MATLAB: Do I receive a “Critical Error” referencing “tar -xf” when installing MATLAB for Mac from download

Question

I downloaded the matlab_installer.tar file to my Desktop and ran it. A matlab_installer Folder was created and all files were extracted into this folder. When I clicked on the InstallforMacOSX icon and entered my password, the following error appeared:

 "Critical error during initialization: could not run command "tar -xf" /Users/<username>/Desktop/matlab_installer Folder/tbx.matlab.common" -C /private/tmp/501/TemporaryItems/MathWorks_installer_20040331-092256".

Answer 1

This error is usually the result of a corrupted file.

Download the file referenced in the error message again to correct the problem.