Comment # 9 on bug 1046277 from Aldo Bonfiglioli

I have done what you have suggested (touch + update), but the problem is still
there:
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.18 (TeX Live 2017/TeX Live for SUSE
Linux) (preloaded format=latex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
---! /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex/latex.fmt made by different executable version
(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

ls -l /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex/latex.fmt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root mktex 3353580 Jun 14 15:42
/var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex/latex.fmt