Why do I receive a segmentation violation when I clear variables or quit MATLAB 7.0 (R14) on my Linux machine (which uses glibc version 2.3.2)?

I am running MATLAB 7.0 (R14) on my Linux machine, which has glibc 2.3.2. I sometimes experience crashes when I clear memory or shutdown. For example, the following MATLAB code will reproduce this behavior:

bench

clear all

Although the code above will close MATLAB, a file called MATLAB_CRASH_DUMP.XXXX (where XXXX was MATLAB's pid) will be created in the user’s home directory, with contents similar to the following:

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

        Segmentation violation detected at Sat Jul  3 10:19:59 2004

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Configuration:

   MATLAB Version:   7.0.0.19901 (R14)

   Operating System: Linux 2.4.20-28.9custom #12 Sat Jan 31 12:08:58 PST 2004 i686

   Window System:     (1074332980), display ìÔ'

   Current Visual:   0x61 (class 1397036928, depth 151)

   Processor ID:     x86 Family 6 Model 7 Stepping 3, GenuineIntel

   Virtual Machine:  Java 1.4.2_02 with Sun Microsystems Inc. Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM

     (mixed mode)

   Default Charset:  ISO-8859-1

 ...

 Stack Trace:

   [0] libut.so:ut_allow_further_cleanup_fcn(64, 0xbfff9290, 0x4009cedc, 0x400433f2) + 16 bytes

   [1] libut.so:MWExceptions::_utCleanupControl::~_utCleanupControl()(0xbfff9290, 0x4082721c, 0xbfff92d8, 0x40822f70) + 46 bytes

   [2] libmex.so:Mlm_mex::unload_file()(0x531628a0, 0x402f9fb4, 1025, 0x53453598) + 468 bytes

   [3] libmwm_dispatcher.so:Mlm_file::unload_mf()(0x531628a0, 0x52c90910, 0xbfff93a8, 0x402c3c9a) + 30 bytes

   [4] libmwm_dispatcher.so:Mlm_MATLAB_fn::clear()(0x531628a0, 0x0832c2a8, 8716, 0x402c267a) + 63 bytes

   [5] libmwm_dispatcher.so:Mdispatcher::clear(char const*)(0x52c90910, 0, 0, 0x402a5f6c) + 295 bytes

   [6] libmwm_dispatcher.so:mdClearFunctionsByName(0, 0x40578a00, 0xbfffa548, 0x40359354) + 68 bytes

 <SNIP>

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This bug has been fixed for MATLAB 7.0.1 (R14SP1). For previous releases, read below for any possible workarounds:

These errors appear to arise as a result of an incompatibility between glibc version 2.3.2 and MATLAB 7.0 (R14).

Updating the libg2c runtime libraries will resolve this issue. The library that needs to be updated is the following:

 libg2c.so.0.0.0

This library is located in $MATLABROOT/sys/os/glnx86, where $MATLABROOT is the MATLAB installation directory.

In order to update to the libraries:

1. Rename the existing library (in $MATLABROOT/sys/os/glnx86) as follows:

 libg2c.so.0.0.0    ->      libg2c.so.0.0.0.MATLAB

2. Download the file, libg2c.so.0.0.0, from the bottom of the page and save it in that directory.