Installing MATLAB

Install MATLAB:

Install with MATLAB package manager

Replace `/usr/local/MATLAB/` with watever you want, it may make more sense to have it in your home directory.

It needs to run with permission to edit files for authorization, if it is not owned by you run: `chmod -R 777 /usr/local/MATLAB/`

Install your preferred release

you can make a new folder for each and have multiple or just use a single folder and overwrite your previous install

`mpm install --release=R2025b --destination=/usr/local/MATLAB/R2025b MATLAB Simulink Control_System_Toolbox`

General install tips

gnutls breaking changes

If you are running a bleeding edge distro you will have to downgrade gnutls to 3.8.9, can be found here for arch: https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/g/gnutls/gnutls-3.8.9-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Simply unzip all the *.so.[number] files into some sort of library directory specifically for MATLAB to preload it when launching MATLAB, something like `/usr/local/MATLAB/R2025b/lib` will do. Then in your .desktop file prepend `LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/dri/:/usr/local/MATLAB/R2025b/lib/`

.desktop file tips

Copy the desktop file to your personal desktop file area to customize how it launches

`sudo cp /usr/share/applications/matlab.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/matlab.desktop && sudo chown [user] [user] ~/.local/share/applications/matlab.desktop`

change the exec line to keep existing preloads, directly call the the file, and have the startup folder preference be respected:

Exec=env 'LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libfreetype.so:/usr/lib/libstdc++.so:/usr/lib/libfontconfig.so' LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/dri/ /usr/local/MATLAB/R2025b/bin/matlab -desktop -useStartupFolderPref`