R on Ubuntu 16.04: rgl won't install proper

Question

Trying to install rgl onto R 3.4.4, Ubuntu 16.04, but it's not playing nice:

Warning in install.packages :
  installation of package ‘rgl’ had non-zero exit status

I've tried every fix that every post has suggested. Nothing improved.

Am I overlooking something? Any ideas?

Version info:

> version
platform       x86_64-pc-linux-gnu         
arch           x86_64                      
os             linux-gnu                   
system         x86_64, linux-gnu           
status                                     
major          3                           
minor          4.4                         
year           2018                        
month          03                          
day            15                          
svn rev        74408                       
language       R                           
version.string R version 3.4.4 (2018-03-15)
nickname       Someone to Lean On   

Here is the full output:

> install.packages("rgl")
Installing package into ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/rgl_0.99.16.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 3058794 bytes (2.9 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 2.9 MB

* installing *source* package ‘rgl’ ...
** package ‘rgl’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
checking for gcc... gcc -std=gnu99
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 gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -std=gnu99 -E
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc -std=gnu99
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking for libpng-config... yes
configure: using libpng-config
configure: using libpng dynamic linkage
checking for X... libraries , headers 
checking GL/gl.h usability... yes
checking GL/gl.h presence... yes
checking for GL/gl.h... yes
checking GL/glu.h usability... yes
checking GL/glu.h presence... yes
checking for GL/glu.h... yes
checking for glEnd in -lGL... yes
checking for gluProject in -lGLU... yes
checking for pkg-config... yes
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
configure: using Freetype and FTGL
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating src/Makevars
** libs
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c ABCLineSet.cpp -o ABCLineSet.o
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c BBoxDeco.cpp -o BBoxDeco.o
In file included from glgui.h:12:0,
                 from BBoxDeco.cpp:4:
ext/ftgl/FTGL/ftgl.h:32:22: fatal error: ft2build.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
/usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:168: recipe for target 'BBoxDeco.o' failed
make: *** [BBoxDeco.o] Error 1
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘rgl’
* removing ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4/rgl’
Warning in install.packages :
  installation of package ‘rgl’ had non-zero exit status

The downloaded source packages are in
    ‘/tmp/RtmpWrldzM/downloaded_packages’
> # Spinning 3D scatterplot
> # Install and load rgl package
> install.packages("rgl")
Installing package into ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/rgl_0.99.16.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 3058794 bytes (2.9 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 2.9 MB

* installing *source* package ‘rgl’ ...
** package ‘rgl’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
checking for gcc... gcc -std=gnu99
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 gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -std=gnu99 -E
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc -std=gnu99
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking for libpng-config... yes
configure: using libpng-config
configure: using libpng dynamic linkage
checking for X... libraries , headers 
checking GL/gl.h usability... yes
checking GL/gl.h presence... yes
checking for GL/gl.h... yes
checking GL/glu.h usability... yes
checking GL/glu.h presence... yes
checking for GL/glu.h... yes
checking for glEnd in -lGL... yes
checking for gluProject in -lGLU... yes
checking for pkg-config... yes
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
configure: using Freetype and FTGL
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating src/Makevars
** libs
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c ABCLineSet.cpp -o ABCLineSet.o
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c BBoxDeco.cpp -o BBoxDeco.o
In file included from glgui.h:12:0,
                 from BBoxDeco.cpp:4:
ext/ftgl/FTGL/ftgl.h:32:22: fatal error: ft2build.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
/usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:168: recipe for target 'BBoxDeco.o' failed
make: *** [BBoxDeco.o] Error 1
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘rgl’
* removing ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4/rgl’
Warning in install.packages :
  installation of package ‘rgl’ had non-zero exit status

The downloaded source packages are in
    ‘/tmp/RtmpWrldzM/downloaded_packages’

EDIT: After installing libftgl2 I get

install.packages("rgl")
Installing package into ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/rgl_0.99.16.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 3058794 bytes (2.9 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 2.9 MB

