MATLAB 2018a won't start add-on manager in Ubuntu 18.04

I currently have MATLAB 2018a installed in Ubuntu 18.04, but have encountered several issues. If I activate the license for a user other than root, MATLAB will get stuck at the blue loading screen and not start (no error messages or anything either), so I activated the software for the root user and have been running it from there. MATLAB will now start and run properly, but I cannot open the add-on manager at all. If I click get add-ons or manage add-ons nothing happens. The Log-in button in the top-right of MATLAB also does not function properly, doing nothing when clicked.

MATLAB otherwise functions corectly and I can run code that doesn't require any add-ons, but I need the add-ons for my work. I have seen several older threads having issues with the add-on manager but none of their solutions help. I tried installing the packages manually using the .mlpkginstall files, but this also does nothing. Many (but not all) functions that involve opening a new window fail. Is there any way to fix this problem, and if not, is there any other way to manually load add-ons into MATLAB without the manager?

Answer 1

[Soundararajan Ezekiel]

I was able to solve my issues with this method: https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/373121-get-more-apps-doesn-t-work

[GUILHERME CARVALHO]

Thanks for linking this answer, solved my problem!

Answer 2

[Paul Clark]

On my redhat 7 box (matlab 2019a), I get:

> opengl software

Error using opengl

Switching to software OpenGL rendering at runtime on unix is not supported.

>>

Answer 3

[Jay Vaidya]

Please try to run the following in the MATLAB Command Window:

>> opengl software 

And then try opening the Add on explorer again. It worked for me.

If that works, you can save the preference so that MATLAB always opens with Software OpenGL by running:

>> opengl('save','software')

[tr]

Yes this solution worked very well thank you. I am using Ubuntu 20.04. The version of Matlab I have is R2016b

[David Wilby]

Working with R2023a on Ubuntu 22.04. Thanks!