[CentOS] Matlab 2007a and C5 out-of-box broken

I had to reinstall C5 64-bit out-of-box on two machines.  Before the 
reinstall, Matlab 2007a 64-bit worked fine.  Now, I get "failed to start 
the desktop; failure loading desktop class".  matlab -nojvm works fine.

The reinstall was not an upgrade.

I tested on two identical systems - one before I installed the NVIDIA 
drivers, and one after.  No difference.

I installed jre and jdk 1_5.0.11 on one system, and redirected 
/usr/bin/java to the newer one.  No luck.

I tried installing Matlab as root and sudo, running it as root and plain 
user.   No difference.

Web sites aren't helping me much.

I performed a complete install (selecting ALL items from EVERY catagory of 
the C5 64-bit DVD).

The machines are not on any network and never will be (both isolated 
systems)

Anyone else with ideas?

Thanks.

Scott