MATLAB - ArchWiki

# MATLAB

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Reason: unnecessarily verbose (Discuss in Talk:MATLAB#)

From the official website:

  MATLAB is a high-level language and interactive environment for numerical computation, visualization, and programming. Using MATLAB, you can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. The language, tools, and built-in math functions enable you to explore multiple approaches and reach a solution faster than with spreadsheets or traditional programming languages, such as C/C++ or Java.

## Overview

MATLAB is proprietary software produced by The MathWorks and requires a license to obtain, install, and activate. New versions of MATLAB are released twice a year, release names are composed of `R`, the year of the release and `a` or `b`. Since R2012b MATLAB has only been available for 64-bit Linux. Arch Linux is not officially supported. [1]

## Installation

A complete copy of the MATLAB software must be obtained before it can be installed. The MATLAB software is available to licenses holders on both a DVD and through the The MathWorks website. In addition to the software a file installation key is required for installation. It is possible to install MATLAB either with the matlabAUR package from the AUR or from the MATLAB installation software directly. The advantage of the matlabAUR package is that it manages dependencies and some of the nuances of the installation process while installing directly from the MATLAB installation software can be done by regular users to their home directories and works for any release of MATLAB (the matlabAUR package only works for releases including and after R2010b).

### Installing from the MATLAB installation software

The MATLAB installation software is self contained and does not require any additional packages to install in silent mode. To install with the GUI a working Xorg graphical display is necessary. Wayland is not currently supported yet. The installation is handled by the `install` script. You can run the script as root to install MATLAB system-wide or your user to install it only for you.

MATLAB 2016a and earlier is not compatible with ncurses 6, so you must install the ncurses5-compat-libsAUR package. See #Segmentation fault on startup for more info.

During the installation, you are asked if you want symlinks to be created. If you did not choose to do so, you can now manually create a symlink in `/usr/local/bin` to make it easier to launch in terminal:

    # ln -s /{MATLAB}/bin/matlab /usr/local/bin

Or you could add MATLAB install path to `PATH` environment variable.

#### Desktop entry

Optionally create a desktop entry. The MIME type of MATLAB files is `text/x-matlab`.

Start `matlab` with:

- `-desktop` to run Matlab without a terminal.
- `-nosplash` to prevent the splash screen from showing up.

In order for icons to appear correctly `StartupWMClass` needs to be set in the desktop entry. To find it out start MATLAB, run `xprop | grep WM_CLASS` and select the MATLAB window.

Example desktop entry:

    matlab.desktop

    [Desktop Entry]
    Version=2018a
    Type=Application
    Terminal=false
    MimeType=text/x-matlab
    Exec=matlab -desktop -nosplash
    Name=MATLAB
    Icon=matlab
    Categories=Development;Math;Science
    Comment=Scientific computing environment
    StartupNotify=true

If one need to set environment variable, one could prepend `env` in `Exec`, for example, to system's libfreetype:

    Exec=env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6 matlab

One might wanna use system's `libstdc++`.

### Installing from the AUR package

The EULA for the proprietary MATLAB software is restrictive. The matlabAUR package from the AUR is designed to allow MATLAB to be integrated into and managed by Arch. The package should be built on the system on which it is going to be installed and the package should be deleted from the installation location and the Pacman cache following installation. Distributing the package is a clear violation of the EULA.

The matlabAUR package from the AUR defaults to building a package for the most recent 64-bit release of MATLAB, one could also install old releases, eg. matlab-r2015bAUR. The matlabAUR package from the AUR requires that both the MATLAB installation software and the file installation key are available in the source directory.

In order to install Matlab from AUR, download the PKGBUILD file from AUR. Download the zip file containing the Matlab installer and name it `matlab.zip`. Then download the .lic file: Go in your MathWorks account and click on the license number you want to use. Then, go to the Install and Activate tab and select "Activate to Retrieve License File". Follow the instructions and download the license file needed for the installation and name the file `matlab.lic`. Also, the File Installation Key (FIK) is displayed: copy-paste it in a empty file and name it `matlab.fik`. For more details, refer to the PKGBUILD file.

