MATLAB not Starting on Ubuntu 18.04 with Intel Compilers

Dear all,

I've succesfully installed MATLAB R2017b on an Ubuntu 18.04 machine, but every time I try to start it I receive this error:

MATLAB is selecting SOFTWARE OPENGL rendering.
/usr/local/MATLAB/R2017b/bin/glnxa64/MATLAB: symbol lookup error: /opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2018.2.199/linux/compiler/lib/intel64/libirng.so: undefined symbol: __intel_skx_avx512_memcpy

Why is MATLAB interacting with libraries from the Intel compilers? How can I solve such crash?

UPDATE: the symbol is actually undefined:

$ nm -D /opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2018.2.199/linux/compiler/lib/intel64/libirng.so | grep __intel_skx_avx512_memcpy
               U __intel_skx_avx512_memcpy

But libirng.so, as far as I understand, is an intel-only library, so it shouldn't be needed by MATLAB...

Thank you!

[Walter Roberson]

Possibly your LD_LIBRARY_PATH has /opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2018.2.199/linux/compiler/lib/intel64 earlier than some other location where libirng.so is expected so possibly you are getting the Intel version instead of the one MATLAB wants ?

[Federico]

Actually that path was not set under LD_LIBRARY_PATH and libirng is not part of MATLAB bundled libraries (under glnxa64). So I do not understand even why it is expecting libirng to be there! If it's a dependency it is not stated during install...

[Walter Roberson]

I think you should probably start a technical support case about this.

[Federico]

It is open, but there are no replies at the moment, so I checked in here to see if someone else experienced the same issues / had a workaround

Answer 1

[Federico]

Dear all,

I am here answering my own question for anybody that can encounter the same problem. The issue was related to .bashrc directives. My .bashrc file included commands to source Intel's *.sh files and set default compilers (e.g.: export FC = /opt/intel/bin/ifort). By commenting out all the export and source commands related to Intel Compilers, MATLAB starts.

WORKAROUND #1: Instead of editing .bashrc every time, it is enough to preload one Intel library: the symbol is actually undefined in libirng, but it is defined in libirc.

Therefore it is enough to edit .bashrc once with:

LD_PRELOAD = /opt/intel/compilers_and_libraries_2018.2.199/linux/compiler/lib/intel64/libirc.so

This does the trick and MATLAB starts normally.

WORKAROUND #2:

Also a workaround to avoid editing the .bashrc file every single time. In case workaround #1 didn't work, wrap MATLAB initialization in a .desktop file like this:

[Desktop Entry]

Name=Matlab R2017b
Exec=bash --noprofile --norc -c 'exec YourPathToMatlab/matlab -desktop'
Icon=/home/modelstation/Pictures/matlab-icon.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application

This invokes the shell but in a way that it ignores the bashrc specifications. The -c flag makes it execute the string that follows and thus launch MATLAB.

[Walter Roberson]

Thanks for the .desktop file.