MATLAB with Arch Build System

This PKGBUILD creates an Arch Linux package for MATLAB.

Additionally, it also builds the Python engine. They are stored in matlab and python-matlabengine packages separately.

WARNING: this package NEEDS you to obtain the original off-line installer, as unauthorized distributions are not permitted by the license agreement.

Tips

• You probably want to run this locally, since the package will be large. Turn off compression if this package will only be installed on the build machine. This cuts a fair amount of time from the build and compression is unnecessary on local machines.
• You may also use tar instead of packing it into zst and modify the PKGBUILD when preparing the off-line installer.
• If you are managing your own repos, depending on bandwidth and size constants, exclude this package from your work-flow. (Partial install is over 8 GB, and full install is about 12 GB)
• Set MATLAB_INTEL_OVERRIDE='yes' in your environment if hardware acceleration does not work on your Intel GPU.

Requirements

To successfully launch the MATLAB installer, you need to install freetype2 and libxcrypt-compat (see here).

Besides the PKGBUILD dependencies, by the end of this procedure these source files MUST be present in the PKGBUILD directory:

• matlab.fik: installation key in a plain-text file.
• matlab.lic: license file.
• matlab.tar: off-line installer.

Then run makepkg -s from the same directory to build the package. It will take a lot of time, so make sure to bring with you a cup of coffee.

File installation key & license file

Here are the instructions by MathWorks.

The file installation key identifies this specific installation of MATLAB. The license file authorizes that this key can use the toolboxes. Follow these steps:

• Head over to the License center on MathWorks.
• On the Install and activate tab, select or create an appropriate license:
  • If no license is listed because you're using your organization's license and this is your first time installing MATLAB, click the link for manual activation. Insert the MAC address of a network card on your PC in the Host ID field, as for the username, it'll have to be the one of the account (on your Arch installation) that will be using MATLAB.
• Navigate to download the license file and the file installation key.
• Download the license file and put the file in the repository with the correct name.
• Copy and paste the file installation key in a plain text file.

If MATLAB is distributed through your organization’s network rather than your own use, the file installation key and license file would be invalid on other computers. When MATLAB recognizes an invalid license, it won't start at all.

It may help if you remove your license for building, i. e. uncomment the lines at the end of build() of the PKGBUILD. When you start MATLAB for the first time, the activation program will pop out, guiding you through the activation process.

It still can be activated by running activate_matlab.sh after the install, no matter the license has been removed or not. The script will activate it and put the correct license file under .matlab/licenses in your home folder.

Off-line installer

From here on it will be assumed all the following operations are performed from the PKGBUILD directory, and that the PKGBUILD directory contains exactly one MATLAB on-line installer archive.

If your MATLAB installation follows the exact steps listed down here, you can run the install.sh script provided with the PKGBUILD and let it do everything, you will only have to interact with the MATLAB installer.

1. Download the MATLAB on-line installer archive; it will be named something like matlab_R{YEAR}{a,b}_glnxa64.zip.

2. Unpack the archive with:

   unzip -X -K matlab_*_glnxa64.zip -d MATLABROOT

   (see here for an explanation of the flags).

3. Make the installer use the FreeType system library instead of its own (see here for an explanation):

   mv MATLABROOT/bin/glnxa64/libfreetype.so.6 \
      MATLABROOT/bin/glnxa64/libfreetype.so.6.MATLAB

4. Launch the installer with:

   ./MATLABROOT/install

5. After having logged in and accepted the license agreement, select Advanced Options → I want to download without installing from the top-right drop-down menu.

6. Set the download location to an empty directory called matlab, contained inside the PKGBUILD directory.

7. Select Linux as the target platform.

8. Select the toolboxes you want. If you are not going to install them all, on the PKGBUILD set the partialinstall variable to true, and update the products array to reflect your choices, using the names at the end of MATLABROOT/installer_input.txt.

9. Download the files and close the installer.

10. Move the files from the directory matlab/YYYY_MM_DD to matlab, then delete the matlab/YYYY_MM_DD directory.

11. Create the tarball with:

    tar -I zstd -cvf matlab.tar matlab

If you acquire the off-line installer by other means, make sure the files have the correct permissions, as unzipping the archive without the proper flags could drop them, otherwise the installer won't run correctly.

Transmitting large files

To transmit large files in FAT32 media (most flash drives), first split the tarball:

split --bytes 3G --numeric-suffixes=0 matlab.tar matlab.tar

Then recreate it by concatenating the parts:

cat matlab.tar.* > matlab.tar