Ubuntu 18.04 freezes when starting up MATLAB

Question

I recently installed MATLAB R2018b and experienced crashing on startup. Whenever I ran matlab from the terminal the splash would pop up for a few seconds, then the entire OS would freeze. I was forced to hard reset my computer as I was completely locked out. Because of this, no error messages or logs have been created at any point in time.

The problem seems similar to: https://nl.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/405904-matlab-crashes-on-startup-when-using-jvm-ubuntu-16-04-1?s_tid=mlc_ans_email_view#answer_362302. I can run MATLAB successfully if I start it with the -nojvm option.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

Unfortunately still not solved. Trying some things out with the MATLAB helpdesk seems to indicate this is a system issue related to Ryzen. There seems to be known issues with Linux on various Ryzens:

• Unable to install Ubuntu 18.04 on AMD Ryzen 2500U with Radeon Vega 8 Gfx
• http://kulminaator.blogspot.com/2018/06/linux-on-amd-ryzen-2500u-powered-laptop.html
• https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=196683
• https://community.amd.com/thread/225795

Other than that, there are many discussions on this soft lockup problem, none with a clear solution. Causes include graphics card, graphics driver, kernel, BIOS settings, power supply, etc.:

• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/70377/bug-soft-lockup-cpu-stuck-for-x-seconds
• NMI watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#2 stuck for 23s! [plymouthd:305]
• NMI watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#2 stuck for 23s! [nvidia-smi:566]
• Random freezes on Ubuntu 18.04 with error: "watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#11 stuck for 22s" followed by "NMI watchdog hard LOCKUP"
• Watchdog: BUG: soft lockup - CPU#4 stuck for 22s!