Installing R on Android

Question

I am trying to install it on an Android operating system (I have a Samsung Galaxy tablet). I would like to install both R and RStudio.

I've been online to try and find out about this but most of the articles are quite old (going back to 2013) and don't make much sense to me.

I have both R and R studio installed on my personal laptop (with a windows OS) and found these both very straightforward to set up, but having some trouble figuring out how to do this on a tablet.

If anyone has done it recently and been successful please let me know.

Answer 1

1. Install GNURoot from Google Play
2. Install Gnuroot Wheezy from Google Play. See http://www.linux-magazine.com/ Online/Blogs/Productivity-Sauce/GNURoot-Linux-on-Android-No-Root-Required for more help.

3. Update the package repositories (twice!):

   apt-get update apt-get update

4. Block updates to system Perl:

   apt-mark hold perl-base

5. Install R:

   apt-get install r-base

6. Install all available cran packages from the Debian repositories:

   apt-get install r-cran*

7. Start R from the command line:

   R

source http://www.r-ohjelmointi.org/?p=1434

Answer 2

Rstudio-server didn't work in a non-rooted device, installed in ubuntu in termux. Related links: rstudio in android - rooted, non-root rstudio discussion.

I found two workarounds in a non-rooted device. Working on browser or VNC Viewer.

1. The browser (jupyter) approach

(tested in yoga book with Android 7.1 and Huawei phone with Android 8 - size with ggplot 1.66 Gb)

• install termux (google play) (As termux didn't run jupyter-IRkernel, I had to install ubuntu)
• install ubuntu in termux (MFDGaming or Neo-Oli).
• run this in ubuntu:

    apt update && apt upgrade     apt-get install apt-transport-https software-properties-common      # add R repository     add-apt-repository 'deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu disco-cran35/'     apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9     apt update && apt upgrade          apt install nodejs     apt install npm # absence of this causes non-editable cells in jupyter     apt install gfortran     apt install liblapack-dev     apt install libopenblas-dev          # install R     apt install r-base-dev # or r-base or r-base-core          # install python package manager     apt-get install python3-pip      # install jupyter     pip3 install jupyterlab      # open R     R  

• Inside R:

    # Package necessary for jupyter     install.packages("IRkernel")     IRkernel::installspec()     q() 

• In ubuntu, run the jupyter lab

    jupyter lab --allow-root     # as you will see you have to paste something like this in your internet browser     http://127.0.0.1:8889/?token=1a0f9b3d472d155bb4d46df119b937646d6192f569c9d635  

• You would need to disable the automatic hibernation of termux in battery settings.

Note: In termux app (google play) is possible to install R, see Conor link; the important setupclang-gfort-8 step can be accomplished after installing make and gcc-8 and using the new package names in the output of the (outdated) Conor protocol. The problem appears if you want GUI. An option is the Rcmdr package, but as termux has not tcl-tk, as you can see inside R using capabilities(), I ended installing ubuntu in termux

2. The VNC approach

• As in the browser approach install termux and ubuntu
• In ubuntu install aterm
• After installing R in ubuntu (see above), install R Commander GUI package:

    #in R:     install.packages("Rcmdr") 

• In ubuntu install vnc4server
• In Android install VNC Viewer (google play).
• Launch the VNC server in ubuntu:

    tigervncserver -xstartup aterm 

• In VNC Viewer connect to 127.0.0.1:5901 which corresponds to the :1 display (showing the aterm in white), open R in aterm, then library(Rcmdr).

• After ploting, see ggplot example, I had to write (blindly) dev.off() because there is no other way to return to the script window.

    require(ggplot2)     ggplot(diamonds) + geom_point(aes(x=carat, y=price, color=cut)) + geom_smooth(aes(x=carat, y=price, color=cut)) 

Notes:I also installed X11 in ubuntu, but didn't seem to improve the GUI experience of Rcmdr. In a yoga book with android the @Ajay answer didn't work.