How to get permissions to a folder in an installation process?

Question

I am trying to install Matlab in my personal computer running Ubuntu 14.04.

The directory for installation is /usr/local/MATLAB/R2014a, on which I can get permissions using sudo when in the terminal.

However, Matlab has its own installation process which runs a wizard on independent windows.

When I follow the wizard, I am not able to get access to that installation directory.

Does anyone know how to get such permissions for the installation?

Thank you in advance.

Solution

If you know the path of the folder, say /home/test_folder, then all you do is:

sudo chmod -R 775 /home/test_folder

And you get full read and write permissions!

EDIT: the -R ensures recursive permission changes so be careful not to run this command on a folder that is high up on your system (as this could make EVERY folder read/write-able, prone to security issues).

Comments

[Diego-MX]

Thank you for your help. I am still getting an error that says 'Unable to create the destination folder /usr/local/MATLAB/R2014a'. I have tried changing the permissions with your command beforehand both on /usr/local and /usr/local/MATLAB/R2014 which I created. Would you have idea of what this means? Thanks.

[ZekeDroid]

well you can't create a folder with the same name :) think about it like this: if you're trying to let an installer create a folder but get a message with read write issues just grant the parent folder the permissions. In your case, /usr/local/MATLAB. This error is because that folder already exists.

[Diego-MX]

This makes sense, but still didn't do the trick. =(

[Diego-MX]

After finally contacting support, it turns out that the permissions were 777 with your above. An alternative is to run the installation command with sudo, that is sudo ./install when on the matlab folder.

[ZekeDroid]

ah yes, that's usually the first thing you should try with permission issues; sorry, I wrongfully assumed you had already which is why I suggested 775 (implying executability not allowed as the numbers indicate read/write/execute)

[Diego-MX]

It was useful to know about setting permissions with chmod.

[ZekeDroid]

yup, that's an important tool. again, be very careful as it's a powerful tool.