[R] R shared library (/usr/lib64/R/lib/libR.so) not found.

[Dirk Eddelbuettel]

Rolf,

I noticed this thread started by you as well as a few of the excellent
follow-ups. While it conclcuded, allow me a few quick comments:

 - Some of us go through some effort to provide R on Ubuntu (and Debian) in a
   reliable and reproducible manner. And it works and is used by many people.

 - The basic r-base (and r-base-core etc) packages work in the distribution,
   but may be older as the distribution is taken as snapshots in time.  Hence
   the Ubuntu mirror via CRAN. That way you get a choice between eg R 3.4.4
   (not that old) and R 3.5.1. (brand new) in the current Ubuntu 18.04.

 - The (short) instructions at CRAN work: add a repo, install from it.
   Neither they nor the longer (more recent) blog post you found (which says
   the same, with more pictures) suggest to link or move libraries around.

 - We even have "proof" in the sense of fully automated build and use
   systems. Docker is just one example.  Eg this Dockerfile build the r-base
   container available as rocker/r-base (as well as the official r-base)
      https://github.com/rocker-org/rocker/blob/master/r-base/Dockerfile
   and eg this one use it and builds on top to generated an RStudio container
      https://github.com/rocker-org/rocker/blob/master/rstudio/testing/Dockerfile 
   Nowhere in either of these "recipes" are library files moved, renamed, or
   otherwise altered.

 - Nobody ever suggested for _any_ Linux distribution to mix its files below
   /usr with your own compilation.  There lies madness, and it may be the
   root cause of the behaviour local to your machine.  Don't do it.

 - Please consider asking Debian and Ubuntu related questions on r-sig-debian.  

Regards, Dirk

-- 
http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd using debian.org