My workaround is to first use catkin_make in catkin_ws_simulink, then copy the package produced in the src folder into my ~/catkin_ws (which was made with catkin build). Then run catkin build in ~/catkin_ws.
Step by step:
Follow the instructions on: Generate Code to Manually Deploy a ROS Node from Simulink, but INSTEAD of creating a catkin workspace with the catkin_init_workspace command like they say here (do not do this, this is just to show you what they say on the webstie):
mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws_simulink/src
cd ~/catkin_ws_simulink/src
catkin_init_workspace
Rather use catkin_make:
mkdir -p ~/catkin_ws_simulink/src
cd ~/catkin_ws_simulink
catkin_make
Then run the provided bash script to build the node:
cd ~
./build_ros_model.sh RobotController.tgz ~/catkin_ws_simulink
Copy the desired package folder inside ~/catkin_ws_simulink/src
Paste it in ~/catkin_ws/src (which was build with catkin build)
Now run:
cd ~/catkin_ws
catkin build
