Why do I get an error when running SimMechanics 3.0 (R2008b) on a machine using Kubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex x86?

When I run a SimMechanics model, I receive the following error:

MATLAB:dispatcher:loadLibrary Can't load '/opt/matlabr2008b/bin/glnx86/libmwpv_hggfx.so': libGL.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

Kubuntu 8.10 has opengl libraries that are named slightly differently than most Linux opengl drivers. This will cause MATLAB to be unable to find the hardware opengl libraries (even if 'opengl info' states 'software=false').

To work around this issue create new symbolic links by navigating to the directory that contains libGL.so.1 and performing the following at the Kubuntu command line:

    ln -s libGL.so.1 libGL.so
    ln -s libGLU.so.1 libGLU.so

MATLAB will then be able to use hardware accelerated opengl.

In addition, one may have to copy the libGLU.so.1 file from the MATLAB installation directory to my /usr/lib directory and replace the existing one and then re-create the symbolic link.