Matlab

MATLAB (an abbreviation of "matrix laboratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks.[1]

Installation

Matlab due to it's installation method and licensing is really problematic to package into nixpkgs[2], that is why the only way to install it is to use some imperative way (to install it outside the nix store).

(Recommended) Based on Doronbehar [3] repo (with or without flakes)

You may prefer to use this method by doronbehar. It is based on the one described below, but requires less work.

Based on tviiti[4] repo or custom work (without flakes)

Firstly you need to download zipped Matlab archive for Linux from the official webpage. Then create a folder for the installation files and unzip the archive into that folder via unzip -X -K command.

Then you will need shell.nix file that will create proper FHS environment. This shell should use buildFHSUserEnv function and should contain all the relevant packages. Personally I have used tviti[5] imperative Matlab shell.

Tip

In case you also want to use tviti work, clone his repo and get into pkgs/matlab. Then run nix-shell and matlab-shell to get into installation environment. More info can be found in his repo[6]

Get into the proper environment via nix-shell. Then you can safely start Matlab installer by running ./install script in the Matlab installation folder. It is strongly preferred to install Matlab somewhere in the user home folder.

After successful installation, you should add Matlab do your configuration.nix file. Personally I have used modified tvitii[7] files. I have simply switched runPath to the path of freshly installed Matlab folder. Then in my configuration.nix I have used his matlab folder like so:

...
let
    tviti-matlab = pkgs.callPackage ./matlab { };
...
in {
...
    environment.systemPackages = [ ... tviti-matlab.matlab  ... ];
...

Tip

In order to affect your system by your nix-language-specific changes you have to evaluate it, run (as root):

# nixos-rebuild switch

Now you should have matlab in your path and be able to run it via matlab command.

Weird java errors

In case you have java errors, and you are using tvitii[8] derivation, you may need to modify matlab.nix to something like this:

{ common,  buildFHSUserEnv }:
buildFHSUserEnv {
  name = "matlab";

  targetPkgs = pkgs: with pkgs; common.targetPkgs pkgs;

  runScript = "${common.runPath}/bin/matlab";
}

Other possible issues

I can't see anything

If you are using Window Manager and Matlab does not display anything, you will need to use wmname command (preferably when starting your session). Just run wmname LG3D, run Matlab again and the issue should be fixed.

No hardware support

There is a great answer about that here on Matlab answers[9].

Summarizing this answer:

cd <your_matlab_location>/sys/os/glnxa64/
sudo mv libstdc++.so.6 libstdc++.so.6.bak
sudo ln -s /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6  libstdc++.so.6

You will not have /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 at the time of following the steps, but Matlab will be runned in FHS env, and this path will be visible for it.

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