Why do I get the message 'error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.5' when trying to start MATLAB?

When trying to start MATLAB on a Linux machine, I get the following error message:

$MATLABROOT/bin/glnxa64/need_softwareopengl: error while loading shared libraries: libncurses.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory 

How can I get MATLAB working? 

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The error message indicates that you may be missing the ncurses library on your machine. Please follow the distribution specific information on installing the ncurses library.

For example, if you are using Ubuntu, you could search for the library in Ubuntu's package search to find a package that contains the library and then install it with aptitude (apt install).

Ubuntu Package Search

In this case, user installed the library and copied the files to their $MATLABROOT/bin/glnxa64/ directory. Afterwards, they were able to launch MATLAB with no issues.