octave can not solve x=A\B, but freemat can

[TDylan]

I am into a 1D-FE consolidation model and am quite surprise to see that the linear system based on sparse coefficient Matrix A and RHS-vector B cannot be solved by octave but without any problem in freemat.

Apparently freemat investigates the structure of A and chooses the "right" solver for the specific matrix. Octave instead gives me warnings:

"octave warning: inverse: matrix singular to machine precision, rcond = 0"

However I have no idea how to find the "right" solver for this quite simple operation x=A\B.

Is there a way to tell octave, the way it works on freemat,  to look for the most appropriate solver?

Any hints highly appreciated!

tom