MATLAB: R2018a MATLABWebAppServer installation on Ubuntu 18.04

18.04MATLAB Compilermatlab r2018aUbuntuwebappserver

I am trying to configure Matlab web app server on my Ubuntu desktop running version 18.04. I was able to install both Matlab as well as web app server in my machine. When I try to configure MATLABWebAppServer following the steps given in https://www.mathworks.com/help/compiler/webapps/configure-matlab-web-app-server.html, I get this error:
MathWorks::System::IUserException [Error using matlab.internal.webwindow (line 310)
MATLABWindow application failed to launch. Unable to launch the MATLABWindow application
Error in matlab.ui.internal.controller.platformhost.CEFFigurePlatformHost/createView (line 58)
Error in matlab.ui.internal.controller.FigureController/createView (line 223)
Error in matlab.ui.internal.componentframework.WebComponentController/add (line 75)
Error in matlab.ui.internal.controller.WebCanvasContainerController/add (line 52)
Error in matlab.ui.internal.componentframework.WebControllerFactory/create (line 93)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppAdminController (line 42)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppsAdminPanel/startupFcn (line 57)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppsAdminPanel>@(app)startupFcn(app,varargin{:})
Error in appdesigner.internal.service.AppManagementService/tryCallback (line 286)
Error in matlab.apps.AppBase/runStartupFcn (line 24)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppsAdminPanel (line 376)
Error in mdwas_manager_main_debug (line 7)
Error in mdwas_manager_main (line 2)]
MathWorks::System::IUserException [Dot indexing is not supported for variables of this type.
Error in matlab.ui.internal.componentframework.services.core.eventhandling.WebEventHandlingService/setProperty (line 199)
Error in matlab.ui.internal.controller.WebCanvasContainerController/updateSceneChannel (line 137)
Error in matlab.ui.internal.controller.WebCanvasContainerController/set.Canvas (line 91)
Error in matlab.ui.internal.componentframework.WebControllerFactory/create (line 93)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppAdminController (line 42)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppsAdminPanel/startupFcn (line 57)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppsAdminPanel>@(app)startupFcn(app,varargin{:})
Error in appdesigner.internal.service.AppManagementService/tryCallback (line 286)
Error in matlab.apps.AppBase/runStartupFcn (line 24)
Error in compiler.internal.mdwas.manager.WebAppsAdminPanel (line 376)
Error in mdwas_manager_main_debug (line 7)
Error in mdwas_manager_main (line 2)]
The command doesn't exit but hangs after printing this error message. Is this a known issue? What can I do to configure the WebAppServer on Ubuntu 18.04? Thanks!

Best Answer

Please keep in mind that Ubuntu 18.04 is not supported by MATLAB R2018a.
Ref: system requirements
But in my personal experience, I have encountered the same issue in Ubuntu 18.04 . This error (Unable to launch the MATLABWindow application) is related to this answer.
If you go to bin/glnxa64 under MATLAB Runtime root directory, and execute MATLABWindow command, you can confirm the root cause. For example, when the root directory is /usr/local/MATLAB/MATLAB_Runtime/v94,
cd /usr/local/MATLAB/MATLAB_Runtime/v94/bin/glnxa64
./MATLABWindow
In my case, this returns
./MATLABWindow: symbol lookup error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libatk-1.0.so.0: undefined symbol: g_log_structured_standard
In this case, as 2) of this answer, create exclude directory and move libglib-2.0.so files (libglib-2.0.so, libglib-2.0.so.0 and libglib-2.0.so.0.5400.0) to this. For example,
cd /usr/local/MATLAB/MATLAB_Runtime/v94/cefclient/sys/os/glnxa64/
sudo mkdir exlude
sudo mv libglib-2.0.so* exclude/
After that, /usr/local/MATLAB/MATLAB_Runtime/v94/bin/glnxa64/MATLABWindow will show Web browser properly. Then, I think you can launch MATLABWebAppServer without an error.
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