Arch Linux User Repository

I was able to overcome the "Error Starting Desktop" by installing both jre8-openjdk and jdk8-openjdk and running export MATLAB_JAVA=/usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk/jre in the terminal, however I am experiencing some internal errors which are due to my integrated intel graphics. I will edit this comment once I resolve these issues, and what I did.

UPDATE: This didnt take long... I am able to start matlab with zero problems now provided I use the -softwareopengl flag when running matlab. Please note that I can reproduce the error by not including the flag - I will add this as an alias so I dont need to type it every time.

Building any AUR package requires the dependencies installed. That is what dependency is. For this package; it's not enough that you have all the dependencies installed locally, but you need to provide the three aforementioned files in the README in the build directory.

hif that was not clear to you; i suggest reading through https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PKGBUILD

I cannot replicate your GUI problems; most likely associated with your system or your desktop environment; but MATLAB installation works, just not the client. If you find a fix; please report it so I may add it to the PKGBUILD if it can be fixed as such.

@bbaserdem

Just to clarify the README.md, when it says "Besides the dependencies; the source files MUST be present at the directory" does this mean that gcc8 needs to be placed in the same directory (and any other dependencies)?

I can start matlab without a desktop environment so I will look into what is going on there, thanks

Obviously AUR dependencies needs to be resolved by you; that's how AUR works. I suggest getting acquainted, but there should be no issues installing gcc8 using an aur helper.

Try running matlab -nodesktop from a terminal; and if you get to the console that means it has something to do with your graphical desktop. I don't know how to resolve your issue, never encountered it.

You can also try de-integration by replacing the symlinks in /opt/tmw/matlab-2020b with the static libraries in /opt/tmw/matlab-2020b/backup to see if it's an integration issue. That or install matlab locally in your home folder using only the mathworks installer and see if it works.

Followed the README.md and makepkg was failing to resolve the gcc8 dependencies, I've tried installing gcc8 manually (only supported through the aur - this also needed to be built using PKGBUILD as the aur helper is not supported) then had to comment out these dependencies in the PKGBUILD.

The build seemed successful however once I run the matlab file I get an empty grey text box with the window title "Error Starting Desktop", not even the only button (I'm assuming says close) has text.

Let me know if you need further details

@bbaserdem; Thanks for your reply.

I am not very sure what you mean by "in the presence of either or both llvm-libs and gcc-libs would solve the problem" since I don't think it's quite possible to remove package "llvm-libs" or even "gcc-libs". Perhaps I misunderstood your words.

Do you mean try to install a lower version of llvm-libs or gcc-libs?

Update 2021.2.22

I found that running matlab through "LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib matlab" can suppress (fix?) the error and OpenGL is correctly loaded. But I do not know whether this will affect matlab loading gcc8 libs.

If that was an issue; I would have the same issue, but I don't. I assume the presence of either or both llvm-libs and gcc-libs would solve the problem?

@billypilgrim, could you check it out? (On the PC that the built installable pkgbuild won't work; first install llvm-libs, try to open, then remove llvm-libs and install gcc-libs, try to open, then install llvm-libs again and try to open.) Then could you report? If you give it green light; I'll add the necessary packages as dependencies.

@billypilgrim, @bbaserdem;

Problem description

I also encountered billypilgrim's problem. It seems that mesa libs (called by OpenGL lib) use llvm-libs (provides libLLVM-11.so) and llvm-libs uses gcc-libs (provides libstdc++.so.6). The problem is that line 262 in PKGBUILD tells matlab (and possibly libs called by matlab) to find libs from gcc8-libs path (for me /lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/8.4.0) first, which is necessary for matlab but possibly not (even harmful) for some other libs. Or, in other words, the current version of llvm-libs requires a higher version of gcc-libs than gcc8-libs to properly function.

I think the problem could be fixed if the updated lib path can be excluded for OpenGL, but I do not know how to achieve this.

System Inform

• Linux Satellite 5.10.15-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Feb 10 10:42:47 UTC 2021 x86_64 GNU/Linux
• Package version:
  • gcc-libs:10.2.0-6
  • llvm-libs:11.0.1-2
  • mesa:20.3.4-1
  • matlab:9.9.0.1467703-4(latest)

@bbaserdem; Thanks for the gcc package update!