saving structure error in octave 3.2.3, ubuntu 10.04

[Steve Thompson]

Hello,

For our development, we are running Ubuntu LTS 10.04 (because we need 
something stable).  In that distro, Octave 3.2.3 is supplied.

I have a strange error, and it can be boiled down to this:

+++ snip ++++++++++++++++

% this gives me a bad file:
clear y
for i = 1 : 36
y(i).hi = [-0.707106781186547 - 0.707106781186547i, ...
            0.707106781186547 - 0.707106781186547i, ...
           -0.707106781186547 + 0.707106781186547i, ...
            0.707106781186547 + 0.707106781186547i].';
end
save ohmy.mat y
clear y
load ohmy.mat

% this gives me a good file:
clear y
for i = 1 : 36
y(i).hi = [1 + j, 1 - j; 1 - j, 1 + j];
y(i).hi = [-0.70711 - 0.70711i, ...
            0.70711 - 0.70711i, ...
           -0.70711 + 0.70711i, ...
            0.70711 + 0.70711i].';
end
save ohmy.mat y
clear y
load ohmy.mat

+++ snip ++++++++++++++++

In the first case, after the load ohmy.mat,  the y structure is now 
where to be seen.  Opening ohmy.mat in a text editor, it appears corrupted.

In the second case, everything is fine.  Opening ohmy.mat reads nicely.

This appears to be some type of bug in Octave 3.2.3 and Octave 3.0.5 as 
supplied by Ubuntu 10.04.

When I do the same thing in Octave 3.4.2 as supplied by cygwin and 
Octave 3.4.3 as supplied by the MS Windows install, I do not get this 
bad behavior: everything works as it should in these cases.

I need to stay in my Ubuntu 10.04 environment.  Is there a fixed to 
Octave 3.2.3 to make this problem go away?  Or, do I have to install a 
newer version of Octave in Ubuntu 10.04?  Is there an easy way to 
install, for example, Octave 3.2.4 in Ubuntu 10.04?  (I've poked around 
the web, and it looks like this has to be done by compiling from 
source?  I'd like to avoid this step if possible!)

Thanks everyone!

Steve