[R-sig-ME] glmmPQL crashes on inclusion of corSpatial object

[Patrick Johann Schratz]

Link to data: <https://www.dropbox.com/s/yi3vf0bmqvydr8h/data.Rd?dl=0>  
(1170 obs, 9 variables, .Rd file) [plain link in case sth goes wrong 
with the hyperlink: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yi3vf0bmqvydr8h/data.Rd?dl=0]

Simply read it in using `readRDS(file)`.

I´m trying to setup a GLMM using the `glmmPQL` function from the `MASS` 
package including a random effects part and accounting for spatial 
autocorrelation. However, R (Version: 3.3.1) crashes upon execution.

     library(nlme)

     # setup model formula
     fo <- hail ~ prec_nov_apr + t_min_nov_apr + srad_nov_apr + age

     # setup corSpatial object
     correl = corSpatial(value = c(10000, 0.1), form = ~ry + rx, nugget 
= TRUE,
                         fixed = FALSE, type = "exponential")
     correl = Initialize(correl, data = d)

     # fit model
     fit5 <- MASS::glmmPQL(fo, random = ~1 | date, data = d,
                     correlation = correl, family = binomial)

What I tried so far:

- reduce number of observation
- play with `corSpatial` parameters (range and nugget)
- reduce number of fixed predictors
- execute code on Windows, Linux (Debian) and Mac R installations


While I get no error message on my local pc (RStudio just crashes), 
running the script on a server returns the following error message:

`R: malloc.c:3540: _int_malloc: Assertion (fwd->size & 0x4) == 0' 
failed. Aborted`

Debugging leads me to a "glibc" c++ library problem. I also run valgrind 
on it. If you need the output, just ask!

Help ist highly appreciated!
Cheers, Patrick

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