Install Matlab in Fedora 33

While Matlab installed just fine for me in Ubuntu, it greeted me with errors in Fedora. Here’s how I got it working^[1]. Hope this helps someone.

Step 1:

Download matlab from source and extract the matlab zip file keeping its original permissions (otherwise, won’t work)

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unzip -K matlab_R2020b_glnxa64.zip -d matlab

Step 2:

cd into matlab folder and run

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cd matlab
sudo ./install

If it runs, well you are lucky. If there is error, proceed to step 3.

Step 3 [Optional - Read Step 4]

Using legacy installer causes matlab to write the downloads to ram instead of actual /tmp. Hence we need to create a directory and make it as tmp temporarily. Create a directory in home folder and make it as tmp.

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mkdir "$HOME/matlabdl"
mount --bind -o nonempty "$HOME/matlabdl" /tmp

Step 4:

In the matlab folder, run

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sudo ./bin/glnxa64/install_unix_legacy 

Login and proceed. If there’s an error saying not enough space, quit and start from Step 3. Then proceed and complete the installation.

Step 5:

Unmount the tmp we had created.

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umount /tmp

If there is an error, there might be some other applications making use of this tmp (for me it was firefox). Check using lsof, close those applications and try again.

Step 6:

To enable installation of updates/modules in the future, make the current user the owner of the installed directory.

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sudo chown -R $LOGNAME: /usr/local/MATLAB

Step 7:

Now create a desktop entry for the application with the following in the command box.

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matlab -desktop -nosoftwareopengl

Incase you are using nvidia with PRIME profile,

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__NV_PRIME_RENDER_OFFLOAD=1 __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME=nvidia matlab -desktop -nosoftwareopengl

Step 8:

If you want that retro-look, skip. Otherwise enable anti-aliasing through Preferences > Fonts > Anti-aliasing. Now restart Matlab.

◎ Matlab in Fedora 33

It should be working fine now, I hope!