MATLAB desktop error on Linux

Hi all,

When opening MATLAB on my laptop running Linux, it displays an error dialog saying desktop error, and all text isnt rendered, then it segfaults. This happens with R2021a and R2021b. I didnt test any other versions. I used Matlab on Linux without issues a lot, but these new installs dont work. Reinstalling doesnt fix the issue. The crash report is JAVA screaming at me that something isnt right. How do I fix it?

OS: Linux x86_64 Arch Linux (BTW)

EDIT1: As expected, running matlab -nojvm works as intended.

Crash report:
Ajava.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.CmdWin.<init>(CmdWin.java:111)
at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.CmdWin.<clinit>(CmdWin.java:107)
at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:264)
at com.mathworks.jmi.ClassLoaderManager.loadClass(ClassLoaderManager.java:442)
at com.mathworks.jmi.ClassLoaderManager.findClass(ClassLoaderManager.java:422)
at com.mathworks.jmi.Matlab$2.findClass(Matlab.java:517)
at com.mathworks.util.ClassLoaderBridge.findClass(ClassLoaderBridge.java:23)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTClient.createComponent(DTClient.java:275)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.createClientComponent(Desktop.java:6468)
at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.createClientComponent(MLDesktop.java:1040)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.createClientComponentWrapper(Desktop.java:6482)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.setClientShowing(Desktop.java:7181)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.setClientShowing(Desktop.java:7168)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTNestingContainer$ViewState.restore(DTNestingContainer.java:2910)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTNestingContainer$SplitState.restore(DTNestingContainer.java:2536)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTNestingContainer$SplitState.restore(DTNestingContainer.java:2537)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTNestingContainer$RootState.restore(DTNestingContainer.java:2422)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTNestingContainer$RootState.restore(DTNestingContainer.java:2417)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTNestingContainer.restoreState(DTNestingContainer.java:2291)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.DTMultipleClientFrame.restoreState(DTMultipleClientFrame.java:2791)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.restoreLayout(Desktop.java:5947)
at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.restoreLayout(MLDesktop.java:1652)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.restoreLayout(Desktop.java:5706)
at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.setDefaultDesktop(MLDesktop.java:1539)
at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.initMainFrame(Desktop.java:296)
at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.initMainFrameFromThread(MLDesktop.java:844)
at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.access$600(MLDesktop.java:224)
at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop$Initializer.run(MLDesktop.java:1215)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:311)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:758)
at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709)
at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:74)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:728)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:205)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)
Caused by: java.lang.ArithmeticException: / by zero
at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.XCmdWndView.getPotentialColumns(XCmdWndView.java:1072)
at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.XCmdWndView.setCWFont(XCmdWndView.java:1651)
at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.XCmdWndView.initPrefs(XCmdWndView.java:907)
at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.XCmdWndView.<init>(XCmdWndView.java:401)
at com.mathworks.mde.cmdwin.XCmdWndView.<clinit>(XCmdWndView.java:329)
... 43 more

Answer 1

[Roberto Lucchesi]

Found the issue. You need to install from the AUR the package

ttf-ms-fonts

Answer 2

[Daniele Olivieri]

On Arch Linux you can fix this issue by installing the noto-fonts package from the repository

Ref ArchWiki

Probably other fonts are available too...