Installing RGtk2 on macOS Sierra (Version 10.12.4) and R version 3.4.0

Question

When I try to install the package RGtk2 I get the following error:

> install.packages("RGtk2")
Package which is only available in source form, and may need
  compilation of C/C++/Fortran: ‘RGtk2’
Do you want to attempt to install these from sources?
y/n: y
installing the source package ‘RGtk2’

trying URL 'https://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/RGtk2_2.20.33.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 2792938 bytes (2.7 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 2.7 MB

* installing *source* package ‘RGtk2’ ...
** package ‘RGtk2’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
checking for pkg-config... /usr/local/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for INTROSPECTION... no
checking for GTK... no
configure: error: GTK version 2.8.0 required
ERROR: configuration failed for package ‘RGtk2’
* removing ‘/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.4/Resources/library/RGtk2’
Warning in install.packages :
  installation of package ‘RGtk2’ had non-zero exit status

The downloaded source packages are in
 ‘/private/var/folders/m4/l02774c51vx71qt6_wdq59lw0000gn/T/Rtmpa7sxIS/downloaded_packages’
> 

I am running macOS Sierra (Version 10.12.4) and R version 3.4.0.

Answer 1

I assume you have R and RStudio installed already. If not, install it. Then do the following.

1) Install XQuartz

2) Install GTK 2.24.17-X11

3) Download cairoDevice and RGtk2

4) From terminal run R CMD INSTALL ~/Downloads/cairoDevice_2.24.tar.gz

5) Install Homebrew for Mac.

6) From terminal type the following commands: brew uninstall cairo --ignore-dependencies brew install --with-x11 cairo

7) Type brew edit gtk+ in terminal and scroll to def install section and edit the reference with quartz to (press i to edit and to save and exit, press escape key and type colon (shift+ semi colon key). Then type wq.)

"--with-gdktarget=x11", "--enable-x11-backend"

8) Then type brew install --build-from-source --verbose gtk+ in the same terminal window.

9) Then type export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/gtk+-2.0.pc:/opt/X11/lib/pkgconfig

10) Type R CMD INSTALL ~/Downloads/RGtk2_2.20.33.tar.gz from the same terminal window.

Hopefully it will work for you.

Answer 2

You probably don't have GTK installed in your system (outside of R). You can try an install from the GTK package in the ../libs/ directory here:

http://r.research.att.com/libs/ 

Probably need XQuartz, Xcode of the proper version for your macOS version and the correct Command Line Tools first. The download and install code for the bash-install are at the bottom of that /libs/ page.

Answer 3

when I tried to install RGtk2 this comes up... I checked which gcc and it shows a c compiler. why does it say that C compiler is not working?

$ R CMD INSTALL ~/Downloads/RGtk2_2.20.33.tar.gz
* installing to library ‘/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.4/Resources/library’
* installing *source* package ‘RGtk2’ ...
** package ‘RGtk2’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
checking for pkg-config... /usr/local/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes
checking for INTROSPECTION... no
checking for GTK... yes
checking for GTHREAD... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... no
configure: error: in `/private/var/folders/xh/kw0cr4xj52zd9pd8t46d6xwh0000gn/T/RtmpnYEC6D/R.INSTALL13a7b3357df80/RGtk2':
configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables
See `config.log' for more details.
ERROR: configuration failed for package ‘RGtk2’
* removing ‘/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/3.4/Resources/library/RGtk2’

Answer 4

Following the directions on this website will likely be helpful: https://gist.github.com/sebkopf/9405675.

Be sure to read the additional conversations after the post for useful modifications.