R help - Jun 2006 - Updating R on an old Linux installation (was: Where is package gridBase?)

I am running R 2.2.1 on a University-supported linux installation based
on Redhat EL3.  I am sorry that it did not occur to me to mention this
before; I updated R very recently, with the most recent version
available for EL3 at http://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/linux/redhat/el3/.

Looking at the gridBase documentation, I find that 2.2.1 is not in fact
the most recent version.  I have now spent hours trying to install 2.3.
No available binary rpms seem to work.  If I try the source code,
configure crashes with a complaint that I do not have X, which is false
(see below).

Do I need a new version of Linux?

Any help is appreciated.

Jonathan

----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ./configure
(lots of positive stuff)

checking for X... no
configure: error: --with-x=yes (default) and X11 headers/libs are not
available


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 21:27:02 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jonathan Dushoff <dushoff at eno.princeton.edu>
To: R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Where is package gridBase?

Trying to follow the instructions on the page
http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/05/12/17153.html (to make a
figure with an inset), I typed
> install.packages("gridBase",
repos="http://cran.r-project.org")
and was rejected.

 	no package 'gridBase' at the repositories in: download.packages(pkgs,
 	destdir = tmpd, available = available,

I went to the FAQ at
http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#Add_002don-packages-from-CRAN,
and was informed that gridBase was an add-on package available from
CRAN.

I also tried installing other packages using exactly the same command.
> install.packages("TeachingDemos",
repos="http://cran.r-project.org")
These packages were apparently found:
 	trying URL
 	'http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/TeachingDemos_1.2.tar.gz'
 	Content type 'application/x-tar' length 66472 bytes
 	opened URL

 	(and so on)

I would appreciate any insight that anyone might have.

Jonathan

Jonathan Dushoff wrote:
> I am running R 2.2.1 on a University-supported linux installation based
> on Redhat EL3.  I am sorry that it did not occur to me to mention this
> before; I updated R very recently, with the most recent version
> available for EL3 at http://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/linux/redhat/el3/.
> 
> Looking at the gridBase documentation, I find that 2.2.1 is not in fact
> the most recent version.  I have now spent hours trying to install 2.3.
> No available binary rpms seem to work.  If I try the source code,
> configure crashes with a complaint that I do not have X, which is false
> (see below).
> 
> Do I need a new version of Linux?
> 
> Any help is appreciated.
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ./configure
> 
> (lots of positive stuff)
> 
> checking for X... no
> configure: error: --with-x=yes (default) and X11 headers/libs are not
> available
You might have X but probably not the X development libraries/headers, 
which are in a separate package(s).

If RH EL3 still uses XFree86 and not X.org, then I think the main 
package is called XFree86-devel, and you'll probably need a few others, 
going by 
http://rpmfind.net//linux/RPM/redhat/8.0/i386/XFree86-devel-4.2.0-72.i386.html.

Cheers,
Gad

-- 
Gad Abraham
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010, Australia
email: g.abraham at ms.unimelb.edu.au
web: http://www.ms.unimelb.edu.au/~gabraham

There are older versions of gridBase suitable for 2.2.1 at CRAN, e.g.
src/contrib/Archive/gridBase_0.4-2.tar.gz.  Why not just install that?

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006, Jonathan Dushoff wrote:
>
> I am running R 2.2.1 on a University-supported linux installation based
> on Redhat EL3.  I am sorry that it did not occur to me to mention this
> before; I updated R very recently, with the most recent version
> available for EL3 at http://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/linux/redhat/el3/.
>
> Looking at the gridBase documentation, I find that 2.2.1 is not in fact
> the most recent version.  I have now spent hours trying to install 2.3.
> No available binary rpms seem to work.  If I try the source code,
> configure crashes with a complaint that I do not have X, which is false
> (see below).
That is not what it says, and very likely it is the X11 headers that are 
not installed.
>
> Do I need a new version of Linux?
>
> Any help is appreciated.
>
> Jonathan
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ./configure
>
> (lots of positive stuff)
>
> checking for X... no
> configure: error: --with-x=yes (default) and X11 headers/libs are not
> available
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 12 Jun 2006 21:27:02 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Jonathan Dushoff <dushoff at eno.princeton.edu>
> To: R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Where is package gridBase?
>
> Trying to follow the instructions on the page
> http://tolstoy.newcastle.edu.au/R/help/05/12/17153.html (to make a
> figure with an inset), I typed
>
>> install.packages("gridBase",
repos="http://cran.r-project.org")
>
> and was rejected.
>
> 	no package 'gridBase' at the repositories in:
download.packages(pkgs,
> 	destdir = tmpd, available = available,
>
> I went to the FAQ at
> http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#Add_002don-packages-from-CRAN,
> and was informed that gridBase was an add-on package available from
> CRAN.
>
> I also tried installing other packages using exactly the same command.
>
>> install.packages("TeachingDemos",
repos="http://cran.r-project.org")
>
> These packages were apparently found:
> 	trying URL
> 	'http://cran.r-project.org/src/contrib/TeachingDemos_1.2.tar.gz'
> 	Content type 'application/x-tar' length 66472 bytes
> 	opened URL
>
> 	(and so on)
>
> I would appreciate any insight that anyone might have.
>
> Jonathan
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide!
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>
-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595