R cannot load libraries calling lapack functions - r

Question

I'm trying to install some of the popular R packages but somehow my R does not see the lapack installation. Or rather the compiler doesn't see it, I guess, because when it checks LAPACK_LIBS it says it found it. I checked sessionInfo() and La_version() and they both point to where lapack is installed. How do I even go about solving it?
> install.packages("RcppArmadillo")
Installing package into ‘/homeUPDATES
/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/RcppArmadillo_0.10.5.0.0.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 1669395 bytes (1.6 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 1.6 MB
* installing *source* package ‘RcppArmadillo’ ...
** package ‘RcppArmadillo’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
** using staged installation
checking whether the C++ compiler works... yes
checking for C++ compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... yes
checking whether g++ -std=gnu++14 accepts -g... yes
checking how to run the C++ preprocessor... g++ -std=gnu++14 -E
checking whether we are using the GNU C++ compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether g++ -std=gnu++14 accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking whether we have a suitable tempdir... /tmp
checking whether R CMD SHLIB can already compile programs using OpenMP... yes
checking LAPACK_LIBS... system LAPACK found
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating inst/include/RcppArmadilloConfigGenerated.h
config.status: creating src/Makevars
** libs
g++ -std=gnu++11 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -I'/home/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1/Rcpp/include' -I../inst/include -fpic -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/r-base-tbZjLv/r-base-4.1.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -c RcppArmadillo.cpp -o RcppArmadillo.o
g++ -std=gnu++11 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -I'/home/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1/Rcpp/include' -I../inst/include -fpic -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/r-base-tbZjLv/r-base-4.1.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -c RcppExports.cpp -o RcppExports.o
g++ -std=gnu++11 -I"/usr/share/R/include" -DNDEBUG -I'/home/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1/Rcpp/include' -I../inst/include -fpic -g -O2 -fdebug-prefix-map=/build/r-base-tbZjLv/r-base-4.1.0=. -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g -c fastLm.cpp -o fastLm.o
g++ -std=gnu++11 -shared -L/usr/lib/R/lib -L/usr/local/opt/gsl/lib -lgsl -llapack -lgslcblas -o RcppArmadillo.so RcppArmadillo.o RcppExports.o fastLm.o -L/usr/local/opt/gettext/lib -L/usr/lib/R/lib -lR
installing to /home/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1/00LOCK-RcppArmadillo/00new/RcppArmadillo/libs
** R
** inst
** byte-compile and prepare package for lazy loading
** help
*** installing help indices
** building package indices
** installing vignettes
** testing if installed package can be loaded from temporary location
Error: package or namespace load failed for ‘RcppArmadillo’ in dyn.load(file, DLLpath = DLLpath, ...):
unable to load shared object '/home/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1/00LOCK-RcppArmadillo/00new/RcppArmadillo/libs/RcppArmadillo.so':
/home/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1/00LOCK-RcppArmadillo/00new/RcppArmadillo/libs/RcppArmadillo.so: undefined symbol: dgesvx_
Error: loading failed
Execution halted
ERROR: loading failed
* removing ‘/home/marcin/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1/RcppArmadillo’
Warning in install.packages("RcppArmadillo") :
installation of package ‘RcppArmadillo’ had non-zero exit status
The downloaded source packages are in
‘/tmp/Rtmpw0yc9E/downloaded_packages’
>
UPDATE 1:
I made sure that the blas and lapack .so files have 755 permissions but it didn't help.
UPDATE 2:
The same problem occurs when I try to build from source a package that needs lapack. For example, I tried installing the GpGp package with the following Makevars
PKG_LIBS = $(LAPACK_LIBS) $(BLAS_LIBS) $(FLIBS) $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CXXFLAGS)
PKG_CXXFLAGS = $(SHLIB_OPENMP_CXXFLAGS)
and it gives the same problem.

Answer 1

Try sudo apt-get update in terminal. Does it say something is locked? It looks to me like something else is using the depenent files and thus the process is locked. If this is the case you can either wait for the process to be done or reboot.
You can also try to install forcing no lock:
install.packages("RcppArmadillo",INSTALL_opts = '--no-lock')
You also might also try installing via remotes and the github page which will get you the latest dev version rather than the cran version:
library(remotes)
remotes::install_github("RcppCore/RcppArmadillo")

Answer 2

Please install openblas-dev libraries:
sudo apt -y install libopenblas-dev
The symbol dgesvx_ is not found. These are the extern C defines, that wrap to the fortran drivers. Then grepping for the symbol you'll find it here:
~> grep dgesvx_ /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblapack.so.3
grep: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblapack.so.3: binary file matches

Answer 3

So eventually I figured out that the problem was my ~/.R/Makevars file. Dirk's comment under my original question made me wonder where do these extra commands come from and I found them in Makevars. I don't remember when and why I added something to it but when I reverted back to just an empty Makevars file everything worked! Thanks Dirk!