Kill unresponsive fullscreen matlab on mac

Is there a way to force kill an unresponsive matlab? Frequently, while executing a full-screen script, it just freezes. None of the typical mac/matlab key-combinations to terminate processes work (or anything else for that matter). Basically, the computer (a macbook) becomes completely unresponsive, it is impossible to switch to other windows or open applications, or to access the terminal, or to do anything for that matter. The only option is to force-shutdown and start over, which is extremely undesirable.

Is there a way to forcefully kill a non-responsive matlab without having to kill the entire computer?

[John D'Errico]

So don't go full screen. WTP?

[D.]

That is not useful at all. Please refrain from answering without bothering to understand the situation. If you need a clarification, ask for it, but this kind of "answers" do not help. You might as well have said "Well, don't use a computer, WTP?"

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

From the fact that you mentioned "displays stimuli" in one of your comments I'm guessing you're using Psychophysics Toolbox. Is that correct? I believe that third party toolbox does some special screen manipulation above and beyond what MATLAB does. If you are using this toolbox try this entry in their FAQ or try posting in their forum a description of the problem and ask if this is a known issue with a solution.

[Walter Roberson]

There was a minor glitch with Steven's FAQ link; it should be https://github.com/Psychtoolbox-3/Psychtoolbox-3/wiki/FAQ%3A-Exit-a-Crashed-Screen

[Taylor]

This was a helpful link, thank you. I tried following the steps, but after halting the program, I was still unable to re-enter into the Finder interface (i.e., MATLB). I had to restart the computer (MATLAB 2016b, macOS Sierra.

Taylor

[Steven Lord]

If the instructions in the FAQ entry didn't work, you may want to search the Issues on the Psychophysics Toolbox Github to see if there is or was a bug that prevented those instructions from working or if there's another approach for working around that issue that should be added to that FAQ entry. If not you may want to open an issue yourself.

[Walter Roberson]

Not a cure but an alleviation:

If you go into System Preferences -> Sharing, you can enable "remote login". Then, when you get a freeze, try to ssh in from another device. If the system is completely hung you will not be able to do so. If it is just the process managing the display that is hung, then you can use your ssh session to issue shell "kill" commands to zap the process.

I have a remote terminal program set up on my Android phone for this purpose; the Android program I use for this is "JuiceSSH"

[Walter Roberson]

Side note: between late December 2016 and late January 2017, El Capitan could completely freeze for several minutes at a time in circumstances related to use of the GPU for graphics (happened for all three gpu manufacturers).

Answer 2

[Cole Schlavin]

Hey, I had the same issue on my mac laptop. I was able to fix it by sliding up with three fingers to see all open windows, and clicking & dragging matlab to the right of the open, full-screen windows in the top bar. It should automatically open matlab into full screen.

Let me know if it works for you.