How to fix MATLABWindow application failed to launch

I have just finished doing a fresh install of MATLAB R2024a on a Ubuntu 22.04 based operating system, and have replicated the problem with R2023b. To begin, the install script would fail with the following error:

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error' 
what():  Failed to launch web window with error: Unable to launch the MATLABWindow application. The exit code was:
1 
Aborted

I was able to rectify this issue by appending the following line to the install script before the final line:

export LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.30"

Now that I have installed MATLAB, the issue nonetheless persists. When I try to open the add on window, I get the error:

Error using matlab.internal.cef.webwindow (line 403)
MATLABWindow application failed to launch. Unable to launch the MATLABWindow application. The exit code was: 1

I have tried the instructions listed here

https://au.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1978579-why-do-some-matlab-features-fail-on-ubuntu-23-04-and-debian-12-with-exit-code-127-in-matlab-r2022b-a

and here

https://au.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/364551-why-is-matlab-unable-to-run-the-matlabwindow-application-on-linux?s_tid=ta_ans_results

but I have had no luck.

Update: MATLAB is completely broken, and I cannot open any files. I am met with the following error:

Unable to open this file in the current system configuration.  For more information, see Requirements.

For now, I will be reverting back to a previous system snapshot, as I have wasted enough time trying to fix this issue.

[Jose Rodolfo]

export LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.30"

helped me with another issue, that being

"Inconsistency detected by ld.so: ../elf/dl-tls.c: 613: _dl_allocate_tls_init: Assertion `listp != NULL' failed! ubuntu 245"

Whose solution present over many websites was not helping for my case. So I am just adding this here, in case anyone has this issue in the future. What I did was:

Add

load_sl_glibc_patch

to startup.m, and run the following command:

export LD_PRELOAD='/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6.0.33'

saved me from hours of suffering. Thank you

Answer 1

[Saurabh]

Hi Soren,

Following the latest Update on the question, it seems you are not able to open any files and encountering the error that says:

Unable to open this file in the current system configuration. For more information, see Requirements.”

I guess 'libXss1' or 'libgconf-2-4' library is missing. In Ubuntu, make sure these are existing in your machine,

Run the following command to check if they exist:

sudo apt search libXss1
sudo apt search libgconf-2-4

If these are missing, install them by the following.

sudo apt-get libXss1
sudo apt-get libgconf-2-4

And relaunch MATLAB to confirm Live Editor is available.

You can refer to this MATLAB Answer that address this issue:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/363435-matlab-live-editor-error

And regarding the issue that was encountered earlier you can refer to this MATLAB Answer:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/540707-why-does-matlab-fail-to-install-with-a-std-runtime_error-what-unable-to-launch-the-matlabwind

[Jerome]

sudo apt-get libXss1 and libconf-2-4 not valid

[wissam]

I confirm Jerome statement.

Answer 2

[Nicholas]

I was able to solve this by installing packages specifically listed as missing by MATLABWindow. On attempting to run ./bin/glnxa64/MATLABWindow directly instead of from the installation script I got more specific error messages such as:

./bin/glnxa64/MATLABWindow
./bin/glnxa64/MATLABWindow: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I ended up installing three libraries via apt-get (indicated by repeated run-install cycles): libgtk2.0-0, libnss3, and libasound2t64. Afterwards, the MATLAB installer window opened and MATLAB now appears to be working.

[Vinh]

Nice work. This was what got me through it.

[Andre]

worked for me with wsl2 install (matlab2024b)

Answer 3

[mohammad]

Hi

I fixed it with this solution:

https://github.com/mohammaddehnavi/mohi-docs/blob/main/Matlab/README.md#fix-install-matlab

[wissam]

Didn't work for me (with matlab 2024b)

Answer 4

[Conderls]

I solved this issue with system's shared libs during installation and open matlab GUI

OS: EndeavourOS

## install
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so:/usr/lib/libstdc++.so:/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so ./install
## command to startup matlab
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so:/usr/lib/libstdc++.so:/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so matlab

or edit the app entry: matlab.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Development;Education;Science;IDE;
Comment[en_US]=A high-level language for numerical computation and visualization.
Comment=A high-level language for numerical computation and visualization.
Exec=env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so:/usr/lib/libstdc++.so:/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so /usr/local/matlab/R2024b/bin/matlab -desktop
GenericName[en_US]=
GenericName=
Icon=matlab
MimeType=text/x-matlab;
Name[en_US]=Matlab
Name=Matlab
Path=
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
Version=1.0
X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
X-KDE-Username=

try with system's libfreetype/libstdc++ (there may be version suffix), give it a shot.