--- a/src/ls-hdf5.cc	Thu Mar 05 13:50:25 2009 -0500
+++ b/src/ls-hdf5.cc	Thu Mar 05 21:50:59 2009 +0100
@@ -749,7 +749,7 @@
   // themselves, so we convert them first to normal matrices using A = A(:,:).
   // This is a temporary hack.
   if (val.is_diag_matrix () || val.is_perm_matrix ())
-    val = val.do_index_op (octave_value_list (2, octave_value::magic_colon_t));
+    val = val.full_value ();
 
   std::string t = val.type_name();