## Configuration

### Java

The MATLAB software is bundled with a JVM and therefore it is not necessary to install Java. The JVM version supported by MATLAB is listed in System Requirements & Platform Availability or simply type `version -java` in MATLAB. One could set the `MATLAB_JAVA` environment variable to use custom JVM, for example, to specify the jre8-openjdk JRE, launch MATLAB with:

    $ env MATLAB_JAVA=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk/jre matlab

### OpenGL acceleration

MATLAB can take advantage of hardware based 2D and 3D OpenGL acceleration. Support for hardware acceleration needs to be configured outside of MATLAB. Appropriate video drivers need to be installed along with the OpenGL utility library glu package. If X11 forwarding is being used, the video drivers need to be installed on both the client and server. To check if MATLAB is making use of hardware based OpenGL acceleration run:

    $ matlab -nodesktop -nosplash -r "opengl info; exit" | grep Software

If "software rendering" is not "false", then there is a problem with your hardware acceleration. If this is the case make sure OpenGL is configured correctly on the system. This can be done with the `glxinfo` program from the mesa-demos package:

    $ glxinfo | grep "direct rendering"

If "direct rendering" is not "yes", then there is likely a problem with your system configuration.

If glxinfo works but not matlab, you can try to run:

    $ export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdc++.so; export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/; matlab -nodesktop -nosplash -r "opengl info; exit" | grep Software

If its works, you can edit Matlab launcher script to add:

    export LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdc++.so
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/

### Sound

To confirm that MATLAB is able to use the default soundcard to present sounds run:

    $ matlab -nodesktop -nosplash -r "load handel; sound(y, Fs); pause(length(y)/Fs); exit" > /dev/null

This should play an except from Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus." If this fails make sure ALSA is properly configured. This can be done with the `speaker-test` program from the alsa-utils package from the official repositories:

    $ speaker-test

If you do not hear anything, then there is likely a problem with your system configuration.

### GPU computing

MATLAB can take advantage of CUDA enabled GPUs to speed up applications. In order to take advantage of a supported GPU install the nvidia, nvidia-utils, ocl-icd, opencl-nvidia, and cuda packages from the official repositories. To check if MATLAB is able to utilize the GPU run:

    $ matlab -nodesktop -nosplash -r "x=rand(10, 'single'); g=gpuArray(x); Success=isequal(gather(g), x), exit"  | sed -ne '/Success =/,$p'

### Install supported compilers

In order to access the full functionality of MATLAB (e.g., to use Simulink, Builder JA, and MEX-file compilation), supported versions of the `gcc`, `g++`, `gfortran`, and `jdk` compilers must be installed. Details about the supported compilers for the current release and previous releases are available online. Many of the supported `gcc`, `g++`, `jdk` compiler versions for past MATLAB releases are available from the AUR (e.g., gcc43AUR, gcc44AUR, gcc47AUR, gcc49AURand jdk6AUR), while past versions of the `gfortran` compilers are not packaged.

To use previous versions of the the `gcc`, `g++`, and `gfortran` compilers with MEX files, edit `${MATLAB}/bin/mexopts.sh` and replace all occurrences of `CC='gcc'` with `CC='gcc-4.X'`, `CXX='g++'` with `CXX='g++-4.X'`, and `FC='gfortran'` with `FC='gfortran-4.X'`, where `X` is the compiler version appropriate for the particular MATLAB release.

Note: Newer versions of Matlab (at least 2017a) doesn't seem to respect the `${MATLAB}/bin/mexopts.sh` customization. Instead it uses `${MATLAB}/bin/glnxa64/mexopts/LANG_glnxa64.xml` file.
Note: Though, it's no officially supported, one could still use higher version of compiler, and ignore the warnings.

