[R] R binaries for UMBUTU Linux?

[Jari Oksanen]

On Wed, 2005-04-13 at 15:19 +0200, Derek Eder wrote:
> Has anyone out there compiled R for the Umbutu Linux* (neé Debian) v.
> 5.04 distribution for Intel-type platforms (32 and 64 bit) ?
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Derek Eder
> 
> * Umbutu, a popular new Linux distribution, not a Nigerian scam, I
> promise!    http://www.ubuntulinux.org/
> 
Well, if you mean Ubuntu (and Debian is still there: she's not married
to Ubuntu but kept her name), I have some experience (though not on
Intel -- later about that). First, it seems that R is not in standard
Ubuntu base, but you can find it in the "universe", and install as a
binary. However, the rhythms are a bit off. Previous Ubuntu release was
about simultaneously with the R-2.0.x release, and you got R-1.9.1 in
Ubuntu. The current release of Ubuntu was last week, and R is up to next
week. This means that you're lagging behind by one cycle in R with these
predictable and regular release cycles. However, Ubuntu is a Linux which
means that you can compile R from the sources quite easily. I did this
with Ubuntu 4.04, and compilation went smoothly (like usually). However,
I did this in ppc (32bit, or G4), and some tests failed (at least in
'foreign': I haven't studied this in more detail). The base R seems to
work OK, though. Alternatively, you can use real Debian packages from
its testing repository. Ubuntu does not recommend using native Debian
packages, but I guess with R you can do this fairly safely (the general
problem is a potential conflict in version naming which may lead to
conflicts in upgrades, but I think this is OK with R). So you may get
the latest Debian (testing) packages -- as soon as they get through the
jungle of dependencies and appear in Debian.

cheers, jari oksanen
-- 
Jari Oksanen -- Dept Biology, Univ Oulu, 90014 Oulu, Finland