R 4.0 for ARM processors

| Dear R-SIG-Debian folks,
| 
| I seem to be chasing my tail, despite having a simple goal:
| 
| - Install R 4.0.2
| - On Ubuntu 20.04
| - For an ARM processor (not Intel/AMD).
| 
| Can someone please suggest a Debian/Ubuntu repository of the required packages (e.g., r-base-core) built for ARM? I can't seem to find one.
| 
| (I can find the r-base-core package for R 3.6.3, but not R 4.0.2, built for ARM.)
| 
| If there is no such Debian/Ubuntu repository, what would you recommend? Build R 4.0 for ARM from source? Use the cool 'rocker' images for R 4.0? Something else?
| 
| Thank you so much for your advice. I must be misunderstanding something. I figured this would be a slam-dunk because (1) R 4.0 is the latest release, and (2) Ubuntu 20.04 is an LTS release, and (3) ARM is a supported architecture, or so I thought.
| 
| Paul
| 
| PS - Yes, the ARM processors in question are a Raspberry Pi cluster. Don't snicker. Hey, it's got 16 cores, 16 GB RAM total, and a
| terabyte of space. And it's paid for, no monthly fee.

When I look at the build pages for my packages, eg this one for r-base

   https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=r-base

I see three (3) different arm labels: arm64, armel, armhf. I have no idea
what the Pi uses, and never looked closely, but I am at least vaguely aware
that there are apparently entire _dedicated_ distros and installers based on
the Debian builds.  Raspian is one name that comes to mind.  Did you try that?

Also, one second of Googling leads to: https://ubuntu.com/download/server/arm

Good luck, keep us posted -- other architectures/platforms can be fun.

Dirk
(who just installed 20.04 on his daughters "retired / thought dead under a
large cup of coffee spilled" macbook air)

https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

Thank you very much, Dirk. That nudge solved the problem, of course. I am embarrassed. I was so fixated on Ubuntu repositories that I neglected to check the Debian 'testing' world!

Regarding the RPi: The RPi 4 uses the 'arm64' architecture, the full 64-bit one. I stopped using dedicated distros, such as Raspian, when Ubuntu went all-in on RPi support, which happened in their newest release focal (20). The dedicated distros often have an unhelpful attitude -- e.g., "you should use *this* package, not *that* package" -- that doesn't work for me.

Paul Teetor, Elgin, IL USA
http://quantdevel.com/public

| Dear R-SIG-Debian folks,
| 
| I seem to be chasing my tail, despite having a simple goal:
| 
| - Install R 4.0.2
| - On Ubuntu 20.04
| - For an ARM processor (not Intel/AMD).
| 
| Can someone please suggest a Debian/Ubuntu repository of the required packages (e.g., r-base-core) built for ARM? I can't seem to find one.
| 
| (I can find the r-base-core package for R 3.6.3, but not R 4.0.2, built for ARM.)
| 
| If there is no such Debian/Ubuntu repository, what would you recommend? Build R 4.0 for ARM from source? Use the cool 'rocker' images for R 4.0? Something else?
| 
| Thank you so much for your advice. I must be misunderstanding something. I figured this would be a slam-dunk because (1) R 4.0 is the latest release, and (2) Ubuntu 20.04 is an LTS release, and (3) ARM is a supported architecture, or so I thought.
| 
| Paul
| 
| PS - Yes, the ARM processors in question are a Raspberry Pi cluster. Don't snicker. Hey, it's got 16 cores, 16 GB RAM total, and a
| terabyte of space. And it's paid for, no monthly fee.


When I look at the build pages for my packages, eg this one for r-base

? https://buildd.debian.org/status/package.php?p=r-base

I see three (3) different arm labels: arm64, armel, armhf. I have no idea
what the Pi uses, and never looked closely, but I am at least vaguely aware
that there are apparently entire _dedicated_ distros and installers based on
the Debian builds.? Raspian is one name that comes to mind.? Did you try that?

Also, one second of Googling leads to: https://ubuntu.com/download/server/arm

Good luck, keep us posted -- other architectures/platforms can be fun.

Dirk
(who just installed 20.04 on his daughters "retired / thought dead under a
large cup of coffee spilled" macbook air)

https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

| Thank you very much, Dirk. That nudge solved the problem, of course. I am embarrassed. I was so fixated on Ubuntu repositories that I neglected to check the Debian 'testing' world!
| 
| Regarding the RPi: The RPi 4 uses the 'arm64' architecture, the full 64-bit one. I stopped using dedicated distros, such as Raspian, when Ubuntu went all-in on RPi support, which happened in their newest release focal (20). The dedicated distros often have an unhelpful attitude -- e.g., "you should use *this* package, not *that* package" -- that doesn't work for me.

