Download and install R

Prerequisites

The target computer where you install Essentials for R must have X11. If the target computer has a physical display, then it most likely has X11. The steps that follow describe the process for installing X11, if necessary.

1. Install the X11 client and server
   • For Linux distributions that use yum, install the X11 client and server software with:

     yum groupinstall "X Window System" "Desktop" "Fonts" "General Purpose Desktop" 
     yum update xorg-x11-server-Xorg
     yum install xorg-x11-server-Xvfb.x86_64

   • For Linux distributions that use apt-get, install the X11 client and server software with:

     apt-get install xorg xterm
     apt-get install xsever-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-dev
     apt-get install xvfb

2. Install openGL
   • For Linux distributions that use yum, install openGL with:

     yum install mesa-libGL-devel mesa-libGLU-devel libpng-devel

   • For Linux distributions that use apt-get, install openGL with:

     apt-get install libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa libglu1-mesa-dev

3. Start Xvfb. For more information, see http://www.x.org/archive/X11R7.6/doc/man/man1/Xvfb.1.xhtml.
4. Set the DISPLAY environment variable. The general form for the DISPLAY variable is:

   export DISPLAY=<Hostname>:<D>.<S>

   In the preceding statement, <Hostname> is the name of the computer that hosts the X display server. To specify localhost, omit the value of <Hostname>. <D> is the display number of the Xvfb instance. <S> is the screen number, which is typically 0.
   Note: The DISPLAY environment variable must be set before you start the IBM SPSS Modeler server.
5. 4.0.4 is the recommended R version. Note that the versions of zlib, bzip2, xz, and pcre that were included with old versions of R have been removed. So if you choose to install R from source, you must install the dependent packages zlib, bzip2, xz, pcre, and curl. You must also set the shared library path by adding the following line to the .bash_profile for the user who runs R or /usr/local/lib/etc/ld.so.conf.

   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

   For more information, see the R Installation and Administration manual at https://www.r-project.org/.

   • For Linux distributions that use yum, run the following commands to install packages:

     sudo yum install gcc-gfortran
     sudo yum install readline-devel
     sudo yum install bzip2-devel
     sudo yum install pcre2-devel
     sudo yum install libcurl-devel
     sudo yum install libX11-devel libXt-devel libXext-devel libXmu-devel
     

In addition to installing X11, it is recommended that you install tcl/tk before installing R.

Installing R from a package manager

Your distribution's repository may include R. If so, you can install R using your distribution's standard package manager (such as the RPM Package Manager or the Synaptic Package Manager).

• For Linux distributions that use yum, you can install R with yum install R.
• For Linux distributions that use apt-get, you can install R from the command:

  apt-get install r-base=<Version> r-base-core=<Version>  r-base-dev=<Version>

  where <Version> is the name of the version. Note that you might need to update the file /etc/apt/source.list to add new sources.

Building and installing R from source

The source for R is available from https://cran.r-project.org/src/base/R-4/.

1. Create a temporary directory to decompress and unpack the R source.
   Example:

   mkdir ~/Rsource

2. Download the source code for building R. For example, R-4.4.0.tar.gz, and save it to the temporary directory.
3. Change to the temporary directory.
   Example:

   cd ~/Rsource

4. Decompress and unpack the R source to the temporary directory.
   Example:

   chmod a+x R-4.4.0.tar.gz 
   tar -xzvf R-4.4.0.tar.gz
   

5. Change to the source directory.

   cd R-4.4.0 

   Note: To install R to the default directory, you must run the following step as root, either by logging in as root or using the sudo command. Read the information in doc/html/R-admin.html (located under the directory where you unpacked the R source) before you proceed with configuring, building and installing R.
6. Run the following commands to specify necessary compiler settings (see the special settings for PowerLinux):

   export CC="gcc -m64" 
   export CXXFLAGS="-m64 -O2 -g" 
   export FFLAGS="-m64 -O2 -g" 
   export FCFLAGS="-m64 -O2 -g" 
   export LDFLAGS="-L/usr/local/lib64" 
   export LIBnn=lib
   

   PowerLinux settings:

   export CC="<XLC_PATH>/bin/xlc_r -q64"
   export CFLAGS="-g -O2 -qstrict -qfloat=nomaf:fenv"
   export F77="<XLF_PATH>/xlf_r -q64"
   export FFLAGS="-g -O3 -qstrict -qfloat=nomaf:fenv -qextname"
   export CXX="<XLC_PATH>/bin/xlC_r -q64"
   export CPICFLAGS=-qpic
   export CXXPICFLAGS=-qpic
   export FPICFLAGS=-qpic
   export SHLIB_LDFLAGS=-qmkshrobj
   export SHLIB_CXXLDFLAGS=-G
   export FC="<XLF_PATH>/xlf_r -q64"
   export FCFLAGS="-g -O3 -qstrict -qfloat=nomaf:fenv -qextname"
   export FCPICFLAGS=-qpic
   export CXX1XSTD=-qlanglvl=extended0x

   Where <XLC_PATH> and <XLF_PATH> are the locations of IBM XL C/C++ for Linux and IBM XL Fortran for Linux respectively.

   If installing R on PowerLinux P8LE servers (Ubuntu or RedHat), you must install the XL C/C++ Compiler and the XL Fortran Compiler (16.1.1.12 or later).

7. Run the following commands to install the prerequisite build tools.

   sudo yum install gcc-gfortran
   sudo yum install readline-devel
   sudo yum install bzip2-devel
   sudo yum install pcre2-devel
   sudo yum install libcurl-devel
   sudo yum install libX11-devel libXt-devel libXext-devel libXmu-devel
   

8. Configure, build, and install R. Make sure that you configure R with the arguments: --enable-R-shlib and --with-x. For example, run the following command in a command prompt (see the special settings for PowerLinux):

   ./configure --enable-R-shlib --with-x && make && make install

   PowerLinux settings:

   ./configure --enable-R-shlib --with-x --with-readline=no --disable-openmp&& gmake && gmake install

   For details about building R on IBM z Systems, see https://github.com/linux-on-ibm-z/docs/wiki/Building-R.

9. Check the R version to verify the installation.

   R –version