This script installs all the 32 bit library dependencies of modelsim and also compiles freetype.

configure_modelsim.sh

#!/bin/bash

ALTERA_PATH=~/altera/13.1/

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib \
lib32z1 lib32stdc++6 lib32gcc1 \
expat:i386 fontconfig:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libexpat1:i386 libc6:i386 libgtk-3-0:i386 \
libcanberra0:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libice6:i386 libsm6:i386 libncurses5:i386 zlib1g:i386 \
libx11-6:i386 libxau6:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxft2:i386 libxrender1:i386 \
libxt6:i386 libxtst6:i386
cd /tmp
wget http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.4.12.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf freetype-2.4.12.tar.bz2
cd freetype-2.4.12
./configure --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu "CFLAGS=-m32" "CXXFLAGS=-m32" "LDFLAGS=-m32"
make -j8
mkdir $(ALTERA_PATH)/modelsim_ase/lib32
sudo cp objs/.libs/libfreetype.so* $(ALTERA_PATH)/modelsim_ase/lib32

#this file is usually read-only, make it writeable
chmod 755 $(ALTERA_PATH)/modelsim_ase/vco
echo -e "Add the following line \n\texport LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\${dir}/lib32\nafter this line\n\tdir=\`dirname \$arg0\`\nin the file ${ALTERA_PATH}modelsim_ase/vco"

modelsim_32bit_deps.sh

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install wine
sudo apt-get install gcc-multilib g++-multilib lib32z1 lib32stdc++6 lib32gcc1 \
expat:i386 fontconfig:i386 libfreetype6:i386 libexpat1:i386 libc6:i386 libgtk-3-0:i386 \
libcanberra0:i386 libpng12-0:i386 libice6:i386 libsm6:i386 libncurses5:i386 zlib1g:i386 \
libx11-6:i386 libxau6:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxft2:i386 libxrender1:i386 \
libxt6:i386 libxtst6:i386

modelsim_crack.sh

mkdir -p /tmp/modelsim_crack
tar -xvzf ModelSim_linux_crack.tar.gz -C /tmp/modelsim_crack
cd /tmp/modelsim_crack/
./sfk6 rep -yes -pat -bin /5589E557565381ECD00000008B5508/31C0C357565381ECD00000008B5508/ -dir ~/modelsim/
sudo ./MentorKG.exe -i license.src -o ~/modelsim/license.dat -hn -pkg ~/modelsim/modeltech/linux_x86_64/mgls/lib/mgc.pkginfo

modelsim_custom_libfreetype.sh

cd /tmp
wget http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/freetype-2.4.12.tar.bz2
tar -xjvf freetype-2.4.12.tar.bz2
cd freetype-2.4.12
./configure --build=i686-pc-linux-gnu "CFLAGS=-m32" "CXXFLAGS=-m32" "LDFLAGS=-m32"
make -j8

mkdir ~/modelsim/modeltech/lib32
sudo cp objs/.libs/libfreetype.so* ~/modelsim/modeltech/lib32
 
#this file is usually read-only, make it writeable
chmod 755 ~/modelsim/modeltech/vco
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/teja/modelsim/modeltech/lib32/
echo -e "Add the following line \n\texport LD_LIBRARY_PATH=\${dir}/lib32\nafter this line\n\tdir=\`dirname \$arg0\`\nin the file ~/modelsim/modeltech/lib32/vco"

modelsim_env.sh

export LM_LICENSE_FILE=~/modelsim/license.dat
export PATH=$PATH:/home/teja/modelsim/modeltech/linux_x86_64/
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/home/teja/modelsim/modeltech/lib32/

actually... this is now working for me after making the following changes to configure_modelsim.sh and running it:

• changing ALTERA_PATH=~/altera/13.1/ to =~/altera/*/
• $(ALTERA_PATH)/ to ${ALTERA_PATH} in 2 locations

then updating modelsim_env.sh and running that

THANKS!!

You might have trouble with your NIC not being called eth0 (or ethX) as expected by modelsim, which will make it fail to accept your license file. A workaround is described at http://www.itzgeek.com/how-tos/mini-howtos/change-default-network-name-ens33-to-old-eth0-on-ubuntu-16-04.html

For details about what you're disabling, check FreeDesktop on predictable network interfaces

just a big THANK YOU for these scripts, I was really struggling to get ModelSim 10.5b running on Ubuntu 18.04 until I found these