[R] Running R from a read-only CD

[Gavin Simpson]

On Mon, 2009-05-25 at 17:36 -0400, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
> I'm not sure how not to use chm help, since that's the only way I've ever
> done things.
> 
> But why would things work well from a USB Flash Drive and not for a CD when
> the folders are identical?  (The CD was burned from the image on the Flash
> Drive.)

Charles,

I don't use Windows routinely, but do have to use it in our teaching
computer clusters. There the system is locked down and users don't have
write permissions to the library location and updating the help often
occurs only with warnings. Then we get the same error you are seeing. We
can, however, read chm help for base or stats or what-have-you but not
packages we installed or updated during a session.

[I know our computer people could configure all this so it worked
better, but it took me best part of 5 years to get them to install R; so
I'm thankful just for that!]

So, is this a permissions issue? - the CD is read-only and the flash
drive I presume is read/write? If you alter the folder on the flash
drive to be read-only, do you get the same end result? That might
explain the different results.

G

> 
> 
> 
> Charles Annis, P.E.
> 
> Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
> phone: 561-352-9699
> eFax:  614-455-3265
> http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch at stats.uwo.ca] 
> Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 5:23 PM
> To: Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] Running R from a read-only CD
> 
> On 25/05/2009 5:18 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
> > After reading your suggested page, it does appear that the problem is a
> > security feature that I will have to live with since the CDs will be
> running
> > on borrowed computers.
> > 
> > BUT, if the same R-folder is loaded from a USB Flash Drive, rather than a
> > CD, the help files work just fine.  So perhaps there is another way.
> > 
> > Any other ideas?
> 
> Don't use CHM help.
> 
> Duncan Murdoch
> 
> 
> > Charles Annis, P.E.
> > 
> > Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
> > phone: 561-352-9699
> > eFax:  614-455-3265
> > http://www.StatisticalEngineering.com
> >  
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch at stats.uwo.ca] 
> > Sent: Monday, May 25, 2009 4:57 PM
> > To: Charles.Annis at StatisticalEngineering.com
> > Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> > Subject: Re: [R] Running R from a read-only CD
> > 
> > On 25/05/2009 4:40 PM, Charles Annis, P.E. wrote:
> >> Dear R-helpers:
> >>
> >> I created a folder containing R on a read-only CD and use it by having
> the
> >> R-icon, located on the Windows desktop, point to the CD 
> >> (R-2.8.1\bin\Rgui.exe) for the "Target," and to a Windows Desktop folder
> > for
> >> "Start in."
> >>
> >> This works nicely EXCEPT that the R help() function cannot display
> > anything,
> >> and presents a screen message saying "This program cannot display
> > webpage."
> >> This is especially frustrating because on the left of what would be the
> > help
> >> window is the exhaustive list of all the functions for which R can
> provide
> >> help (but can't display anything).
> >>
> >> Can anyone provide guidance?
> >>
> >> Here is the obligatory session information:
> >> ....................
> >>> sessionInfo()
> >> R version 2.8.1 (2008-12-22) 
> >> i386-pc-mingw32 
> >>
> >> locale:
> >> LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252;LC_CTYPE=English_United
> >> States.1252;LC_MONETARY=English_United
> >> States.1252;LC_NUMERIC=C;LC_TIME=English_United States.1252
> >>
> >> attached base packages:
> >> [1] splines   tcltk     stats     graphics  grDevices utils     datasets
> >> methods   base     
> >>
> >> other attached packages:
> >> [1] mh1823_2.5.4.1     survival_2.35-3    RColorBrewer_1.0-2 RODBC_1.2-5
> >>
> >> ....................
> >>
> >> Thanks!
> > 
> > 
> > This sounds like a Windows security feature, because .CHM is a risky 
> > format.  There's a page here
> > 
> > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896054
> > 
> > that tells you how to turn it off.  Alternatively, you can choose one of 
> > the other help formats in R besides CHM help.
> > 
> > Duncan Murdoch
> 
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