### Help browser

The help browser uses valuable slots in the dynamic thread vector and causes competition with core functionality provided by libraries like the BLAS that also depend on the dynamic thread vector. The help browser can be configured to use fewer slots in the dynamic thread vector with

    >> webutils.htmlrenderer('basic');

This is a persistent change and to reverse it use

    >> webutils.htmlrenderer('default');

### Garbled Interface

    export J2D_D3D=false
    export MATLAB_JAVA=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk/jre

## Troubleshooting

### Static TLS errors

MATLAB has a number of libraries that have been compiled with static thread local storage (TLS) including the help broswer `doc` and the BLAS libraries. For example,

    >> doc('help');
    >> ones(10)*randn(10);
    Error using  *
    BLAS loading error:
    dlopen: cannot load any more object with static TLS

is related to the bugs:

- 961964 for which patched libraries are available from MathWorks
- 1003952 for which workarounds exist

A more general solution of recompiling `glibc` has also been suggested. [2]

### MATLAB crashes when displaying graphics

To identify this error, start MATLAB with

    LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose matlab

from the terminal and try to collect OpenGL information with `opengl info` from the MATLAB command prompt. If it crashes again and there is an output line like

    libGL error: dlopen /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/swrast_dri.so failed
    (/usr/local/MATLAB/R2011b/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libstdc++.so.6:
    version `GLIBCXX_3.4.15' not found (required by /usr/lib/xorg/modules/dri/swrast_dri.so))

then the problem is that MATLAB uses its own GNU C++ library, which is an older version than the up-to-date version on your Archlinux system. Make MATLAB use the current C++ library for your system by

    cd /usr/local/MATLAB/R(your release)/sys/os/glnxa64
    sudo unlink libstdc++.so.6
    sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6

If MATLAB still crashes or corrupts graphics (during startup or when plotting), make sure Java's 2D OpenGL rendering is disabled. The environment variable `_JAVA_OPTIONS` should not contain `-Dsun.java2d.opengl=true`.

### Blank/grey UI when using WM (non-reparenting window manager)

This is a common issue in a number of window managers. (DWM, Awesome, bspwm) Java does not play well with these window managers. There are two methods.

First try setting the environment variable by running

    $ export _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1

If Matlab works afterwards, export the variable in your `.xinitrc`.

If it doesn't resolve, you have to fool Java into thinking the WM is named LG3D. (It's an old, depreciated WM that Java applications ironically support) Clean the previous environment variable, install the wmname utility, and run.

    wmname LG3D

Try running Matlab. If it works, put the fix in your starting script. (`.xinitrc`, `bspwmrc` and similar should be OK) Do note that other applications (such as `neofetch`, or `tdrop`) will think your WM is named LG3D, so you will have to configure them accordingly. Another solution is to run the command only before launching Matlab, and fixing the name after you are done with Matlab.

If it doesn't work, try the combination of both. (The second line works in bspwm) If it still doesn't work, try googling similar issues with java in general.

### Garbled or invisible text

Set the environment variable `J2D_D3D` to `false`[3].

In newer versions of MATLAB (R2015b) [4] this also requires setting `MATLAB_JAVA` to something openjdk based. Example:

    export J2D_D3D=false
    ./bin/glnxa64/install_unix -javadir /usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk/jre

### Corrupted text and fonts in menus and fields

If you notice that the menus or the input fields are corrupted or not appearing correctly then you can try to activate the "Use antialiasing to smooth desktop fonts" option in Matlab preferences, it seems to solve the problem. Go to Preferences -> Matlab -> Fonts and activate it. You will need to restart Matlab in order to take affect.

### Installation

As one installs Matlab, it might complain that it cannot find a package, for the most part just look at the package name and then install it with Pacman, or in the case of x86_64 there are some libraries only in AUR.

### Install-time library errors

- Make sure that the symlink `bin/glnx64/libstdc++.so.6` is pointing to the correct version of `libstdc++.so.xx` (which is also in the same directory and has numbers where 'xx' is). By default, it may be pointing to an older (and nonexistent) version (different value for 'xx').

