[R] encoding/locale problem with ssh -X

[Andreas Leha]

Hi all,

I am struggling with remote R sessions and a (I suspect) locale related
encoding problem:  Using the X11 device (X11forwarding enabled),
whenever I try to plot something containing umlauts using ggplot2, I am
seeing sth like

,----
| Error in grid.Call(L_stringMetric, as.graphicsAnnot(x$label)) :
|   invalid use of -61 < 0 in 'X11_MetricInfo' 
`----

Using base graphics is fine as is plotting to another device (pdf, say).

Here is some code to reproduce:

,----
| plot(1:10, 1:10, main = "größe")
| ## this works
| 
| library("ggplot2")
| qplot(1:10, 1:10)
| ## this works still
| 
| qplot(1:10, 1:10) + xlab("größe")
| ## ERROR
`----


My setup:
- locally:
  Linux (Debian GNU/Linux 9)
- remotely
  Linux (RHEL Server release 7.3 (Maipo)

(Maybe) relevant bits of my .ssh/config:

,----
| Host theserver
|      HostName XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
|      ForwardX11 yes
|      ForwardX11Timeout 596h
|      IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
|      IdentitiesOnly yes
|      ForwardAgent yes
|      ServerAliveInterval 300
`----

Thanks in advance for your help!

Best,
Andreas