I have compiled R 2.0.0 for my gentoo desktop and have found this problem: help.start() will work correcly if mozilla is already started, will fail if mozilla is not. Error message:> help.start()Making links in per-session dir ... If /usr/bin/mozilla is already running, it is *not* restarted, and you must switch to its window. Otherwise, be patient ...> No running windows foundError: No running window found. Is this reproducible on other systems ? -- Michele Alzetta
On Wed, 6 Oct 2004, Michele Alzetta wrote:> I have compiled R 2.0.0 for my gentoo desktop and have found this problem: > > help.start() will work correcly if mozilla is already started, will > fail if mozilla is not. > > Error message: > >> help.start() > Making links in per-session dir ... > If /usr/bin/mozilla is already running, it is *not* restarted, and you > must switch to its window. > Otherwise, be patient ... >> No running windows found > Error: No running window found. > > Is this reproducible on other systems ?On my gentoo sparc: platform sparc64-unknown-linux-gnu arch sparc64 os linux-gnu system sparc64, linux-gnu status major 2 minor 0.0 year 2004 month 10 day 04 language R behavior is the same UNLESS mozilla is already running in which case file:///tmp/Rtmpzu1Um5/.R/doc/html/index.html is displayed. help.start() works just fine from my x86 linux box: _ platform i686-pc-linux-gnu arch i686 os linux-gnu system i686, linux-gnu status major 2 minor 0.0 year 2004 month 10 day 04 language R Chuck Charles C. Berry (858) 534-2098 Dept of Family/Preventive Medicine E mailto:cberry@tajo.ucsd.edu UC San Diego http://hacuna.ucsd.edu/members/ccb.html La Jolla, San Diego 92093-0717
On Tue, 2004-10-05 at 16:27, Michele Alzetta wrote:> I have compiled R 2.0.0 for my gentoo desktop and have found this problem: > > help.start() will work correcly if mozilla is already started, will > fail if mozilla is not. > > Error message: > > > help.start() > Making links in per-session dir ... > If /usr/bin/mozilla is already running, it is *not* restarted, and you > must switch to its window. > Otherwise, be patient ... > > No running windows found > Error: No running window found. > > Is this reproducible on other systems ?I have Gentoo on an x86 and it does the same thing. Moreover, it's been that way for 1.9.1 as well. It may be some permissions issue; when you install the Gentoo R ebuild, you do so as "root", and for that matter, you install packages to the library as "root" too. I haven't tried this on any other versions of Linux recently. My dim memory from Dirk Eddelbuettel's Debian-based Quantian is that it works fine there. Dirk, any comments? I'll take a look at the 1.9.1 install on my Gentoo systems and see if I can figure out what's happening. I use Firefox rather than Mozilla as my browser, and help.start(browser="firefox") exhibits the same behavior ... if it's running, it works, if it isn't, it doesn't start.
On Tue, 2004-10-05 at 16:27, Michele Alzetta wrote:> I have compiled R 2.0.0 for my gentoo desktop and have found this problem: > > help.start() will work correcly if mozilla is already started, will > fail if mozilla is not. > > Error message: > > > help.start() > Making links in per-session dir ... > If /usr/bin/mozilla is already running, it is *not* restarted, and you > must switch to its window. > Otherwise, be patient ... > > No running windows found > Error: No running window found. > > Is this reproducible on other systems ?Good news ... it isn't an R problem, it's a Gentoo problem! I reproduced it with both Firefox and Mozilla on my Gentoo x86 system with both R 1.9.1 and R 2.0.0. I'll go ahead and file the problem as a Gentoo bug, since I have an account there and I'm their resident R exponent. Briefly, what is happening is that Gentoo replaces "/usr/bin/mozilla" and "/usr/bin/firefox" with a symbolic link to their "mozilla-launcher". The launcher is a shell script which interprets the command line and is supposed to fire up the right binary. It doesn't when called by "help.start", and I didn't spend the time to figure out why. Meanwhile, if you know where Gentoo has hidden the Mozilla binary, or if you're willing to settle for another browser, just use the actual binary name in your "help.start(browser=<binary>)" and it will work. On my system, running Firefox 1.0 pre-release, the following command worked:> help.start(browser="/usr/lib/MozillaFirefox/firefox-bin")