[R-sig-Debian] Newbie Questions

[Krzysztof Sakrejda-Leavitt]

Michael,

I'd like to point out that what you are mentioning is a common Linux 
issue with paths.  In your terminal, if you type: "echo $PATH" you will 
get an ordered (left first) list separated by ":" which tells you where 
your system looks for a command when you type its name in.  If your two 
versions are in different directories (say /usr/bin vs. /usr/local/bin), 
calling "R" without specifying a directory would get one version.  Your 
GNOME menu is probably linked to R in a specific 
directory--e.g.-/usr/local/bin/R and that explains the original behavior. 

If you _do_ want to use the version you compile, you would first use apt 
to uninstall R, and then install the version you compiled.  This might 
break the link in the gnome menu if your new installation is in a 
different place, but you can change where the menu points... if you run 
./configure --help before compiling R you can get the list of options 
that lets you decide which directory to put various pieces of the 
installation in to mimic the previous installation, but if you are new 
to linux that might be a hard start. 

Best,

Krzysztof



Michael Dewey wrote:
> At 18:56 25/07/2008, Michael Conklin wrote:
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>> I have followed the read me file. Forgive my ignorance of Debian but 
>> I get
>> messages like:
>>
>> Couldn't stat source package list http://cran.wustl.edu etch-cran/ 
>> Packages
>>
>> which is not particularly helpful to me. In addition the read me file
>> instructions "install as usual" are not helpful because I have not 
>> installed
>> as usual before. :)
>
> Michael, have you also looked at the Wiki entry
> http://wiki.r-project.org/rwiki/doku.php?id=getting-started:installation:debian 
>
> which describes more or less the same things in a slightly different way?
>
> I also found reading the posts on this list quite helpful to give some 
> more meat to the skeleton instructions which, as you say, assume you 
> know something about Debian. I was trying to install R on an Asus EEE 
> (and ultimately succeeding) and like you had very limited knowledge of 
> Linux.
>
>> Here is a very basic question for debian -- should I type:  apt-get 
>> install
>> pkgname or aptitude install pkgname. They seem to attempt to do the same
>> things but I get different results.
>>
>> Thanks for your patience.
>>
>>
>> On 7/25/08, Vincent Goulet <vincent.goulet at act.ulaval.ca> wrote:
>> >
>> > Michael,
>> >
>> > I think most of your issues will be answered in the Debian README 
>> on CRAN:
>> >
>> >        http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/
>> >
>> > I would recommend removing the version of R you compiled yourself and
>> > rather opt for the binaries provided on CRAN for etch by Johannes.
>> >
>> > HTH    Vincent
>> >
>> > Le ven. 25 juil. à 12:37, Michael Conklin a écrit :
>> >
>> >  I am new to Linux (not to R) and I am experimenting with a Linux 
>> machine
>> >> with Debian etch and the Gnome desktop environment installed. 
>> Since the
>> >> stable release has R2.4 I elected to build R from sources and was 
>> able to
>> >> successfully install R2.71.  I had some trouble installing some 
>> packages
>> >> (specifically the XML package) and saw advice on the list on how to
>> >> install
>> >> R binaries using aptitude.  Now, I apparently have 2 versions of R
>> >> installed
>> >> and depending on how I start R I get different versions. If I 
>> start R via
>> >> the Gnome menu I get R2.4 in a terminal window. If I type R in a 
>> terminal
>> >> window that I have opened I get R2.71.  In both cases R.home() 
>> shows the
>> >> same directory /usr/lib/R.  I seem to have a lot of trouble 
>> understanding
>> >> where things are and how to control profile files and start up 
>> options on
>> >> the Debian system.  Any advice would be most appreciated.
>> >>
>> >> Michael Conklin
>> >>
>> >>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>> >>
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>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
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>>
>>
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>
> Michael Dewey
> http://www.aghmed.fsnet.co.uk
>
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