Why does the MATLAB R2018b Update 2 installer fail on Linux and macOS?

Why does the MATLAB R2018b Update 2 installer fail on Linux and macOS?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

If MATLAB was installed as root/admin, but the update installation is attempted on an account without root permissions, the update installer will fail.

• No error/failure message will be displayed on the user interface. The installation log file will show "pathdef.m timestamp update failed" indicating the update has failed.
• MATLAB will not be modified during this process.
• If you have root access, you do not need to uninstall MATLAB. Instead, try the update again as root.
• MATLAB itself should not be launched as root. Instead, the update executable should be launched as root to initiate the update.
• The update executable "update_installer" can be found in [matlabroot]/bin/glnxa64. In a default installation, this would be in /usr/local/MATLAB/R2018b/bin/glnxa64/

For instructions on where to find the installation log file to verify the update installation status, please refer to the article listed below: 

Where are the MATLAB Installation and Activation log files located?

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/101927

[Walter Roberson]

"log in to an account with root permissions" and "use sudo" are close to equivalent in Linux, so I do not undertand the disparaging of the official answer ??

Answer 2

[Tianyi Wang]

If your system is Ubuntu and matlab version is R2019b, then you could do:

sudo ./usr/local/MATLAB/R2019b/bin/glnxa64/update_installer