MATLAB: Do I receive a “Timeout creating child process” error on MAC machines if X11 is not installed.

MATLAB Parallel ServerParallel Computing Toolbox

When trying to start a worker on a Mac machine without X11 installed, the following error message is immediately displayed in the Terminal Window:
 timeout creating child process
Viewing the mdce-service.log file located in the LOGBASE directory for MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine (Default is /var/log/mdce) shows the following error message:
 MATLAB can't open library: /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.6.dylib (No such file or directory, errno =2)

Best Answer

The X11 package is required for MATLAB and the MATLAB Distributed Computing Engine on MAC OS X machines.
Apple's X11 is availble on the Apple installation CD (Disk 1) in the folder:
$CDROM/System/Installation/Packages/
This installation file is called X11user.pkg
NOTE: You must install X11 using the correct Apple CDs. PowerPC Mac CDs install different files than the Intel-Based Mac CDs. This error can occur if the wrong version is installed on this system
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