[R] R on SuSE 6.3

[John Williams]

I am running R 1.0.1, ESS 5.0 and GNU Emacs 20.4.1 under SuSe Linux 6.3, but I
cannot get ESS to start R.  I have tried mailing a bug report from within ESS
but have received no reply after a week (this is why I am posting here)

The symptoms are:  I follow the instuctions in the ESS README, go M-x R, but R
terminates with the message "must set --save, --nosave or --vanuilla".  I do
that (have to hack the ESS source essd-r.el to do so, setting the variables in
/home/me/.emacs doesn't work) , but then ESS reports "timeout waiting for
prompt", even when I set the timout period to a _very_ long time.

I have now tried many different versions of ESS, both in rpm and tar.gz form,
none work for me.  The problem lies with R, I suspect.  I had compiled from
source myself and have been using it intensively for a few weeks.  No problem.

<sincere-praise>
Also, I have been using R for a couple of years now and am continually amazed
at how good it is, not just "for a free software project", but just good,
period.  Kudos to all involved.
</sincere-praise>

"Why not install the RPM?"  you may ask.  To which I reply "After downloading
the 6MB rpm I could not install it because rpm failed to unpack it." 

The message is: 
R-base                      unpacking of archive failed: cpio: Bad magic        

I also add that I have setp up R and ESS (both from source) on my Solaris box
with absolutely zero hassle, just "./configure && make && make install".

I have a pretty much virgin install of SuSE 6.3, R is the only non-rpm'ed
software installed.

Any clues?
 -- 
--------------------------
John Williams
Institut für Marketing II
Humboldt Universität
Berlin
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