Why does MATLAB crash when plotting in Linux with Nvidia drivers?

MATLAB crashes when I try creating plots with the crash log below.  Why is this happening?

Stack Trace (from fault):
[  0] 0x00007f9b156558fa                          /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6+00686330 _ZSt28_Rb_tree_rebalance_for_erasePSt18_Rb_tree_node_baseRS_+00000474
[  1] 0x00007f98ec185ca4   /opt/matlab/R2016b/bin/glnxa64/libmwosgserver.so+02296996
[  2] 0x00007f98ee7b6f6c /opt/matlab/R2016b/bin/glnxa64/libmwhandle_graphics.so+21462892 _ZN2hg16CompositeCommand7executeEPNS_23CommandExecutionContextE+00000044
[  3] 0x00007f98ec1905e1   /opt/matlab/R2016b/bin/glnxa64/libmwosgserver.so+02340321 _ZN2hg19OsgSceneServerProxy14executeCommandEiPNS_7CommandE+00000033
[  4] 0x00007f9abcce212e      /opt/matlab/R2016b/bin/glnxa64/libnativehg.so+00045358 Java_com_mathworks_hg_peer_JavaSceneServerPeer_doExecuteCommand+00000030
[  5] 0x00007f9ad79bdd98                                   <unknown-module>+00000000
[  6] 0x00007f9ad79b1058                                   <unknown-module>+00000000
[  7] 0x00007f9ad79b1706                                   <unknown-module>+00000000
[  8] 0x00007f9ad7fa4224                                   <unknown-module>+00000000

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This crash is caused by a bug in the NVIDIA Linux drivers.  

NVIDIA is reporting and we have confirmed that the crash is addressed starting in version 390.67 of NVIDIA's long-lived driver branch and it is also addressed starting in version 396.24 of NVIDIA's short-lived driver branch.

In order to address the crashes, consider the following two workarounds:

1. Download and install the most recent graphics driver for your graphics card.

The 396.24 driver release can be found here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/133859/

The 390.67 driver release can be found here:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/134859/

Please note that these two driver releases above may not be the most recent, but they should be sufficient for resolving this crash.

2. Consider starting MATLAB with the "-softwareopengl" flag in the command line. See the documentation page below for further details:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/opengl.html

[LeChat]

Should we update to this version:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/133859/

or this one:

https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/133859/

which seems more recent (I updated last week to the v390.59 which just came out but the issue persisted...)?

[LeChat]

FYI, in case an update of your Linux is causing weird issues, I would recommand to remove the GPU driver (I have an Nvidia) and reinstall it from scratch. Here are the commands I recently used when I switched to Ubuntu 19.04 (from Ubunut 18.10):

sudo apt purge --autoremove '*nvidia*'
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
ubuntu-drivers devices
nvidia-settings
sudo apt install nvidia-settings
sudo reboot

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

[LeChat]

As previously said, this crash is caused by the Linux Nvidia driver. As a general rule, update the driver of your Nvidia GPU to late version (see https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us).

A workaround option is to use opengl, which you can do by opening Matlab using the following command in the Terminal:

matlab -softwareopengl

If you want to use this "workaround option" on a more durable basis, you can save the following in Matlab command window:

opengl('save','software')

so you do not need the "-softwareopengl" flag everytime you open Matlab.

To switch back to the "normal mode", which would be to use the Nvidia driver, then do:

opengl('save','hardware')

Hope this helps.