MATLAB does not start on OS X Sonoma M2 Max

MATLAB 2016b does not start since I upgraded OS X to Sonoma (OS X 14). I use a Mac with a M2 Max architecture. Befor upgrading to Sonoma it worked just fine. I know, that 2016b is not officially supported but maybe someone has an idea how I can fix this issue. I guess it should be possible because it war runnig just fine on the same machine before upgrading to Sonoma.

Trying to start Matlab with /Applications/MATLAB_R2016b.app/bin/matlab -glnxa64 gives the following error:

Warning: Cannot locate Java Runtime Environment (JRE) . . .

1. Either a correct JRE was not available for redistribution when

this release was shipped, in which case you should refer to the

Release Notes for additional information about how to get it.

2. Or you have tried to use the MATLAB_JAVA environment variable

to specify an alternate JRE, but MATLAB cannot find it. Please

run 'matlab -n' to determine what value you are using for

MATLAB_JAVA and fix accordingly.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

matlab: No MATLAB bin directory for this machine architecture.

ARCH = glnxa64

Thank you and best regards,

Peter

[Karl]

From the command line, could you try -maci64 instead of -glnxa64? The latter specifies a Linux binary, which understandably isn't found.

[Pete]

Thank you! I tried this and I receive the message Walter Roberson stated below:

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFString stringByStandardizingPath]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x6000033540c0'

*** First throw call stack:

...

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

On a true Intel Mac... No go. Under Sonoma R2016b and R2017b both abort immediately with

*** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSCFString stringByStandardizingPath]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x600002528120'

[Pete]

unfortunately this is exactly what happens on my M2 Max architecture...

[Pete]

Is there any chance to get Matlab 2016b running under OS X Sonoma? Any ideas?

Thank you!

[Walter Roberson]

I saw someone claim to have done it, but I doubt that it is possible.

[Pete]

Do you have some more details about this or a link or something?

[Jorik]

Apparently there are more applications with similar errors, e.g. libcurl (used by cargo):

https://github.com/curl/curl/issues/11893

Maybe the solution there could hint towards a solution for MATLAB? However, maybe a better alternative is to run MATLAB R2017a and older in a VM with Ventura or an even older officially supported OS.