Mount issue. Mount: only root can do that

[gotmilk]

Hi,

I'm a bit of noob when it comes to installing anything on Linux Ubutu. I'm trying to install Matlab for a class I'll be taking this fall. When I try to mount the ISO ($sudo mount ml2012au.iso /home/gotmilk/Desktop/Matlab_Unix_2012a), it says "Mount: only root can do that." What exactly do I do? If anyone could dumb it down (basically tell me what to type on the terminal) , that would be great because I honestly have no clue on how to install exactly.

I looked it up before I posted and people say something about the user option and something about /etc/fstab? I'm not sure what exactly they are talking about so if anything could explain that would be great!

[yancek]

If you want to extract the files in the iso, you would first need to create a mount point. Ubuntu would expect the matlab files to be in the /media directory. First do this:

sudo mkdir /media/matlab

Hit the enter key. You should have a matlab sub-directory in the /media directory. You will then need to navigate to whereever the actual file "ml2012au.iso" is, in your /home/gotmilk/Downloads directory ??, don't know where you have it. After you are in that directory do this:

sudo mount -o loop ml2012au.iso /media/matlab

Again hit the enter key. You should then be able to see the extracted files. Maybe there will be a readme file or instructions. I don't know anything about matlab so I would suggest you google install matlab on Ubuntu. I found a number of sites with instructions doing that so that might help.

[hagfish52]

First you should know that the latest version of Ubuntu that Matlab supports is 11.10. 12.04 is not supported, so you would be entering unknown territory if you have that.

Try this: With the installation CD loaded in the CDROM drive, open Terminal and type in "mount". This will show you the mountpoint directory for /dev/sr0, which is your CDROM drive. (usually it is a subdirectory of /media). Next, use "cd" to move into the mountpoint directory. (Example: "cd /media/Matlab"). Then run your installation script, "sudo ./install".

[EDIT]

Before you install Matlab you may want to install some Ubuntu support packages. In Terminal type:

sudo apt-get install matlab-support matlab-support-dev

[gotmilk]

If you want to extract the files in the iso, you would first need to create a mount point. Ubuntu would expect the matlab files to be in the /media directory. First do this:



Hit the enter key. You should have a matlab sub-directory in the /media directory. You will then need to navigate to whereever the actual file "ml2012au.iso" is, in your /home/gotmilk/Downloads directory ??, don't know where you have it. After you are in that directory do this:



Again hit the enter key. You should then be able to see the extracted files. Maybe there will be a readme file or instructions. I don't know anything about matlab so I would suggest you google install matlab on Ubuntu. I found a number of sites with instructions doing that so that might help.

Hi yancek,

Nothing comes up after I do "sudo mkdir /media/matlab". It just asked me for a password.

@hagfish52 I have the 10.04 I believe. My friend lend me a file of Matlab iso so I don't have the CD I could make it though.

[EDIT]: Also hagfish, whenever I try to install the Ubuntu support packages
"Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package matlab-support"

[yancek]

Nothing comes up after I do "sudo mkdir /media/matlab". It just asked me for a password.

That's right. When you use the sudo command to get root privileges you will be asked for your password and after you enter it and hit the enter key, you should be able to navigate to the /media directory and see the directory you created. I googled installing matlab on ubuntu and found the site below as well as a number of others so I would suggest you go there and read it:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MATLAB

After briefly reading the above link, ignore my recommendation to create that directory. I think the problem is that you need to burn the iso image of matlab you downloaded to a CD/DVD and install it that way.

[hagfish52]

Matlab should work fine on 10.04.

I googled it and the matlab-support and the matlab-support-dev packages do exist for 10.04. You may want to try it again but check for spelling errors. Or else install the packages from the Synaptic package manager.

However, I found out you should install the packages after installing Matlab. When I installed them on my 12.04 VM one of the programs asked me what directory Matlab was installed into.