[R] problem installing mgcv

[Marc Schwartz]

On Aug 14, 2012, at 12:06 PM, Georgiana May <gmay at umn.edu> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I am running into a problem installing a package.  I am using a Mac with
> OSX 10.5.8
> 
> I have been using mgcv for gam models, it has been working fine.
> The mgcv listed in my directory of R packages (Package Manager) does not
> load up and I receive the following:
> 
> Error in dyn.load(file, DLLpath = DLLpath, ...) :
>  unable to load shared object
> '/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/2.13/Resources/library/mgcv/libs/i386/mgcv.so':
> 
> dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/2.13/Resources/library/mgcv/libs/i386/mgcv.so,
> 6): Library not loaded:
> @rpath/R.framework/Versions/2.13/Resources/lib/libRlapack.dylib
>  Referenced from:
> /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/2.13/Resources/library/mgcv/libs/i386/mgcv.so
>  Reason: image not found
> Error: package/namespace load failed for 'mgcv'
> 
> • When I try to re-install mgcv from a CRAN site, it downloads to a
> download folder but seems not to install.  I get the following:
> trying URL '
> http://cran.cnr.Berkeley.edu/bin/macosx/leopard/contrib/2.13/mgcv_1.7-11.tgz
> '
> Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 1494134 bytes (1.4 Mb)
> opened URL
> ==================================================
> downloaded 1.4 Mb
> 
> 
> The downloaded packages are in
> 
> /var/folders/WA/WAw+MqFKEQePHWXaQLHGyk+++TM/-Tmp-//RtmpzPtjFx/downloaded_packages
> 
> •• Any suggestions - both as to what might have changed (a security update
> on my Mac possibly interfering?) and how I might get around this?
> Typically, the GUI Package Installer, and Pakage Manager have worked very
> well, and I recently updated other packages without a problem.
> 
> Thank you ahead for responses,
> Georgiana May
> U. Minnesota



My first guess would be some type of corruption in your R installation. mgcv is a Recommended package, hence it is part of the standard R installation. You should not need to install it separately and only use either require(mgcv) or library(mgcv) at the command line or as you have done via the GUI app package manager. 

You seem to be running the 32 bit version of R 2.13.x, which is about a year or so old, with 2.15.1 being the current stable release.

My recommendation would be to remove your current R installation (to clean things up, presuming that it is corrupted) and replace it with a clean installation of the current release of 2.15.1 from your preferred CRAN mirror. You would also need to re-install any 3rd party CRAN packages that you might use.

I would doubt that any recent OSX updates are to blame for something new, as Apple has been winding down support for 10.5 (Leopard) since 10.7 (Lion) was released. Additionally, albeit unconfirmed I believe, support for 10.5 formally ended on August 1, shortly after the release of Mountain Lion (10.8). So you should also be thinking of upgrading your OSX installation to a more recent OSX version, presuming that your hardware would not preclude that.

Information on uninstalling R for OSX is available in the FAQ here:

  http://cran.us.r-project.org/bin/macosx/RMacOSX-FAQ.html#How-can-R-for-Mac-OS-X-be-uninstalled_003f

Lastly, for any follow ups, I would recommend that you post to r-sig-mac rather than r-help, since the former is focused on using R on Macs. More info here:

  https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-mac

Regards,

Marc Schwartz