- Make sure the device you're installing from is not mounted as `noexec`

- If you downloaded the files from Mathworks' website, make sure they are not on an NTFS or FAT partition, because that can mess up the symlinks. Ext4 or Ext3 should work.

### Resolving start warnings/errors

- Even if all needed libraries are installed, Matlab when starting can still report some missing libraries. This is resolved by symbolic linking of needed libraries to directories that Matlab checks at start-up. For example, if Matlab triggers error/warning about missing `/lib64/libc.so.6` library, this can be resolved by:

    # ln -s /lib/libc.so.6 /lib64

- Matlab R2011b with an up-to-date Arch Linux (as of March 12, 2012) fails on startup with the familiar "Failure loading desktop class." A solution is to point Matlab to the system JVM (confirmed to work with the jdk7-openjdk package):

    export MATLAB_JAVA=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk/jre

- Matlab R2017b with an up-to-date Arch Linux (as of September 30, 2017) fails on startup with the familiar "Failure loading desktop class." A solution is to install outdated versions of the libraries in the packages cairo (1.14.10 works) and harfbuzz (1.4.6 works) to a local directory and add them to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH for matlab (See also: [5]):

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/matlab/outdatedLibraries/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" /opt/matlab/R2017b/bin/matlab

### Segmentation fault on startup

If Matlab (R2016a or earlier) stops working after upgrading ncurses to v6.x, install the ncurses5-compat-libsAUR package. See BBS#202575.

In newer versions (e.g. R2017b), the issue could also be due to a font display failing to load. Try moving the libfreetype.so.6 font display file in $MATLAB/bin/glnxa64/ to an 'exclude' directory; see BBS#231299.

ncurses compatibility layer is not required anymore for R2018a.

### Hangs on rendering or exiting with Intel graphics

Some users have reported issues with DRI3 enabled on Intel Graphics chips. A possible workaround is to disable DRI3 and run MATLAB with hardware rendering on DRI2; to do so, launch MATLAB with the environment variable LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE set to 1:

    LIBGL_DRI3_DISABLE=1 /{MATLAB}/bin/matlab

If the previous workaround does not work, the issue can be circumvented by selecting software rendering with the MATLAB command (beware, performance may be very poor when doing e.g. big or complex 3D plots):

    opengl('save','software')

See [6] and [7] for more.

### Addon manager not working

This section is relevant for both R2017b and R2018a.

Addon manager requires the libselinuxAUR package to work.

Since upgrade from pango-1.40.5 to pango-1.40.6, the MATLABWindow application (responsible for Add-On Manager, Simulation Data Inspector and perhaps something else) cannot be started. [8] A workaround is to point MATLAB shipping glib libraries to those glib libraries from your system. There are 5 of those libraries in `matlabroot/R2017b/cefclient/sys/os/glnxa64`, namely, as of R2017b:

    libgio-2.0.so
    libglib-2.0.so
    libgmodule-2.0.so
    libgobject-2.0.so
    libgthread-2.0.so

Make it so that these symlinks are pointing to your system glib libraries instead of versions located in `matlabroot/R2017b/cefclient/sys/os/glnxa64`. On a standard arch install the local files reside in `/usr/lib/`.

Do not forget to update the `*.0` links as well.

Relinking of "libfreetype.so.6" is also necessary to open these interfaces. This is found in `matlabroot/R2017b/bin/glnxa64/`.

If the window opens but is blank, consider switching the html renderer to: " webutils.htmlrenderer('basic');" as described in #Help browser.

