Problems Starting the MATLAB Program After an Installation

After a successful installation, you may encounter problems starting the MATLAB program. Many of these problems involve the license manager used by the MathWorks products.

To resolve this type of problem, follow these suggestions, in the order specified:

1. Take note of the error message that is displayed. The error message text can often provide information that can help you resolve the problem. (See Getting Help with License Manager Error Messages to learn how to get information about possible solutions for each error message.)

2. Check the license manager log file for error messages and take appropriate corrective action. See Viewing the License Manager Log File for more information. The installer also creates a log file each time it is run. The installer names the file install_matlab.out and puts the file in your top-level installation directory.

3. Make sure that the license manager daemons are running, if your installation requires the license manager. See Checking the Status of the License Manager Daemons.

4. Verify that your client workstation can connect to the license manager over the network, if your installation requires the license manager. See Checking the Network Connection.

5. Check the other common startup problems described in Checking Other Startup Problems.

If these troubleshooting steps do not resolve the problem you are experiencing, execute the script lmdebug in the matlabroot/etc directory and send its diagnostic results to the MathWorks Technical Support department. If you do not have e-mail access, fax the results to The MathWorks at the number listed below. For fax reports, it is also helpful to include

• The exact error message(s) received

• A copy of your License File

To contact MathWorks Technical Support, use this form: http://www.mathworks.com/contact_TS.html.

Viewing the License Manager Log File

The file /var/tmp/lm_TMW.log contains a log of all license activity. The license manager appends a new entry to the log each time a license transaction occurs. For help interpreting error messages and suggested remedies to common errors, refer to the section Getting Help with License Manager Error Messages. The following sections cover these additional log file topics:

• Specifying the Name of the License Manager Log File

• Monitoring the Growth of the License Manager Log File

Specifying the Name of the License Manager Log File

To change the default directory where the log file is stored, specify the -l option with the lmstart script, as follows:

lmstart -l /home/username/lmlogs/mylogfile.log

Monitoring the Growth of the License Manager Log File

The license manager log file can grow to be quite large. To conserve disk space, check the size of the log file periodically and delete information from the file to reduce its size. You can also schedule a job (using the UNIX cron command) that regularly compresses or deletes log files older than a specified date (a process called rotating log files).

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Checking the Status of the License Manager Daemons

The license manager must be running before you can start the MATLAB program. To determine whether the license manager daemons are operating, run the lmstat command on the license server.

cd matlabroot/etc 
lmstat -a

You can also run the following UNIX command

ps -ef | grep lm

Check the output of these commands to determine if both the license manager daemon (lmgrd or lm_TMW.ld) and the vendor daemon (MLM) are running.

Starting the License Manager Daemons

If either the license manager or vendor daemon is not running, restart the daemons by running the lmstart script, located in the matlabroot/etc directory.

Removing Duplicate Daemons

You can only run one MLM daemon. To remove duplicate MLM daemons, log in as superuser, and then execute the following command:

kill pid_of_daemon

where pid_of_daemon is the process ID of the daemon.

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Checking the Network Connection

If either the license server daemon or vendor daemon is not running on your local computer, but is running correctly on the license server, the problem is usually caused by network software. The network software is either not running correctly or is not configured correctly. Verify that your client workstation can connect to the license manager daemons by executing the following commands on your client workstation (not the server).

cd matlabroot/etc 
lmstat -a

To learn how to get help with a particular error message, see Getting Help with License Manager Error Messages. In addition, you may need to contact your system administrator or system vendor to resolve the problem.

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Checking Other Startup Problems

• Changes to License File Unread by License Manager

• Can't Find License File

• The MATLAB Program Is Slow Starting

• License Key Unusable on Crashed Node

Changes to License File Unread by License Manager

If you change the License File, you must restart the license manager using matlabroot/etc/lmstart.

The lmstart script calls the lmdown script to shut down the license manager daemon. Sometimes the lmdown script does not succeed at its task. An effective way to shut down the license manager daemons is to use the UNIX ps command to check for running processes, and then terminate them manually using the UNIX kill command. See Checking the Status of the License Manager Daemons for more information.

Can't Find License File

The MATLAB program will fail at startup if it cannot find the License File. The installer looks for the License File in the matlabroot/etc directory or at the location specified in the environment variable LM_LICENSE_FILE or MLM_LICENSE_FILE.

The MATLAB Program Is Slow Starting

The MATLAB program can take several minutes to start up if one of the entries in the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable on your system is set to a nonexistent license server or a license server that does not have a license manager running on it.

To work around this issue, try any of the following:

• Remove the faulty entries from the value of the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable.

• Add the location of your License File at the beginning of the list of paths in the LM_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.

• Clear the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable. Note, however, that this option could impact other applications running on your system. MATLAB software does not require this variable, but other applications that use FLEXnet licensing often set it.

• Remove the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable and use the vendor-specific version environment variable for the MathWorks vendor daemon, MLM_LICENSE_FILE, and for other vendor daemons used at your site. The MATLAB vendor-specific environment variable only affects products from The MathWorks.

• Specify the name of the License File when starting MATLAB software by using the -c option to the matlab command. MATLAB software ignores the LM_LICENSE_FILE variable when this option is specified.

License Key Unusable on Crashed Node

When the node on which the MATLAB program is running crashes, the license manager should release the license key after about 2 hours. If the key is not released, use matlabroot/etc/lmremove to release it manually. The lmremove script allows you to remove a single user's license for a specified feature and return the license to the pool of available licenses without having to restart the license manager.

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Problems During Installation

Getting Help with License Manager Error Messages

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