License Manager Error -9 when run as administrator but not normally

I have Ubuntu 16.04 and have a student version of Matlab and want to install a trial version of the Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox. But the installer doesn't have permission (Access Denied: Unable to write to /usr/local/MATLAB/R2016b. Please select a different folder).

So I try to run Matlab with root permission using

sudo matlab &

but I get

License checkout failed.
License Manager Error -9
Your username does not match the username in the license file. 
To run MATLAB on this computer, you must run the Activation client to reactivate your license.

Troubleshoot this issue by visiting: 
http://www.mathworks.com/support/lme/R2016b/9

Diagnostic Information:
Feature: MATLAB 
License path: /home/pjhellemn/.matlab/R2016b_licenses:/usr/local/MATLAB/R2016b/licenses/license.dat:/usr/local/MAT
LAB/R2016b/licenses/license_pjhellemn-Lenovo-ideapad-Y700-14ISK_3284817_R2016b.lic 
Licensing error: -9,57.

How do I allow Matlab to be run with root permissions, so that I can install the toolbox?

[SeyedSaeid Hosseinipoor]

I have installed student version. It asked me about login name. I added my name and I faced this problem. I reinstalled it with login name and it was gone. Because just one login name was valid for me. Be careful about it.

[Walter Roberson]

If you are using OS-X or Linux, the username you tell MATLAB should be the same as what you get for the result of

whoami

when you run that at your shell prompt.

[Maximilian Prilmueller]

I ended up here because i am currently troubleshooting the gui not starting. This Forum gave me the tip to run matlab as administrator. Now I know that the license check seems to be the only thing about my matlab that is currently working.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Correct. When you sudo, your username becomes root, which is not what is in the license file.

To install toolboxes on Linux you should run the installer, which you would do while sudo'd

(OS-X has the same issue about sudo and username, but when you use the Add-on explorer or the installer on OS-X, the process will ask you to authenticate and then will proceed to allow you to install.)

[Paul Hellemn]

To add to this:

I had to first sign up for the trial version through the Mathworks website (the prompt in the Matlab application did not work), then download the Matlab installer again, and then follow the directions above.

[Miguel Perez Sanchis]

This answer might be useful to those of us who ran into this problem and managed to solve it by installing Matlab with our username instead of root. All toolboxes installed afterwards should be installed through the Matlab installer as Walter said. The installer CAN be run as sudo, unlike Matlab

Answer 2

[Ryan Patterson]

I figured it out.

In terminal go to where your activation file is located(This Might Be Different For You!) and run it. Not sure if you need "sudo" for this step.

$ cd /usr/local/MATLAB/R2019b/bin
$ sudo ./activate_matlab.sh

When asked for a name, input "root" and complete the other boxes like normal. Exit matlab. Using "sudo -i" puts it in root mode so you have permission to install it.

$ sudo -i
# cd /usr/local/MATLAB/R2019b/bin
# ./matlab

Now you should be able to install the update. After its installed you should change the activation name back to what it was originally or else you will always have to run it under "root".

# exit
$ sudo ./activate_matlab.sh

[Jongan Park]

Thank you! it works well for me.

[Khanh Do]

Thank you!

[Andres Mauricio Molina Barreto]

It worked perfectly. Thank you so much!

[Julián Eduardo Villamizar Peña]

Thank you very much! This really solved my issues with the interface. The trick was about to change the username as root. Once you do that, it's just to execute matlab as root always.

[khaled walid]

Finally working, thank you.

[Tudor-Bogdan Airimitoaie]

This solution worked for me also (Ubuntu 20.04.1), thank you.

[ElSayed Mostafa]

Running MATLAB as root solved this problem for me also (Ubuntu 18.04.5). Thanks.

[Wladimir Vera]

Following the written above by Ryan I have solved my problem too!! Ubuntu 20.04.

Thanks a lot

[MONRUETHAI SUEKSAKAN]

it's work.. thanks so much

[Yoana Grudeva]

Thanks! For anybody having issues running the add-on explorer, it's because sometimes graphical apps are not allowed as root. To fix this, in a terminal run

xhost si:localuser:root

sudo   matlab

and change back your permissions after you're done with installations by

xhost -si:localuser:root

This is a general fix for this problem, stackoverflow answer here .