### Live Script Errors

If you get the error when attempting to load or create a LiveScript:

     Viewing matlab live script files is not currently supported by this operating system configuration

- It could be because of broken symlinks of libgcrypt and other dependencies, after system updates. On the first start of the Live Editor the components are extracted and these libary symlinks are created (if not existing). A solution is to simply delete the whole folder containing the broken symlinks and the extracted components, which are in the installation directory (represented by `$MATLABROOT`) under:

    $MATLABROOT/sys/jxbrowser-chromium

Or if the installation directory is not user writable in:

    ~/.matlab/R2017b/HtmlPanel

Matlab will then regenerate the contents on the next Live Editor start.

- Also the steps in #Addon manager not working may resolve the issue.
- If the above does not help, execute in the command window

    >> com.mathworks.mde.liveeditor.widget.rtc.CachedLightweightBrowserFactory.createLightweightBrowser()

to get a more detailed error message.

- A debugging console can be opened with

    >> com.mathworks.mde.webbrowser.HtmlPanelDebugConsole.invoke;

### Using webcam/video device

Make sure the correct support package addons are installed (webcam or OS Generic Video Interface for example). If running matlab as a user, make sure your user has write permissions to wherever the support packages are being downloaded and installed.

At least Matlab 2016b doesn't recognize webcams or imaq adapters correctly without gstreamer0.10. The gstreamer0.10 can be found in the aur and installed as a work around.

Since MATLAB R2017a, Image Acqusition Toolbox is using GStreamer library version 1.0. It previously used version 0.10.

In general, USB Webcam Support Package does a better job working with UVC and built-in cameras than OS Generic Video Interface Support Package.

Warning: As of 2018-08-15 updating gst from 1.14.0 to 1.14.2 breaks video device operation (MATLAB doesn't see the video device anymore). Downgrading fixes this.

### MATLAB hangs for several minutes when closing Help Browser

Since upgrade of glibc from 2.24 to 2.25, MATLAB (at least R2017a) hangs when closing Help Browser. The issue is related to the particular version of jxbrowser-chromium shipped with MATLAB. This issue is still present with glibc 2.26 and MATLAB R2017b and R2018a.

To fix this issue, download the latest jxbrowser and replace the following jars from MATLAB:

    matlabroot/java/jarext/jxbrowser-chromium/jxbrowser-chromium.jar
    matlabroot/java/jarext/jxbrowser-chromium/jxbrowser-linux64.jar

MATLAB should automatically unpack those jars into `matlabroot/sys/jxbrowser-chromium/glnxa64/chromium` when first opening Help Browser. Remove `matlabroot/sys/jxbrowser-chromium/glnxa64/chromium` directory to make sure MATLAB uses the latest jxbrowser.

Unfortunately, this workaround doesn't work in R2017b anymore. Going deeper into investigation of this issue, it is related to a crash of one of jxbrowser-chromium processes. The parent process of jxbrowser-chromium then sits there and waits for response from a process that is already dead. This causes MATLAB main window to freeze. You can easily unfreeze MATLAB by manually killing all leftover jxbrowser-chromium processes.

I've come up with this simple script that uses inotify and waits for user to close Help browser in MATLAB. It triggers when user closes Help browser and sends kill signal to all leftover jxbrowser-chromium processes:

    #!/usr/bin/bash

    if [ -z "$1" ]; then
    	REL=R2017b
    else
    	REL=$1
    fi

    JXPATH="/path/to/MATLAB/$REL/sys/jxbrowser-chromium/glnxa64/chromium"
    CMD="inotifywait -m -e CLOSE $JXPATH/resources.pak"

    #Exit if the daemon is already active
    if ! pgrep -f "$CMD" > /dev/null; then
    	#Wait for user to close Help Browser, then killall leftover jxbrowser processes
    	$CMD |
    	while read line
    	do
    		killall "$JXPATH/jxbrowser-chromium"
    	done
    else
    	exit
    fi

I run this script as part of my MATLAB start script like that:

    ~/bin/unfreeze_matlab.sh R2017b &

To make sure that this background job is killed when I exit MATLAB, I use this in the beginning of MATLAB start script:

    trap "trap - SIGTERM && kill -- -$$" SIGINT SIGTERM EXIT

### Some dropdown menus cannot be selected

In some interfaces - such as Simulation Data Inspector or Simulink Test Manager - nothing happens when choosing an item in dropdown menu (for example, when trying to change a number of subplots in Simulation Data Inspector). To work around this issue, hold down the Shift key while clicking the item in dropdown menu.

