Matlab crashes on start after upgrading to 15.04 (from 14.10) [works as sudo]

Question

I recently upgraded to 15.04 and immediately after, Matlab 2012b no longer worked and crashed either as soon as it loads the program, or a few moments after I try to do anything. I tried installing a newer version of Matlab, 2013a, but the issue remains.

I've seen one or two other posts similar, but they seem to be related to java, and I don't think this is the case for me (I could be wrong!), and I'm not entirely sure how to find the specific issue from the error message.

The error message says MATLAB has encountered an internal problem and needs to close.

and here's the details for the message:

MATLAB crash file:/home/james/matlab_crash_dump.10850-1:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Segmentation violation detected at Sun Aug 30 22:37:24 2015
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Configuration:
  Crash Decoding     : Disabled
  Current Visual     : 0x20 (class 4, depth 24)
  Default Encoding   : UTF-8
  GNU C Library      : 2.21 stable
  MATLAB Architecture: glnxa64
  MATLAB Root        : /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a
  MATLAB Version     : 8.1.0.604 (R2013a)
  Operating System   : Linux 3.19.0-26-generic #28-Ubuntu SMP Tue Aug 11 14:16:32 UTC 2015 x86_64
  Processor ID       : x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 6, GenuineIntel
  Virtual Machine    : Java 1.6.0_17-b04 with Sun Microsystems Inc. Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM mixed mode
  Window System      : The X.Org Foundation (11701000), display :0

Fault Count: 1


Abnormal termination:
Segmentation violation

Register State (from fault):
  RAX = 00007f2cde2cb9b0  RBX = 00007f2ccc09cb20
  RCX = 00007f2cda656da0  RDX = 00000000fffffffd
  RSP = 00007f2cda656d40  RBP = 00007f2ccc03ed80
  RSI = 00007f2ccc09cb20  RDI = 00007f2c00000000

   R8 = 00007f2ccc075108   R9 = 00007f2cde83f2a0
  R10 = 00007f2cde83f300  R11 = 000000000000000b
  R12 = 00000000fffffffd  R13 = 00007f2ccc02b1d0
  R14 = 00007f2cda656da0  R15 = 0000000000000004

  RIP = 00007f2cec0d1c84  EFL = 0000000000010202

   CS = 0033   FS = 0000   GS = 0000

Stack Trace (from fault):
[  0] 0x00007f2cec0d1c84              /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0+00040068 pthread_mutex_lock+00000004
[  1] 0x00007f2cde2bbbc1              /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libX11.so.6+00109505 XFindContext+00000097
[  2] 0x00007f2cdebbc388 /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libXm.so.3+01483656 _XmGetWidgetExtData+00000056
[  3] 0x00007f2cdebb546b /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libXm.so.3+01455211 _XmGetFocusPolicy+00000059
[  4] 0x00007f2cdebb65bd /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/../../sys/os/glnxa64/libXm.so.3+01459645 _XmManagerFocusOut+00000061
[  5] 0x00007f2cde6213ae               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00291758
[  6] 0x00007f2cde6217f4               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00292852
[  7] 0x00007f2cde622620               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00296480 _XtTranslateEvent+00001568
[  8] 0x00007f2cde5fbc9b               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00138395 XtDispatchEventToWidget+00001115
[  9] 0x00007f2cde5fcaf2               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00142066 _XtSendFocusEvent+00000210
[ 10] 0x00007f2cde5fbc4b               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00138315 XtDispatchEventToWidget+00001035
[ 11] 0x00007f2cde5fc348               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00140104
[ 12] 0x00007f2cde5fc499               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00140441 XtDispatchEvent+00000201
[ 13] 0x00007f2cde6079be               /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libXt.so.6+00186814 XtAppProcessEvent+00000734
[ 14] 0x00007f2ce1ad34d3   /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/libmwuix.so+00480467
[ 15] 0x00007f2ce1ae0df2   /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/libmwuix.so+00536050
[ 16] 0x00007f2cee639862 /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/libmwservices.so+01845346
[ 17] 0x00007f2cee63a50f /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/libmwservices.so+01848591 _Z25svWS_ProcessPendingEventsiib+00001615
[ 18] 0x00007f2cedf4f5ef   /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/libmwmcr.so+00316911
[ 19] 0x00007f2cedf4ff5c   /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/libmwmcr.so+00319324
[ 20] 0x00007f2cedf49592   /usr/local/MATLAB/R2013a/bin/glnxa64/libmwmcr.so+00292242
[ 21] 0x00007f2cec0cf6aa              /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0+00030378
[ 22] 0x00007f2cebe04eed                    /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6+01076973 clone+00000109


If this problem is reproducible, please submit a Service Request via:
    http://www.mathworks.com/support/contact_us/

A technical support engineer might contact you with further information.

Thank you for your help.

And ideas as to what might be causing this error? I tried installing the matlab-support package from apt-get, but it seemed not to solve it.

--------------------------------UPDATE------------------------ I had another go at the issue, and I discovered that Matlab does now work when I use sudo and launch from terminal. This is pretty strange, as I didn't have to use sudo before the 15.04 upgrade.

I've tried to fix this by changing the chown of the matlab installation directory and the .matlab to my username, but no luck. So it looks like the upgrade to 15.04 resulted in a permissions error.

Any ideas on how I can resolve this? Having to use sudo for each launch means I can't use .desktop launchers for matlab, which makes things inconvenient... any ideas?

Answer 1

This is most likely the bug described here, that is, an incompatibility between stdlibc++ versions.

Workaround, from the Mathworks support thread linked above:

1. Identify the location where MATLAB is installed

2. Navigate to the sys/os/glnxa64 directory within this installation folder

3. Rename libstdc++.so.6 library to libstdc++.so.6.old

It worked for me, at least.