS - Pango and canberra errors when running SPM

I've just installed MATLAB 2019b on a new install of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

One application I run is called SPM. From what I can glean from the web, these errors are MATLAB issues.

The "Failed to load module "canberra..." error happens when SPM starts.

The other "Pango-CRITICAL..." errors happen after I click a button on SPM's interface.

MATLAB hangs after printing the errors, and I have to kill it.

Does anyone know of a fix?

john@ubuntu:~/Downloads$ matlab -r spm
MATLAB is selecting SOFTWARE OPENGL rendering.
Gtk-Message: 15:33:46.996: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

(MATLAB:103619): Pango-CRITICAL **: 15:34:18.620: pango_font_description_from_string: assertion 'str != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:103619): Pango-CRITICAL **: 15:34:18.620: pango_font_description_get_family: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:103619): Pango-CRITICAL **: 15:34:18.620: pango_font_description_set_family: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:103619): Pango-CRITICAL **: 15:34:18.620: pango_font_description_get_size: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:103619): Pango-CRITICAL **: 15:34:18.620: pango_font_description_set_size: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed
MATLAB Shutdown Error: Killed by User Request
john@ubuntu:~/Downloads$ 

[Adam Danz]

Contact the authors of that toolbox for a resolution.

Note that thier website states,

For other platforms [other than Windows], you will need to build the MEX files using a suitable C compiler and the Makefile provided with the SPM distribution.

Answer 1

[Sapir Golan]

Hey,
did you resolved this issue?

Answer 2

[Sai Bhargav Avula]

Hi,

It appears to be that 'libcanberra-gtk-module' doesn't exist or is corrupted. Installing or reinstalling the same would solve the issue. To install or reinstall the same on Ubuntu, the following terminal commands may be used:

Install:

sudo apt-get install libcanberra-gtk-module

Reinstall:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libcanberra-gtk-module

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

[Francesco Lo Russo]

Hi,

the gtk-module should not be a problem. Unfortunatly the pango critical issues prevents me too to use the SPM12 toolbox on my ubuntu 19 with Matlab 2019b.

[Francesco Lo Russo]

by the way SPM12 loads on ubuntu 19.10 but the issue is present in ubuntu 20.4. When I try to load SPM12 I get a similar error:

Gtk-Message: 20:50:03.779: Failed to load module "canberra-gtk-module"

(MATLAB:5371): Pango-CRITICAL **: 20:50:56.862: pango_font_description_from_string: assertion 'str != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:5371): Pango-CRITICAL **: 20:50:56.862: pango_font_description_get_family: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:5371): Pango-CRITICAL **: 20:50:56.862: pango_font_description_set_family: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:5371): Pango-CRITICAL **: 20:50:56.862: pango_font_description_get_size: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed

(MATLAB:5371): Pango-CRITICAL **: 20:50:56.862: pango_font_description_set_size: assertion 'desc != NULL' failed

MATLAB Shutdown Error: Killed by User Request

Still I have not found any solution to the problem.

Answer 4

[Francesco Lo Russo]

Hi, the SPM mailing list suggested me to follow this link. I’ll try the fix and see if it works.

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/SPM/Installation_on_64bit_Linux#Crash_at_startup

Answer 5

[Francesco Lo Russo]

Dear all,

I found an easy fix. Before launching SPM12 just luanch the following command. It solved the problem for me!

#first command to launch

setenv('SPM_HTML_BROWSER','0')

#and after that

spm

Answer 6

[Hilary Dagg]

Just wondering if any one has any other solutions.. setenv('SPM_HTML_BROWSER','0') does not fix it for me