R SIG Debian - Apr 2008 - Problem installing some packages on Ubuntu 7.10

Evening all:

Recently moved over to Ubuntu 7.10. Installed version 2.7.0 of R from 
the U of T site in Ontario, Canada. Working on installing Rcmdr as my 
GUI of choice (yes, I know lots of you probably prefer an emacs/ess 
combination but give me a break. It's what I was comfortable with using 
R under XP). For the most part the installs have gone well in a regular 
terminal window using sudo R or just R in a root terminal window, but 
some of the packages just don't seem to be going quietly.

I could use some advice as to what I might need to add to my setup or 
correct to get things to install. I'll deal with them one at a time so I 
can follow through on any suggestions offered before moving on to the 
next troublemaker. There are six involved, some of them being key 
players in the desired setup. First up is XML. I've included everything 
install.package() spit out to avoid confusion. My apologies if it's TOO 
much, but I'm no programmer so I didn't want to error by cutting 
something out that might have turned out to be useful.

 > install.packages("XML",dependencies=TRUE)
Warning in install.packages("XML", dependencies = TRUE) :
  argument 'lib' is missing: using
'/usr/local/lib/R/site-library'
--- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
Loading Tcl/Tk interface ... done
trying URL 'http://probability.ca/cran/src/contrib/XML_1.93-2.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-tar' length 870234 bytes (849 Kb)
opened URL
=================================================downloaded 849 Kb

* Installing *source* package 'XML' ...
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for sed... /bin/sed
checking for xml2-config... no
Cannot find xml2-config
ERROR: configuration failed for package 'XML'
** Removing '/usr/local/lib/R/site-library/XML'

The downloaded packages are in
        /tmp/RtmpRMfnUs/downloaded_packages
Warning message:
In install.packages("XML", dependencies = TRUE) :
  installation of package 'XML' had non-zero exit status
 >

-- 

Brian Lunergan
Nepean, Ontario
Canada

Brian,

On 28 April 2008 at 20:42, Brian Lunergan wrote:
| Recently moved over to Ubuntu 7.10. Installed version 2.7.0 of R from 
| the U of T site in Ontario, Canada. Working on installing Rcmdr as my 
[...]
| I could use some advice as to what I might need to add to my setup or 
| correct to get things to install. I'll deal with them one at a time so I 
| can follow through on any suggestions offered before moving on to the 
| next troublemaker. There are six involved, some of them being key 
| players in the desired setup. First up is XML. I've included everything 

For both, you could use the packaged versions available in your Ubuntu
repositories:

  $ sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install r-cran-rcmdr r-cran-xml

Otherwise, you need to know which of the '-dev' packages to have
installed to
be able to compile packages. So as a first step until you know your system
and its pieces better, stick with what's pre-packaged.

Also,

  $ apt-cache search r-cran-

shows you what's available. Far from all on CRAN, but a fair number.

Hope this helps, Dirk

-- 
Three out of two people have difficulties with fractions.