I am confused by these two paragraphs. Are you planning to use Debian
'testing' on you Raspberry Pi, or Ubuntu 'focal' aka 20.04?

And out of curiousity, is that a hosted machine?  Typically these are
toy-sized and usually at home.

Dirk

https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

Hmmmm. Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology. My logic is: (1) I am running Ubuntu focal on the cluster. (2) Ubuntu focal is built on Debian bullseye but (3) Debian bullseye is not yet the stable release; it is the 'testing' release; hence (4) I will pull the r-base-core package from the 'testing' version of Debian. And, in fact, I found r-base-core for 4.0.2 in the bullseye distribution. Does that all make sense?

My RPi cluster sits on the file cabinet next to my desk, all four boards. Yes, you could argue that it's merely a toy.... but it's bigger and cheaper than the AWS box that currently hosts my web site, RStudio server, and Shiny server!

For the truly curious, you can view my RPi cluster here:?https://photos.app.goo.gl/kALwoYCVxJ32VgxEA

Thanks again, Dirk. Your contributions to Debian and Ubuntu are foundational for my computing platforms.

Paul Teetor, Elgin, IL USA
http://quantdevel.com/public

| Thank you very much, Dirk. That nudge solved the problem, of course. I am embarrassed. I was so fixated on Ubuntu repositories that I neglected to check the Debian 'testing' world!
| 
| Regarding the RPi: The RPi 4 uses the 'arm64' architecture, the full 64-bit one. I stopped using dedicated distros, such as Raspian, when Ubuntu went all-in on RPi support, which happened in their newest release focal (20). The dedicated distros often have an unhelpful attitude -- e.g., "you should use *this* package, not *that* package" -- that doesn't work for me.

I am confused by these two paragraphs. Are you planning to use Debian
'testing' on you Raspberry Pi, or Ubuntu 'focal' aka 20.04?

And out of curiousity, is that a hosted machine?? Typically these are
toy-sized and usually at home.


Dirk

https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

| Hmmmm. Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology. My logic is: (1) I am running Ubuntu focal on the cluster.

I am with you so far.

| (2) Ubuntu focal is built on Debian bullseye but

Not really. Ubuntu does their own thing, and their own snapshots.

There is no relationship to Debian _stable_ releases.  They take sources from
Debian unstable and then do their thing.  Which sometimes is minor variation,
often no change, but sometimes a lot more (i.e. snaps, different boot stuff,
different window manager, fonts, branding, software store, alliances with
third parties, paid-for patent technology (they always included mp3 players).

In short, I think you started from the wrong gate here.

| (3) Debian bullseye is not yet the stable release; it is the 'testing' release; hence (4) I will pull the r-base-core package from the 'testing' version of Debian. And, in fact, I found r-base-core for 4.0.2 in the bullseye distribution. Does that all make sense?

Given (2) you more or less land in a bad spot with (3) and (4).
 
| My RPi cluster sits on the file cabinet next to my desk, all four boards. Yes, you could argue that it's merely a toy.... but it's bigger and cheaper than the AWS box that currently hosts my web site, RStudio server, and Shiny server!

Got it. Missed the cluster part earlier and then confused myself looking for
arm64 16core machines. There aren't any :)
 
| For the truly curious, you can view my RPi cluster here:?https://photos.app.goo.gl/kALwoYCVxJ32VgxEA

Neat :)  Very geek chic! 
 
| Thanks again, Dirk. Your contributions to Debian and Ubuntu are foundational for my computing platforms.

You're too kind.

Cheers, Dirk

https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com | @eddelbuettel | edd at debian.org

Am Mittwoch, 15. Juli 2020, 22:12:08 CEST schrieb Dirk Eddelbuettel:

On 15 July 2020 at 19:44, Paul Teetor wrote:
| Hmmmm. Perhaps I'm using the wrong terminology. My logic is: (1) I am
| running Ubuntu focal on the cluster.
I am with you so far.

| (2) Ubuntu focal is built on Debian bullseye but

Not really. Ubuntu does their own thing, and their own snapshots.

There is no relationship to Debian _stable_ releases.  They take sources
from Debian unstable and then do their thing.  Which sometimes is minor
variation, often no change, but sometimes a lot more (i.e. snaps, different
boot stuff, different window manager, fonts, branding, software store,
alliances with third parties, paid-for patent technology (they always
included mp3 players).

In short, I think you started from the wrong gate here.

I think it would be preferable to add to your /etc/apt/sources.list

  deb-src https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu focal-cran40/

to get access to the source packages for R 4.0.2, and then do

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt build-dep r-base

and

  sudo apt source -b r-base

to build these on your arm cluster for your architecture. Of course you will 
need to rebuild after R releases to keep up to date. 

Johannes