* installing *source* package ‘rgl’ ...
** package ‘rgl’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
checking for gcc... gcc -std=gnu99
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 gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -std=gnu99 -E
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc -std=gnu99
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking for libpng-config... yes
configure: using libpng-config
configure: using libpng dynamic linkage
checking for X... libraries , headers 
checking GL/gl.h usability... yes
checking GL/gl.h presence... yes
checking for GL/gl.h... yes
checking GL/glu.h usability... yes
checking GL/glu.h presence... yes
checking for GL/glu.h... yes
checking for glEnd in -lGL... yes
checking for gluProject in -lGLU... yes
checking for pkg-config... yes
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
configure: using Freetype and FTGL
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating src/Makevars
** libs
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c ABCLineSet.cpp -o ABCLineSet.o
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c BBoxDeco.cpp -o BBoxDeco.o
In file included from glgui.h:12:0,
                 from BBoxDeco.cpp:4:
ext/ftgl/FTGL/ftgl.h:32:22: fatal error: ft2build.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
/usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:168: recipe for target 'BBoxDeco.o' failed
make: *** [BBoxDeco.o] Error 1
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘rgl’
* removing ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4/rgl’
Warning in install.packages :
  installation of package ‘rgl’ had non-zero exit status

The downloaded source packages are in
    ‘/tmp/Rtmpv0TEaW/downloaded_packages’

Edit2: After installing the PPA and packages suggested by Rachit Kinger, I'm still not getting a working rgl.

Output:

> install.packages("rgl")
Installing package into ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
trying URL 'https://cloud.r-project.org/src/contrib/rgl_0.99.16.tar.gz'
Content type 'application/x-gzip' length 3058794 bytes (2.9 MB)
==================================================
downloaded 2.9 MB

* installing *source* package ‘rgl’ ...
** package ‘rgl’ successfully unpacked and MD5 sums checked
checking for gcc... gcc -std=gnu99
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 gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -std=gnu99 -E
checking for gcc... (cached) gcc -std=gnu99
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... (cached) yes
checking whether gcc -std=gnu99 accepts -g... (cached) yes
checking for gcc -std=gnu99 option to accept ISO C89... (cached) none needed
checking for libpng-config... yes
configure: using libpng-config
configure: using libpng dynamic linkage
checking for X... libraries , headers 
checking GL/gl.h usability... yes
checking GL/gl.h presence... yes
checking for GL/gl.h... yes
checking GL/glu.h usability... yes
checking GL/glu.h presence... yes
checking for GL/glu.h... yes
checking for glEnd in -lGL... yes
checking for gluProject in -lGLU... yes
checking for pkg-config... yes
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
Package freetype2 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `freetype2.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'freetype2' found
configure: using Freetype and FTGL
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating src/Makevars
** libs
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c ABCLineSet.cpp -o ABCLineSet.o
g++  -I/usr/share/R/include -DNDEBUG -DHAVE_PNG_H -I/usr/include/libpng12 -DHAVE_FREETYPE -Iext/ftgl  -Iext     -fpic  -g -O2 -fstack-protector-strong -Wformat -Werror=format-security -Wdate-time -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -g  -c BBoxDeco.cpp -o BBoxDeco.o
In file included from glgui.h:12:0,
                 from BBoxDeco.cpp:4:
ext/ftgl/FTGL/ftgl.h:32:22: fatal error: ft2build.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
/usr/lib/R/etc/Makeconf:168: recipe for target 'BBoxDeco.o' failed
make: *** [BBoxDeco.o] Error 1
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘rgl’
* removing ‘/home/brandon/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/3.4/rgl’
Warning in install.packages :
  installation of package ‘rgl’ had non-zero exit status

The downloaded source packages are in
    ‘/tmp/RtmpGobsUA/downloaded_packages’

Answer 1

Solution: RGL package for R compile error

Freetype is optional. Disabling it is the least hassles solution.

install.packages("rgl", repo="http://cran.r-project.org", configure.args="--disable-ftgl")

Answer 2

On Linux Mint MATE 19.1 (and previously in 19 and 18.3!)

I did

sudo apt-get install libftgl2 

then tried

sudo apt-get install libfreetype6

which was already installed and didn't fix it.

This suggested line:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:glasen/freetype2

gave the following error:

Cannot add PPA: 'Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)'.

The thing which did fix it was:

Download and unzip the latest FreeType2 from https://sourceforge.net/projects/freetype/files/ to your Downloads folder. Then from this folder:

sudo make
sudo make install

Re-open R and install.packages("rgl") should work.

Answer 3

The problem is not with R. It looks like some essential packages are missing from Ubuntu for this installation.

Try installing libftgl2 package from the terminal. You can use this code:

sudo apt-get install libftgl2 

You can also try install Freetype2 directly, if you are okay to add another PPA. Try this code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:glasen/freetype2

Then this:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install freetype2-demos  

Then restart your R session and try install rgl again. If this doesn't solve the problem you can uninstall the PPA you just installed by this command:

sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:glasen/freetype2