Opening a package (Matlab) from the home directory (or from a launcher) without navigating to the installation directory & without root permission?

Question

I am using Ubuntu 16.04.03LTS OS.

I have installed Matlab in this directory ...usr/local/MATLAB/R2015a. The installation completed without any problem. But when I try to open Matlab I have to navigate to that directory, specifically to ...usr/local/.../R2015a/bin$, and use the root permission to open it.

My questions are:

How can I open this package (Matlab) from the home directory without having to navigate to that directory where it is installed and without a root permission ?
Even better, I would like to know how to create a simple icon in the launcher and open Matlab without having to open it from the terminal ?

Possible duplicate of Ubuntu matlab installed but not working — N0rbert, Feb 10 '18 at 14:01
How exactly did you install it? it sounds like something went wrong - IIRC there should be a symbolic link /usr/local/bin/matlab that points to the startup script (and should "just work" since /usr/local/bin should be in your default PATH) — steeldriver, Feb 10 '18 at 14:25
@steeldriver, when I try to open it using la@la-lenovo:~$ matlab I got matlab: command not found I have to navigate to the directory and run Matlab like this la@la-lenovo:/usr/local/MATLAB/MATLAB_Production_Server/R2015a/bin$ sudo ./matlab — Talha, Feb 10 '18 at 17:21
@OmarOomar As steeldriver said, can you please describe how you installed MATLAB? — edwinksl, Feb 10 '18 at 20:44
via iso file. but i have found a solution to my problem. I think I should remove this question. what do you think @steeldriver !!! — Talha, Feb 11 '18 at 09:22
If you solved your problem yourself, please answer your own question and accept your answer. Don’t put the answer in your question or the comments! Send me a message in the comments if you want my up-vote. :-) — David Foerster, Feb 11 '18 at 10:53

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 11 '18 at 13:41

I have found a solution to my request.

I have installed matlab-support package using:

sudo apt-get install matlab-support

this will add an entry to the launcher and some other features.

After completion, I have changed the ownership of the .matlab folder in the home folder to my own user account because I do not want to run Matlab as a super user. I have used the felowing command

cd ~ sudo chown username -R ~/.matlab

Now, Matlab is working as was intended.

Opening a package (Matlab) from the home directory (or from a launcher) without navigating to the installation directory & without root permission?

1 Answers1