Matlab Live Editor: "Unable to open this file in the current system configuration."

I am running Matlab 2022b on NixOS - an unsupported-officially Linux distribution. I get this error since a few months ago when I try to open a matlab file:

Scrolling down that message shows the text:

And opening that "Requirements" link doesn't work - brings me to an empty web page:

I got this error message also with version 2021b. I don't use Matlab frequently enough to mark the day it stopped working, but I assume it was due to a system update. The list of system dependencies I have installed in Matlab's environment is available here:

https://gitlab.com/doronbehar/nix-matlab/blob/1802c05f3c4187c344d9e4de1f9546dfc9ad017a/common.nix#L8-56

[Shreyas]

Hello Doron,

I have attached a few articles for a possible workaround:

• "The Live Editor is unable to run in the current system configuration" error message when starting Live Editor on U... - MATLAB Answers - MATLAB Central (mathworks.com)
• Matlab Live Editor Error - MATLAB Answers - MATLAB Central (mathworks.com)

As already mentioned, NixOS is not a supported configuration. Also visit the Road Map (https://www.mathworks.com/support/requirements/platform-road-map.html) page for MATLAB & Simulink to check for a non-supported setup.

Thank You.

[Doron Behar]

Thanks for the links, I didn't find them when searching the web for the error.

I tried adding libgconf-2.so and libXss.so.1 to the environment in which I'm launching Matlab, but it didn't help. Also the mentioned sys/jxbrowser-chromium/glnxa64/chromium directory in the installation directory doesn't exist I assume in MATLAB 2022b, so I don't know how to apply that suggestion..

Help is still wanted, and appreciated.

Answer 1

[Alessandro Genova]

cd <matlab_root>/bin/glnxa64/

mv libfreetype.so.6 libfreetype.so.6.old

[Ricardo Villarreal]

Gracias funciono perfecto con tu recomendacion

[Doron Behar]

Thanks a lot!

How did you come up with the solution?

[Frank van Diggelen]

I had exactly the same problem with R2022a on Debian (testing version of 2022/10/26), and this fixed it.

Thanks Alessandro.

[Ralph Martin]

Also works for 2022b on Debian testing

[Thanasis Mantzavinos]

i had the same problem with R2022b on kali linux and this fixed it.

Nice!

[Emmanuel]

Thanks, It worked for me R2022b, I am on Linux

[Steven]

completamente util en kali

[Bryan Guevara]

Funciono para mi! gracias

[Adrielle Santana]

Funcionou para mim também. Uso Debian 11 e MATLAB R2022a. Muito obrigada Alessandro.

[Guillaume]

Also worked for me! Ubuntu 24.04.1 with Matlab R2022a.

[Jesus Almodovar Felix]

It worked, Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS, MATLAB R2022a! Thanks.

[Seyed Mohammad]

worked for me as well; thanks.

Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

MATLAB R2022b

[yuxin zhang]

Works for me as well! Many thanks!

Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS

R2021b and also R2022b

[John]

I had the same error on Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS running MATLAB 2024a, but the solution was somewhat different.

cd <matlab_root>/sys/os/glnxa64/
mv libstdc++.so.6 libstdc++.so.6.old

I found the offending file by running the command below in the matlab root directory.

./bin/glnxa64/MATLABWindow

[Frederic]

Thank you! You saved my day.

[Reza]

Thanks, @John!

[宝辉]

@John I have the same error and I have the same system and matlab version. It works. Thansk a lot!

[Emilio]

@John Tank you very much!

Answer 2

[Jack]

I have just experienced this issue on Ubuntu 24.04 as the system libstdc++ is newer than that bundled with matlab. This resulted in all sorts of delightful statements like

./glnxa64/builtins/glee/../../../../sys/os/glnxa64/libstdc++.so.6: version `CXXABI_1.3.13' not found (required by /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libLLVM.s
o.19.1)

and repeated for basically every library shipped with the software. The solution is LD_PRELOAD and manually specifying to use the system version of libstdc++:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 bin/matlab

[Marc Compere]

Hello, thanks @Jack. this is helpful. I've seen the same errors and am kind of stunned at what has happened. Did Mathworks really ship the wrong libstdc++??? Wow.

this is, indeed, bizarre.

it sems the @MathWorks Support Team would definitely want to know how wonky their Linux code is that they're shipping. Sending out code with a mismatched libstdc++ has never happened in my experience with Matlab.

----

The way LD_PRELOAD works is to put it right on the command line before the executable. So the line from @Jack above works when you're trying to execute:

bin/matlab

I've got a symbolic link to /usr/local/bin/matlab, so I never run bin/matlab.

this works wherever the symbolic link points:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 /usr/local/bin/matlab

Wow. Combining this with this, it's been the most difficult linux install to-date.

Answer 3

[Roman Briskine]

On minimal Ubuntu 22 with xfce4, I had to install libgbm1. The other essential requirements such as libxt6 and libxft2 seem to be satisfied when xfce4 is installed.

If you are getting some weird error that does not happen elsewhere, you can find all the external libraries Matlab is linking to by running the following command.

find /usr/local/MATLAB/R2022b -name "*.so*" -exec ldd {} \; 2>/dev/null | grep 'not found' | sort -u | sed -r 's/^\s+(\S+.so).*$/\1/'

Many of them are optional and hunting them down might take a while but certainly possible. The search can be facilitated by comparing this to what you get on a properly working installation.