Problems with libRblas.so on ubuntu with rpy2

Question

I try to install rpy2 in my system, (I compile R with --enable-R-shlib and with --enable-BLAS-shlib flags) but when I try in python console

import rpy2 import rpy2.robjects

I got:

Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/rpy2/robjects/init.py", line 14, in import rpy2.rinterface as rinterface File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/rpy2/rinterface/init.py", line 75, in from rpy2.rinterface.rinterface import * ImportError: libRblas.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

The rpy2 directory is:

rpy2.path

['/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/rpy2']

My R version is: R version 2.12.1 Patched (2011-01-04 r53913)

My R home is: /usr/bin/R

My ubuntu version is: Linux kenneth-desktop 2.6.32-27-generic #49-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 2 00:51:09 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

My Python version is: Python 2.6.5 (r265:79063, Apr 16 2010, 13:57:41) [GCC 4.4.3] on linux2

When I install rpy2 from source (sudo python setup.py build install) I got:

running build running build_py running build_ext Configuration for R as a library: include_dirs: ('/usr/lib64/R/include',) libraries: ('R', 'Rblas', 'Rlapack') library_dirs: ('/usr/lib64/R/lib',) extra_link_args: () # OSX-specific (included in extra_link_args) framework_dirs: () frameworks: () running install running install_lib running install_data running install_egg_info Removing /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/rpy2-2.1.9.egg-info Writing /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/rpy2-2.1.9.egg-info

What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your help.

Answer 1

It looks like you tried to do things locally but didn't quite get there. I happen to maintain the Debian packages of R (which get rebuilt for Ubuntu and are accessible at CRAN. These builds use external BLAS. rpy2 then builds just fine as well.

I would recommend that you read the README, try to install r-base-core and r-base-dev from the repositories and then try to install rpy2 from source. Or live with the slightly older rpy2 package in Ubuntu.