R2012a Installer fails (still space bug?) at the first hurdle in Mountain Lion

Hi,

I know it is not officially supported in 10.8, but 1) it is reported working by many anyway 2) it looks like it could be a lingering Java bug 3) Someone's seen it in Lion with R2011b as well http://mathforum.org/kb/thread.jspa?forumID=80&threadID=2360115&messageID=7754115

So, as soon as I start the R2012a installer whether by double-clicking or on the commandline, root or no root, I get the splash screen and:

Preparing installation files ...
Installing ...
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/mathworks/installwizard/Launcher
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.mathworks.installwizard.Launcher
  at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:202)
  at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
  at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:190)
  at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:306)
  at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:301)
  at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:247)

The only mention of something similar I found in the support section was a known bug with paths that contain space characters and it "was fixed" last year. My path is space-free, but running the installer from "/Volumes/SD CARD/"makes me thing that space bug may still be there, in addition to everything else (please note the installer cant find a different file this time:

/Volumes/SD\ CARD/matlab_R2012a_maci64_install/install ; exit;
Preparing installation files ...
Installing ...
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: CARD/matlab_R2012a_maci64_install/java/splash/png
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: CARD.matlab_R2012a_maci64_install.java.splash.png

java -version
java version "1.6.0_33"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_33-b03-424-11M3720)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.8-b03-424, mixed mode)

If I run the installer from a different relative directory to the jars I get the exact first error in text but no splash screen - puzzling! Now, I get Matlab from school as a .zip package, which is somewhat scary, it could be mangling up filenames and permissions, is this how MathWorks distributes Matlab or is it the unhealthy creativity of a university worker? BTW, I have also installed the semiofficial XQuartz that supports 10.8, but I doubt the installer goes anywhere near X11 issues.

Thanks!