Patch for OS X Yosemite for MATLAB R2013a STUDENT

I updated my system to 10.10 Yosemite. I knew there were problems with MATLAB, but I saw that a patch was apparently already submitted by MathWorks.

So I upgraded, tried to open MATLAB, but it would tell me that it's not working with my version of OS X. The workaround for this was simple, but then it showed some errors with Java (the usual ones, there are many other people reporting that very same problem with other versions of MATLAB)

http://www.mathworks.com/support/bugreports/1098655

I downloaded the patch MathWorks provided for this specific problem and tried to run it, but it would tell me that it couldn't find an appropriate version of MATLAB. So apparently, MathWorks managed to patch the "standard" version of MATLAB 2013a, but not the student version. I mean, sure, I paid less for it, but I paid for it nonetheless and am kind of angry that MathWorks dropped support for a version of MATLAB that I bought just a year ago. I also don't see the technical issue here, as the student version is basically identical to the standard version to my understanding. So maybe someone knows a workaround for the "lesser people" out there.

[JAE HWANG]

me, too. lol I bought it at MARCH 2014. That day, student version is available only 2013a who would but older version?

MathWork should learn from STARCRAFT........ i really know how to figure out this problem

[Leonard]

same problem..

Answer 1

[Marco]

MathWorks fixed it.

You have to install Java 6 manually from http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572 and apply a Patch provided by MathWorks: http://www.mathworks.de/support/bugreports/1098655 then you are done.

[Cyrus Mwangi]

Would have been absolutely screwed if they didn't fix this. Thank you for posting this Marco!!!

[Kirby]

After following these steps, I still get the same error message ("You can’t use this version of the application “MATLAB_R2013a_Student” with this version of OS X.") Any reason for this you might know?

Answer 2

[Marco]

As I wrote in other threads, this worked for me in a virtual machine and I upgraded an hour ago and it also works on my main system:

1. Install Java 6 for Mac: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572
2. Install MATLAB
3. Change the System Version in /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist. Search for the key ProductVersion and change the string from 10.10 to 10.90. You cannot edit this file directly, you have to copy it to your desktop, edit it and copy it back.
4. Change the Bundle Version of MATLAB in /Applictions/Matlab_XXXX/Contents/Info.plist. Search for the key BundleVersion and change the string from 8.x.x to 9.x.x . To access it, you have to right click on MATLAB app in Applications and select Show Package Contents.
5. You may have to start MATLAB manually by opening /Applictions/Matlab_XXXX/bin/matlab. (Currently I can open it directly after applying the changes above).

However these changes will break the disk utility and maybe have some additional (currently unknown) effects. I found some reports, that the changes described above may cause your Mac to not start, therefore I wanted some automatism for this workaround. I found out, that the changes are only necessary until MATLAB is started, you can revert the changes directly afterwards.

So i wrote a little shell script which can be used to start MATLAB:

sudo sed -i '' 's/>10.10</>10.90</' /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist
open -a MATLAB_R2013a_Student
read -p "Press any key when MATLAB started..."
sudo sed -i '' 's/>10.90</>10.10</' /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist

Within execution of this script you are asked to enter your password and you need to confirm when MATLAB has successfully started.

Hopefully MathWorks will provide a "real fix" soon.

[Tobias]

I have no idea how and why, but this worked. Thank you very much!