Parent page: Programming Applications

Introduction

MATLAB® is a high-level language and interactive environment that enables you to perform computationally intensive tasks faster than with traditional programming languages such as C, C++, and Fortran.

You can use MATLAB in a wide range of applications, including signal and image processing, communications, control design, test and measurement, financial modeling and analysis, and computational biology. Add-on toolboxes (collections of special-purpose MATLAB functions, available separately) extend the MATLAB environment to solve particular classes of problems in these application areas.

MATLAB provides a number of features for documenting and sharing your work. You can integrate your MATLAB code with other languages and applications, and distribute your MATLAB algorithms and applications.

MATLAB R2009b Installation Instructions

These are very preliminary instructions. The will be improved in the next few days. You will need superuser privileges. Right now the assumption is that MATLAB install files are in /media/cdrom.

1. Create the directory MATLAB will be installed to. It is recommended that you use /usr/local/matlabR2009b:

sudo mkdir /usr/local/matlabR2009b

2. Change your working directory to the directory MATLAB will be installed to:

cd /usr/local/matlabR2009b/

3. Run the MATLAB installer:

sudo sh /media/cdrom/install 

DO NOT START MATLAB AT THE END OF PRODUCT ACTIVATION

Starting MATLAB at the end of Product Activation creates a permissions problem for storing MATLAB preferences.

4. Run MATLAB's post installation script:

sudo /usr/local/matlabR2009b/install_matlab

Create A MATLAB Launcher

1. Get an icon:

sudo wget http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Matlab_Logo.png -O /usr/share/icons/matlab.png

2. Get the launcher file:

sudo wget 'https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MATLAB?action=AttachFile&do=get&target=matlab.desktop' -O /usr/share/applications/matlab.desktop

Possible Problems

1. 'xsetup' Execution Permission

When you attempt step 3 of the install guide you may see an error message similar to the following:

-------------------------------------------------------------------

    An error status was returned by the program 'xsetup',
    the X Window System version of 'install'. The following
    messages were written to standard error:

        /home/username/R2009b/update/install/main.sh: 178: /home/username/R2009b/update/bin/glnxa64/xsetup: Permission denied

    Attempt to fix the problem and try again. If X is not available
    or 'xsetup' cannot be made to work then try the terminal
    version of 'install' using the command:

            install* -t    or    INSTALL* -t

-------------------------------------------------------------------

    Sorry! Setup aborted . . .

You can resolve this by issuing the following command in your terminal:

chmod +x ~/R2009b/update/bin/*/xsetup

2. Preferences Permission

When you launch your MATLAB Desktop you might see an error message similar to the following:

The desktop configuration was not saved successfully
Cannot write to preference file "matlab.prf" in "/home/username/.matlab/R2009b".
Check file permissions.

You can resolve this by exiting all instances of MATLAB and issuing the following command in your terminal:

sudo chown -R ${USER}:${USER} ~/.matlab

External Links

For more information about MATLAB see the following links

• < http://www.mathworks.com/ > - MathWorks - MATLAB and Simulink for Technical Computing.

• < http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab/ > - MATLAB - The Language Of Technical Computing

• < http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/matlab.html > - MATLAB Documentation.

• < http://www.mathworks.com/support/ > - The MathWorks Support.

• < http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/ > - MATLAB Central.

• < http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/ > - MATLAB Central File Exchange.

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