Does MatLab run on Debian 9?

Dear MatLab Support,

I manage an HPC and want to upgrade to Debian 9, so I need to know if MatLab is compatible with that OS.

Regards,

Jeffrey Engel HPC Administrator Research Computing Box 19600 University of Texas at Arlington

[phone]

[John D'Errico]

Note: Answers is NOT MATLAB support. We are here purely on a voluntary, unpaid basis. Occasionally, TMW staff look in. But that is also usually on a voluntary, unofficial basis. Ok, I insisted on them doubling my salary this year, and guess what? I got my raise! Still unpaid though.

[Rik]

For that, you got yourself an upvote John. I'll ask about a raise as well ;)

[John D'Errico]

Rik - I would add that the people at TMW really do appreciate our presence on the site and willingness to help. (Yours too!) But Answers is and must always be unpaid, as the only way it can work. So I am quite happy with my raise.

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

The answer to these questions is always easy and fast. Just check the system requirements.

https://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq.html

There, I see that Debian 9 is supported, for R2018a. If you check back one release, it says that R2017b is supported. But R2017a only handles Debian 8.x.

So as long as you have a sufficiently recent MATLAB release, no problem.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

Yes, R2017b and R2018a are supported on Debian 9.

That said: there have been a lot of issues cropping up lately with Linux about incompatible libraries, especially with Ubuntu, but the plurality of reports about Ubuntu also has to do with the fact that it is one of the more used versions (more users -> more reports). For example of the complexity of the library conflicts in Linux, see https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/364551-why-is-matlab-unable-to-run-the-matlabwindow-application-on-linux#answer_288902

If you have a tool such as VirtualBox, I suggest testing out a virtual machine image of Debian 9 with MATLAB. That will not properly test graphics drivers (you need to use emulated graphics for virtual machines) but it can help debug other libraries.

[Eamonn Kenny]

It runs fine for R2015a-R2018b. Actually the most annoying thing is that it doesn't add a logo to your starter menu or suggest an easy path to pick up a 64x64 or 128x128 image!

[Tim Büsing]

On Debian there is a package called 'matlab-support' that can be retrieved via 'apt'.

This adds an icon to the starter menu so matlab can be used more like any other application.

Since that package is shipped by Debian I reckon it's also available on Ubuntu..