Cannot install R2022a on an up-to-date linux machine

I am attempting to install matlab on a machine at my university. It is an arch-based system, rolling release, all up to date.

# uname -r
5.16.14-artix1-1

When I just run the installer (sudo), I first get

matlab_install/bin/glnxa64/MathWorksProductInstaller: error while loading shared libraries: libcrypt.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

libcrypt.so.2 is present, but as newer version, so I attempted to link "/usr/lib/libcrypt.so.2" to ".so.1".

However, then glibc kicks in:

matlab_install/bin/glnxa64/MathWorksProductInstaller: /usr/lib/libcrypt.so.1: version `GLIBC_2.2.5' not found (required by matlab_install/bin/glnxa64/libmwfl.so)

I do have glibc 2.35-2 installed.

How can I tell the installer to simply use the version which I have installed?

Acknowledged, my linux is a corner case (though it is fully up to date), and I would generally not have any hope of receiving support. However, on the installation requirements, you list "Linux kernel version 3.10 or later and glibc version 2.17 or later...". And there is evidence that it used to be slightly better*.

I would expect that the newly released R2022A works with the latest versions of its dependencies, i.e. by having minimum instead of specific version dependencies. And it would be great to have an arch-based distro supported from your side. Personally, I do not mind much; in fact I do prefer python or gnu octave. However, I am doing this for teaching with students who are habituated to matlab and the interface; so I would love to make their life easier and have the tools they are used to installed as well.

I'd appreciate any pointer or workaround. Thanks in advance for the help!

* I could in fact grab an older version (~2017) from my universities campus software depot; there, the installer at least started (but failed later because a license manager system task fails to establish on my OpenRC system). Never mind that.

Answer 1

[Jannik]

I had the same Problem (Manjaro fresh install)

the Problem seemed to be a missing package libxcrypt-compat

gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 678CE3FEE430311596DB8C16F52E98007594C21D
yay -S libxcrypt-compat

source: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=274160&p=2

Installing the package according to this and then running the installer using

sudo ./install

seems to have fixed the Problem however

[Falk]

Dear @Jannik,

thank you, this gave me the right hint and brought me a step further!

Yet this was not the only issue on my system.

For others:

• libxcrypt-compat is now in the main repos, so you can install it using pacman
• I then got another error (below) and couldn't solve it by the search engine suggestion (which was "install libselinux")

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
what():  Failed to launch web window with error: Unable to launch the MATLABWindow application. The exit code was: 127
fish: Job 1, 'sudo ./install' terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)

• there's more info on the AUR, but the package is unmaintained

I went back through the older versions of matlab, and R2019b is the latest to install and run - problems started with R2020a. That old version (or GNU octave) will do for my teaching work.

But it's really a pity that the latest version's installer seems to be untested/unmaintained for arch linux - or at least lacks clear list of dependencies. Really a show stopper if someone would want to use matlab for real work!

Cheers

[Steve Wilson]

@Falk

May be you can refer this page https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MATLAB#Unable_to_launch_the_MATLABWindow_application

[Falk]

Thanks, should have read more on the Arch wiki right away :) Thank you for the help, Jannik and Steve!