Why can't I activate MATLAB or start the network license manager in a newer Linux environment?

When trying to activate MATLAB on newer Linux versions, the activation fails. Checking the Host ID shows that the Host ID is 000000000000 which does not work. I also experience issues with the network license manager where it will not start on these new distributions. How can I activate MATLAB or use the license manager in this environment?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

For MATLAB R2014a and later, licenses can be activated to devices using the Consistent Network Device Naming convention. 

For MATLAB R2013b and earlier, licenses can be activated on a machine with no eth0 using a udev rule to rename the device to eth0.

udev rules are constructed as a series of matching conditions and action commands. When a device matches all of the conditions, the assignment commands will be executed. udev rules are stored in /etc/udev/rules.d and must have a .rules extension. They are read and processed in lexicographical order. The udev rule to change the Network Interface Card's will typically be named 70-persistent-net.rules

The simplest udev rule to change the name of an ethernet device, with MAC address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx, to eth0 will be:

ATTR{address}=="xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx", NAME="eth0"

There are other methods of changing the name of the ethernet device, but many of them are distribution specific and can not be guaranteed work on all distributions. udev rules take priority on all systems running the udev framework.

If you would like more information about this naming convention change please take a look at the following link:

https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames/

For releases R2008b and earlier MATLAB must be locked to an eth0 device.

[Walter Roberson]

My understanding is that it depends upon the MATLAB release, that in sufficiently new releases, it scans the ethernet table at the time of activation and registers all of the interfaces that exist at that time, by MAC address.

I could be wrong on this as I have not installed MATLAB on a Linux system for a while.