MATLAB 2018b hangs on splash screen in ubuntu 16.04 (unsupported java probably)

Hello, I have a problem with MATLAB 2018b in ubuntu 16.04: it hangs on splash screen. Previously I had MATLAB 2016b and everything worked fine. I am currently able to run matlab only with the -nodesktop option. A test log output created during the splash screen hanging reports:

[Warning: A Java exception occurred trying to load the
com/mathworks/mlwidgets/help/DocCenterDocConfig class:
Java exception occurred:
java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/mathworks/helpsearch/DocPathBuilder
: Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:803)
	at
        java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:803)
	at
        java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
	at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
	at java.lang.Class.forName(Class.java:195)
	at
        com.mathworks.jmi.OpaqueJavaInterface.findClass(OpaqueJavaInterface.java:137)] 
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0": java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: com/mathworks/search/SearchField : Unsupported major.minor version 52.0
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:803)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:449)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:71)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:361)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:355)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:354)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:425)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:308)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:358)
	at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLMainFrame.<init>(MLMainFrame.java:65)
	at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.createMainFrame(MLDesktop.java:1639)
	at com.mathworks.widgets.desk.Desktop.initMainFrame(Desktop.java:276)
	at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.initMainFrameFromThread(MLDesktop.java:833)
	at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop.access$600(MLDesktop.java:219)
	at com.mathworks.mde.desk.MLDesktop$Initializer.run(MLDesktop.java:1170)
	at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:312)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:745)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.access$300(EventQueue.java:103)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:706)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:704)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:77)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:715)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:242)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:150)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:146)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:138)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:91)

This is probably a java related problem. I am currently using openjdk 1.8 while the command "version -java" in MATLAB outputs

>> version -java

ans =

      'Java 1.7.0_95-b00 with Oracle Corporation OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM mixed mode'

I don't know if it matters but I had not licensed MATLAB for the root user.

[Aleti venkatesh]

sir this type of error i got at the time execution of a program then what can i do sir please help me sir

Answer 1

[Raymond Chiu]

2018b on Ubuntu 16.04

>> version -java

ans =

'Java 1.8.0_152-b16 with Oracle Corporation Java HotSpot™ 64-Bit Server VM mixed mode'

# https://xunyunliu.github.io/post/install_matlab/
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Icon=/usr/share/icons/matlab.png
Name=MATLAB R2018b
Comment=Start MATLAB - The Language of Technical Computing
Exec=/usr/local/MATLAB/R2018b/bin/matlab -desktop -useStartupFolderPref 
/bin/matlab -desktop"
Categories=Development;

[Andrea Nardin]

Hello Raymond, thank you for your answer. I see that you run another java version, how can I end up in the same situation? (The script for creating the desktop entry cannot solve my issue)