XQuartz and Rstudio output plots within the cluster

Q&A
1

Hello! I’m new to using the cluster and just tried running RStudio through an OOD Remote Desktop instance to get a sense for how it works. I will ultimately need to use the cluster to run a long Rmd script that outputs thousands of PNG files to the working directory. However, when I try running any function that outputs a PNG or TIFF file, I get the following Warning and Error messages:

Warning: failed to load cairo DLL
Error in dev.control(displaylist = “enable”) :
dev.control() called without an open graphics device

I already ran Options(bitmapType=‘cairo’) earlier on in my Rmd file but it didn’t solve this problem. I’ve done some googling and it seems like this might be an XQuartz compatibility/requirement issue? I have XQuartz downloaded on my MacBook when I run the script locally, as it’s required for me to output the plots I’m making.

How can I resolve this issue? Is there any way to download XQuartz from within the Cluster?

Thank you in advance for your help with this topic!

Best,
Caleb (PhD student, EPS Department)

2

It may be helpful for you to post a small test code segment that demonstrates the problem. I’m assuming what is happening is whatever package you are using for the graphics wants to display on a screen and not write a file. With a code segment, someone here may be better able to assist you with how to best do that.

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