Creating PDF reports with R on Ubuntu

Texi2pdf

Texi2pdf is a function from the tools package that Compiles LaTeX Files into PDFs.

Using the R command:

> texi2pdf("docs/rapports/draft/template2.tex")

Prompted the error:

Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet,  :
  Running 'texi2dvi' on 'docs/rapports/draft/template2.tex' failed.
Messages:
sh: 1: /usr/bin/texi2dvi: not found

Installing texlive and texinfo fixed this error.

sudo apt-get install texinfo

sudo apt-get install texlive

For info the source of the texi2dvi bash script was mentioned by this blogger.

Accents

There was an issue with accents not rendered.
Loading this package fixes it:

 \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

devtools

 opts_knit$get() showed me options that don't exist any-more in the current version of the knitr package. I wanted to install the latest version of knitr.
I needed the package devtools.
But I couldn't install devtools because of this message

Cannot find curl-config

As explained in this mail, installing the package  "libcurl4-gnutls-dev" fixes this. I could then install the package devtools and load it.

To install the latest version of knitr:

library(devtools)
install_github(repo = "knitr", username = "yihui")

xtable

The xtable galery explains how to do longtable and tables in landscape format.It also demonstrates how to rotate column names and how to print a table of linear model coefficients.

HP printer on Ubuntu Linux

I used the add printer dialogue on Ubuntu Linux but I didn't manage to install a HP deskjet 2514 printer. Following a recommendation read on Ubuntu-fr doc I installed the HPLIP tools (HP Linux Imaging and Printing). And it worked, I can now print and scan from Ubuntu on this cheap Deskjet printer. Once HPLIP is installed, new HP printers can be installed using the command: hp-setup.

Printers installed on the local computer can be accessed through: http://localhost:631/printers/

Next step is to plug the printer to my internet router to enable printing through the wifi. My internet router has a windows printer sharing capability. On Lubuntu I needed to install the smb client to be able to access a printer shared on a Windows network.


-----
HPLIP Installer ver. 5.1
[...]
Enable the universe/multiverse repositories. Also be sure you are using the Ubuntu "Main" Repositories. See: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu for more information.  Disable the CD-ROM/DVD source if you do not have the Ubuntu installation media inserted in the drive.  During the install process you will be added to the lp and lpadmin group, please quit the installer before the setup stage, log out, log back in, and run hp-setup to complete the install.