R devel - May 2006 - R 2.3.0 and rgl on OS X 10.4.6 (PR#8833)

I just downloaded and installed R 2.3.0 on my Mac G5 running
OS X 10.4.6. I also updated with R.app revision 3114 as
recommended. Now, when I attemp to use package rgl
I get the error
> library(rgl)
Error: package 'rgl' is not installed for
'arch=ppc'
>
I have tried reinstalling from CRAN using both binary
and source. The source install fails, The binary install
yields
>
Warning in install.packages(file.choose(), , NULL, type =
"mac.binary") :
       argument 'lib' is missing: using
/Users/neely/Library/R/library
>
and does not fix the problem.

The same problem occurs with some packages (e1071, svmpath)
but not others (gdata, gplots, gtools).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Neely Atkinson
eatkinso at mdanderson.org
713-792-2619

On 5/4/2006 2:08 PM, eatkinso at mdanderson.org wrote:
> I just downloaded and installed R 2.3.0 on my Mac G5 running
> OS X 10.4.6. I also updated with R.app revision 3114 as
> recommended. Now, when I attemp to use package rgl
> I get the error
> 
>> library(rgl)
> Error: package 'rgl' is not installed for 'arch=ppc'
>>
> 
> I have tried reinstalling from CRAN using both binary
> and source. The source install fails, The binary install
> yields
> 
>>
> Warning in install.packages(file.choose(), , NULL, type =
"mac.binary") :
>        argument 'lib' is missing: using
/Users/neely/Library/R/library
>>
> 
> and does not fix the problem.
> 
> The same problem occurs with some packages (e1071, svmpath)
> but not others (gdata, gplots, gtools).
> 
> Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
I expect you'll need to install from source, but I don't know who will 
be able to help you to diagnose why it is failing.  I'd suggest trying 
on the R-SIG-Mac mailing list.

If you can determine what the problem is and can fix it I'd be happy to 
incorporate your patch.  Otherwise, all I can suggest is that you try a 
more commonly used platform.

Duncan Murdoch

Neely,

as Duncan was saying R-SIG-Mac is a better place to discuss it.

On May 4, 2006, at 2:08 PM, eatkinso at mdanderson.org wrote:
> I just downloaded and installed R 2.3.0 on my Mac G5 running OS X  
> 10.4.6. I also updated with R.app revision 3114 as ecommended. Now,  
> when I attemp to use package rgl
> I get the error
>
>> library(rgl)
> Error: package 'rgl' is not installed for 'arch=ppc'
This usually means that you have an old package for R 2.2.0 and you  
are trying to use it in R 2.3.0. *)
> I have tried reinstalling from CRAN using both binary and source.  
> The source install fails, The binary install yields
>
AFAIR rgl is currently broken, so there is no binary:
http://r.research.att.com/reports/tiger-universal/results/2.3.0/html/ 
rgl.report.html
I remember fixing this a while ago - it wasn't as simple as casting,  
because the structures are wrong, but I'll see if I can dig out the fix.
> The same problem occurs with some packages (e1071, svmpath) but not  
> others (gdata, gplots, gtools).
>
My guess is that you forgot to re-install them (or you have old local  
packages somewhere). This happens most often if you install libraries  
in your home directory. On OS X it's usually much safer to use system- 
wide packages, because that prevents cross-version problems, version- 
confusion and the GUI allows you to re-install them automatically.  
That doesn't work for your local packages in home.

Cheers,
Simon

*) - for completeness, you also get this error if you install a  
binary that was not built for the universal R or if the ppc  
architecture build failed. However, neither should not happen with  
CRAN binaries.