Segmentation violation at startup on Fedora 26

I had installed successfully MATLAB 2017b on Fedora 26 about two months ago and it worked well, but now it's crashing at startup with this segment violation error.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Segmentation violation detected at Mon Nov 13 15:37:43 2017
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Configuration:
  Crash Decoding      : Disabled - No sandbox or build area path
  Crash Mode          : continue (default)
  Current Graphics Driver: Unknown hardware 
  Current Visual      : 0x21 (class 4, depth 24)
  Default Encoding    : UTF-8
  Deployed            : false
  GNU C Library       : 2.25 stable
  Host Name           : Roadrunner
  MATLAB Architecture : glnxa64
  MATLAB Entitlement ID: 2645808
  MATLAB Root         : /opt/matlab
  MATLAB Version      : 9.3.0.713579 (R2017b)
  OpenGL              : hardware
  Operating System    : Linux 4.13.11-200.fc26.x86_64 #1 SMP Thu Nov 2 18:28:35 UTC 2017 x86_64
  Processor ID        : x86 Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10, GenuineIntel
  Virtual Machine     : Java 1.8.0_121-b13 with Oracle Corporation Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM mixed mode
  Window System       : Fedora Project (11903000), display :0

Fault Count: 1

Abnormal termination:
Segmentation violation

Register State (from fault):
  RAX = 00007efcad11dc38  RBX = 000000000000001a
  RCX = 00007efcad11f0d8  RDX = 0000000001f75650
  RSP = 00007efccda54968  RBP = 0000000000000001
  RSI = 00007fffd047ea38  RDI = 0000000000000001

     R8 = 0000000000000000   R9 = 0000000000000028
    R10 = 00007efcd4448890  R11 = 0000000000000206
    R12 = 00007fffd047ea38  R13 = 0000000001f75650
    R14 = 00007efcad11dc30  R15 = 00007efcd444d7d0

    RIP = 000000000000beb0  EFL = 0000000000010246

     CS = 0033   FS = 0000   GS = 0000

Stack Trace (from fault):
[  0] 0x000000000000beb0                                   <unknown-module>+00000000

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.

Answer 1

[Tony Mohan Varghese]

This error occurs when your computer cannot load a certain font display library through MATLAB.

To resolve the issue, please navigate to MATLAB R2017b installation location in your system and remove the “libfreetype.so.6” library file shipped with MATLAB R2017b, so that MATLAB will use the system version of that library:

_matlabroot_/bin/glnxa64/

Note: Here matlabroot is the location in your system where MATLAB R2017b is installed.

Eg: ‘/usr/local/MATLAB/R2017B’

Following are the commands to execute in linux shell to perform the above mentioned operation: (You may need root privilege)

1. cd /usr/local/MATLAB/R2017b (or wherever you may have installed MATLAB)
2. cd bin/glnxa64
3. mkdir exclude
4. mv libfreetype* exclude/

Now, please start MATLAB normally. If you see any warnings on MATLAB command prompt, then please follow below link to troubleshoot:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/364551-why-is-matlab-unable-to-run-the-matlabwindow-application-on-linux

[Thomas Vogt]

I'm also on Fedora 27 and ran into the same problem as the op. Your suggestion merely changed the crash message (see attached). Any suggestions what might cause this?