R 2.12 to 2.13 package upgrade

If you:

• use Linux
• have just upgraded your R installation from 2.12 to 2.13
• installed some/all of your packages in your home area (e.g. ~/R/i486-pc-linux-gnu-library/2.12) and…
• …are wondering why R can’t see them any more

just do this:

# at a shell prompt
cp -r ~/R/i486-pc-linux-gnu-library/2.12 ~/R/i486-pc-linux-gnu-library/2.13
# in R console
update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE, ask=FALSE)
# back to the shell
rm -rf ~/R/i486-pc-linux-gnu-library/2.12

update: corrected a typo; of course you need “cp -r”

Brief notes on Ubuntu 9.04 (jaunty) -> 9.10 (karmic)

Recording my Ubuntu upgrade experience has become something of a tradition, so here goes.

• Machine 1 (laptop, LG T1 Express Duo). Largely trouble-free. On-board soundcard not seen on reboot. Fixed (temporarily, lost on reboot) using “sudo alsa force-reload”.
• Machine 2 (various generic hardware, cobbled together over many years). Upgrade smooth until final restart, when machine froze. Rebooted to a blank screen. Fixed by swapping out ATI video card for old NVidia FX5200. Discovered that rsyslog is running riot due to a hot CPU and is trying to fill up /var/log.
• Machine 3 (Dell Optiplex GX550). Install froze at “stopping winbind server”. Rebooted with rescue CD, mounted and chroot-ed into Linux partition, tried “dpkg –force-all –configure -a”, but to no avail. Reinstalled in same partition, all is working well.

All in all, not very impressed. Canonical, could do better.

Brief Hardy Heron notes

Nothing exciting – just a couple of notes on the Ubuntu upgrade experience from 7.10 to 8.04.

Feisty to Gutsy: things that I should know by now

1. Never attempt to upgrade an Ubuntu distribution on the day of the new release
2. If you do, don’t use your primary desktop machine
3. Complex tasks that can trash a machine should not be performed after midnight

I only have myself to blame but still: I didn’t expect the upgrade manager to simply vanish midway through the procedure, leaving an unusable system. One thing that I have learned is not to panic. Provided /home is on a separate partition, you can always do a clean install from CD and restore your packages pretty quickly.

Not sure why I’m experiencing zen-like calm rather than seething rage – must be Friday.