Why does MATLAB crash on Mac OS X with a Dyld Error Message about libXext.6.dylib?

When starting MATLAB on Mac OS X, I see the following error message:

ERROR: Process:         MATLAB [12912]
Path:            /Applications/MATLAB_R2011a.app/Contents/MacOS/StartMATLAB
Identifier:      com.mathworks.matlab
Version:         MATLAB Release 2011a (2.1)
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [102]

Date/Time:       2011-04-22 11:26:07.471 -0700
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.6.7 (10J869)
Report Version:  6

Interval Since Last Report:          3349 sec
Crashes Since Last Report:           3
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report:   3
Anonymous UUID:                      D18F2914-0CA6-4941-B7F3-82C8410C9ED4

Exception Type:  EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000
Crashed Thread:  0

Dyld Error Message:
Library not loaded: /usr/X11/lib/libXext.6.dylib
Referenced from: /Applications/MATLAB_R2011a.app/bin/maci64/libmwhg.dylib
Reason: image not found

Binary Images:
0x7fff5fc00000 -     0x7fff5fc3bdef  dyld 132.1 (???)
<B536F2F1-9DF1-3B6C-1C2C-9075EA219A06> /usr/lib/dyld

Model: MacBookPro7,1, BootROM MBP71.0039.B0B, 2 processors, Intel Core
2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, 4 GB, SMC 1.62f6
Graphics: NVIDIA ...

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This error indicates that a link to X11(or XQuartz) is broken. For those running 10.7 or higher, the recommended solution is to simply reinstall XQuartz from http://xquartz.macosforge.org/.

For users running 10.6 and below you may either reinstall X11 from your OS install DVD or run the following command in Terminal to link your X11 installation to the necessary location:

sudo ln -s /opt/X11 /usr/X11

(You will be required to enter an administrator password to run this command.)

If you are having issues installing or launching MATLAB versions R2011a-R2013a on Yosemite, please see the following article:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/161347-how-can-i-install-matlab-versions-r2011a-r2013a-on-macos-10-10-yosemite-or-later