Why am I unable to install downloaded products using Safari on my MAC?

Solution:

This bug has been fixed in Release 2006a (R2006a). For previous product releases, read below for any possible workarounds:

There are a few reasons for this problem.

1. You downloaded the files with the Safari Web Browser.

For releases prior to R2006a, the MATLAB installer cannot handle installation files with a .tar extension. The Safari Web browser will commonly add a .tar extension to files of type .ftp .mac, and .common. An attempt to extract these archives leads to corrupted files. To resolve this issue, use a different web browser to download your products, like Internet Explorer, Netscape, or Firefox. If you do so, these incorrect extensions will not be added and extra steps are not needed to re-name them. Or, you can remove the .tar extension from the .ftp, .mac and .common files you have downloaded. The only file that does have a .tar extension and should not be changed is matlab_installer.tar.

When re-naming the .ftp and .common files via the Desktop, the system may not actually change the extension. (It will appear correct but it is still labeled as a .tar file) To really change the extension, do the following in a Terminal Window:

- Change directory to the place where you have downloaded these files:

For example, if you downloaded the files to your desktop first, you would type the following in the Terminal Window:

cd Desktop

- Next, perform an "mv" command to rename the file with the correct extension.

For example, to change the extension of boot.ftp.tar to the correct boot.ftp, type:

mv boot.ftp.tar boot.ftp 

- Repeat the above for each of the .mac and .common files you have downloaded.

2. You downloaded the files on a Windows machine and tranferred the files to a Mac. The transfer sometimes causes problems. Downloading the files directly on a Mac should resolve this problem.

3. The Safari Web browser also has trouble downloading files with a .mac extension on some computers. For more information on this issue, see the Related Solution listed below: