Why do I receive "Access Denied" or "Folder Error" when installing MATLAB on Linux?

I am installing MATLAB on Linux using my user account. When I get to the step where I choose my installation location, I leave it as the default, /usr/local/MATLAB/R20XXx. Why does the installer give me a "Folder Error: Failed to create folder" or "Access denied: Unable to write to *"

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This message means that the account you are running the installer as does not have permission to write to the location you are trying to install MATLAB to. You can check permissions by navigating to the preceding folder (/usr/local/ in the example above) and running the command "ls -la" to check ownership and permissions.

To allow your user account to write to the location, you will want to run the command:

sudo chown -R $LOGNAME: /usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a

where "/usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a" is the folder you are trying to create a folder in and/or write to. This command gives your user account (which the system pulls from the $LOGNAME variable) ownership of the folder and all subfolders and directories, allowing you to read and write natively. If you are still unable to write to that location, you will need to use the chmod command to fix the permissions. One example:

sudo chmod u+rwx -R /usr/local/MATLAB/R2023a

will give your user account read, write, and execute permissions, and will allow any other account to read or execute (run) files in the directory or subdirectories.

Running the interactive installer as root/sudo is discouraged amongst the Linux community for security reasons.