Can't install matlab

[Jose96]

hi, I need to install matlab for my university.
When i try to install it from pamac it gets stuck on gcc8 conf and the same happens when I try to use yay.

[maycne.sonahoz]

[HowTo] Fix a failing AUR package build

Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆ AUR packages, contrarily to packages available in Manjaro’s repositories, need to be built locally in order to be installed. And as any process, that building can also fail for various reasons. Technically, what are hosted in AUR are not packages but PKGBUILDs, scripts describing how to build packages. For more details, see: PKGBUILD - ArchWiki As its name implies, the Arch User Repository is a community maintained repository towards Arch Linux…

[Jose96]

I’m trying to follow these steps but I have an error
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/MATLAB#Installing_from_the_MATLAB_installation_software

error:

bsdtar: could not chdir to 'matlab'

And if I try to start the installation script with

./install                                                    ✔ 
/home/andrea/matlab/bin/glnxa64/MathWorksProductInstaller: error while loading shared libraries: libcrypt.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[maycne.sonahoz]

Based on the comments in the AUR page, you also need the libxcrypt-compat package.

---

On another topic, the AUR maintainer seeks someone to take over.

Anyone wants to take over the package? I don’t use Arch anymore. Please email me so we can discuss; as I want to hand over this package to someone who knows what they are doing.
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/matlab#comment-854427

[Jose96]

Thank you very much, I just had to install the package you told me.

[winnie]

Every time I think the world is becoming more “open” towards open source (yes, pun intended), it’s stuff like this, enforced and entrenched by institutions, that crushes my optimism.

[Jose96]

I found octave that is open source.
I’d like to try that one too.

Everytime I had to install matlab (even in ubuntu) I always had some issues, it’s very frustrating

[Jose96]

I have an error after trying to create the shortcut:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=R2022a
Type=Application
Terminal=false    
MimeType=text/x-matlab
Exec=/home/andrea/mat/bin/matlab -desktop
Name=MATLAB
Icon=matlab
Categories=Development;Math;Science
Comment=Scientific computing environment
StartupNotify=true

This is the .desktop file I wrote but I have this error :

Could not find the program at the directory that I choose

[winnie]

Is the matlab file executable? (Does it have “exec” permissions?)

---

Your .desktop file should read:

Version=1.0

Don’t put the application’s version number in there. It’s a reference to the XDG / FreeDesktop standards version.

[Jose96]

Yes I used chmod +x and i modified the version.
But I have the same error.

[winnie]

Does matlab launch if invoked directly from the terminal?

[Jose96]

yes !!!

[winnie]

Can you paste your revised .desktop file contents again?

[Jose96]

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false    
MimeType=text/x-matlab
Exec=/home/andrea/mat/bin/matlab -desktop
Name=MATLAB
Icon=matlab
Categories=Development;Math;Science
Comment=Scientific computing environment
StartupNotify=true

OK man it works. I had to log out.

[winnie]

And how did you invoke it in the terminal?

Was it from your $HOME folder, like this?

/home/andrea/mat/bin/matlab -desktop

…or like this?

~/mat/bin/matlab -desktop

Or did you cd into the folder and then execute it like this?

cd mat/bin/
./matlab -desktop

Do all of the above methods work?

[Jose96]

Thank you for all your help in both discussions