### Not starting - licensing error

In case MATLAB will not start from a desktop environment by the call of its desktop file one should see the output as you start it from the terminal.

For a Licensing error such as:

    # matlab

    MATLAB is selecting SOFTWARE OPENGL rendering.
    License checkout failed.
    License Manager Error -9
    This error may occur when:
    -The hostid of this computer does not match the hostid in the license file.
    -A Designated Computer installation is in use by another user.
    If no other user is currently running MATLAB, you may need to activate.

    Troubleshoot this issue by visiting:
    http://www.mathworks.com/support/lme/R2017a/9

    Diagnostic Information:
    Feature: MATLAB
    License path: /home/<USER>/.matlab/R2017a_licenses/license_<NUM>_R2017a.lic:/home/<USER>/.matlab/R2017a_licenses/lice
    nse_Darkness_<NUM>_R2017a.lic:/opt/MATLAB/R2017a/licenses/license.dat:/opt/MATLAB/R2017a/licenses/*
    .lic
    Licensing error: -9,57.

A re-activation might solve the problem.

### MATLAB crashes with "Failure loading desktop class" on startup

In case MATLAB won't start and starting it from command line gives you the following error:

    $ matlab

    Fatal Internal Error: Internal Error: Failure occurs during desktop startup. Details: Failure loading desktop class.

and you have the option `-Dswing.defaultlaf=com.sun.java.swing.plaf.gtk.GTKLookAndFeel` set in your `_JAVA_OPTIONS` environment variable, start MATLAB with

    $ _JAVA_OPTIONS= matlab

If this works, add the line

    export _JAVA_OPTIONS=

to your MATLAB launcher script. Optionally re-add other Java options.

### Unable to type in text fields of interfaces based on MATLABWindow

Since R2018a, it is not possible to type text in interfaces based on MATLABWindow - like Signal Editor, Add-Ons Explorer and others. MATLABWindow and MATLAB's webwindow infrastructure is based on Chromium Embedded Framework, and it looks like a known and long standing bug: https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef/issues/2026/multiple-major-keyboard-focus-issues-on

One possible workaround is to switch focus from the MATLABWindow to another window and then switch back - so that you can type.

## Matlab in a systemd-nspawn

Matlab can be run within a systemd-nspawn container to maintain a static system and avoid the library issues that often plague matlab installs after significant updates to libraries in Arch. Refer to Systemd-nspawn for detailed information on setting up such containers.

The following lists instruction to get a MATLAB 2017b install running in a minimal debian 9 environment. It assumes matlab is already installed as normal in "/usr/local/MATLAB/R2017b".

Use Xhost to allow the nspawn environment to use the existing X server instance.

Create a minimal debian environment in a folder ("deb9" here) with:

    $ debootstrap --arch=amd64 stretch deb9

Set a password for the root user and then boot the environment with:

    $ systemd-nspawn --bind-ro=/dev/dri --bind=/tmp/.X11-unix --bind=/usr/local/MATLAB/ -b -D deb9

Install the following packages to have the requisite libraries in the nspawn environment for MATLAB. "mesa-utils" and "usbutils" can be installed to debug graphics acceleration and usb interfaces for I/O with MATLAB.

    $ apt-get install xorg build-essential libgtk2.0-0 libnss3 libasound2

Install the MATLAB-support (from contrib source) package in the environment for some convenient integration.

    $ apt-get install matlab-support

Set the $DISPLAY variable to use your existing X server instance.

    $ export DISPLAY=:0

MATLAB can be launched from within the environment normally by using the binary at $MATLABROOT/bin.

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