upgrade

R 3.1 -> 3.2 upgrade notes

/ nsaunders / 6 Comments

My machines upgraded from R version 3.1.3 to version 3.2.0 last week, which means that existing code suddenly cannot find packages and so fails. Some notes to myself, possibly useful to others, for what to do when this happens. Relevant to Ubuntu-based systems (I use Linux Mint).

1. Update packages

cp ~/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.1 ~/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.2
update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE, ask=FALSE)

1.1. rJava issues
My rJava installation failed because code was trying to compile against jni.h which was not present on my system. Solution:

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk
sudo R CMD javareconf

and then in R:

install.packages("rJava")

2. Update Bioconductor
Bioconductor is also upgraded so requires more than a package update. Probably need a new R session for this one.

remove.packages("BiocInstaller")
source("http://bioconductor.org/biocLite.R")
biocLite()

2.1. ChemmineR
My Bioconductor Chemminer update failed because package gridExtra was absent:

install.packages("gridExtra")
biocLite("ChemmineR")

3. General issues
When R is installed on Linux Mint, some packages are installed by default in /usr/lib/R/library. When performing updates as a non-root user, you’ll see messages telling you that this location is not writable and asking if you want to use your own library location. If you reply “yes”, you’ll have packages in both system and user locations. It’s probably better to say “no” and let the Ubuntu package management system handle the package upgrades…although when I tried that, the entire upgrade process halted…

And now we are all done so (careful!):

rm -rf ~/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.1

R 2.12 to 2.13 package upgrade

/ nsaunders / 9 Comments

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)

/ nsaunders / 3 Comments

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.

Feisty to Gutsy: things that I should know by now

/ nsaunders / 4 Comments
  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.