This error is related to some of the environment variables from your user account not being passed to root when running the installer. There are 2 specific variables that will cause this, your DISPLAY variable, which will tell the install what screen to start on and XAUTHORITY which gives user permissions to display programs to that screen.
If you are unable to set these variables, please either speak to your IT department for assistance, or install MATLAB to a folder for which you have permissions.
This issue comes in two forms:
- With no error message or a blank screen
- With error messages
With no error message or blank screen
If no error message appears when running the MathWorks installer as root, particularly with MATLAB R2021b and later, it may be an issue with an inability to access the X Server. As a workaround, please try the following:
- Launch Terminal
- Type the following in the terminal to allow the root user to access the running X server:
xhost +SI:localuser:root
- After running the command above try running the installer "sudo ./install"
- Move the installer folder to /opt/
- Give root ownership of the installer folder (for example: chown -R root:root matlab_R2023a_glnxa64)
- Run the installer from this folder as root
With error messages
XAUTHORITY
On some distributions, other users are prevented from starting windows on X servers owned by other users. The XAUTHORITY environment variable points to the location of a key on your system that is required to start X applications on that display. Depending on your distribution, this key will be located in different locations. An error relating to XAUTHORITY may appear like the following or with no error message at all:
ERROR: No protocol specified
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.InternalError: Can't connect to X11 window server using ':2' as the value of the DISPLAY variable.
The simplest way to get around this is to allow all users on this machine to start programs on this display:
xhost + localhost
If you are connecting to this machine remotely, run the below instead:
xhost +
This will also allow remote users to start programs on this display. After installing MATLAB, you may want to replace these restrictions with either:
xhost - localhost
Or
xhost -
DISPLAY
The DISPLAY environment variable tells program what display they should be started on. You will receive an error such as the below:
ERROR: Error: Installation cannot proceed. You may either:1. Set an X11 display, and restart the install process2. Use the silent install feature by specifying the -mode silent option
Or
ERROR: Exception in thread "main" com.google.inject.ProvisionException: Guice provision errors:1) Error injecting constructor, java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment at com.mathworks.instutil.wizard.JEditorPaneHyperlinkHandler.<init>(JEditorPaneHyperlinkHandler.java:57) while locating com.mathworks.instutil.wizard.JEditorPaneHyperlinkHandler while locating com.mathworks.instutil.wizard.HyperlinkHandler for parameter 5 at com.mathworks.wizard.ui.components.SwingComponentFactoryImpl.<init>(SwingComponentFactoryImpl.java:111)
To resolve this, you can temporarily set the DISPLAY variable for root to the value that is set for your user account.
Run the below as your user account:
printenv | grep DISPLAY
This will show your display environment variable. Remember this for later. Now enter the below:
suexport <DISPLAY>
Where <DISPLAY> is the value of the DISPLAY variable from the printenv command.
If none of these suggestions work and you have an internet connection, try using MATLAB Package Manager to install MathWorks Products. The instructions and additional details for it can be found below.
MATLAB Package Manager
