Cannot write to file: permission denied

I am using Matlab on a Linux machine. I have set the default startup dir as a dir to which i have write permissions. When I run [gid, errmsg] = fopen(fname,'w'); (where fname is just the filename I want written to the current dir--no path), I get gid = -1 and errmsg = permission denied. I'm running Matlab using an icon. Could I be the wrong user? Any other suggestions? Thanks.

Edit: after two days of internet problems, computer is back online (I think the Network Manager settings were changed, but it took the IT people a long time to find and fix) and the problem seems to have disappeared. thanks, everyone.

[Pujitha Narra]

Hi,

You can try changing the permissions to the folder using the following command on the terminal:

chmod -R 0777 foldername/

or

Try launching MATLAB with sudo.

[Walter Roberson]

What shows up for

!whoami; ls -ld .

The period is part of the command.