Re: problem installing packages (3.2.4)

[Carnë Draug]

On 23 April 2012 15:40, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso <address@hidden> wrote:
> 2012/4/23 Márcio Diniz <address@hidden>:
>> I just type
>> octave:3> help numgradient
>> error: help: `numgradient' not found
>> octave:3> help numhhessian
>> error: help: `numhhessian' not found
>> However, as I wrote before, when I type help bfgsmin, it finds the function.
>>
>> `bfgsmin' is a function from the file
>> /usr/share/octave/packages/3.2/optim-1.0.12/bfgsmin.m
>>
>>  bfgsmin: bfgs or limited memory bfgs minimization of function
>>
>>  Usage: [x, obj_value, convergence, iters] = bfgsmin(f, args, control)
>>
>>  The function must be of the form ... etc
>>
>> As you can see, I have optim-1.0.12 installed. I do not know what is wrong.
>> Thanks agains
>> Marcio
>
> Oh, I know what this is. It's an Ubuntu packaging bug, related to the
> architecture-dependent pathnames. Sigh... this is what happens when
> you copy Debian packages automatically and nobody in Ubuntu is taking
> care of them. It is the same as this bug:
>
>    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/octave-combinatorics/+bug/664375
>
> I ran into this a while ago:
>
>    https://mailman.cae.wisc.edu/pipermail/help-octave/2011-May/046063.html
>
> I don't remember how to fix this. I think the problem is that someone
> in Ubuntu has to properly recompile the Debian packages, but nobody in
> Ubuntu is taking care of the Octave packages. I remember someone had
> attempted to fix the packaging bug, but I can't remember who or how.
>
> You can try not using the Ubuntu packages and instead do
>
>    pkg install -forge optim

You'll need to install the package octave3.2-headers for this to work.
Also, optim, requires struct and miscellaneous which they have their
own dependencies and miscellanous itself requires 3.6 or later. I
think the following should solve your problem (the nodeps is to force
installaion of miscellaneous) :

## at bash run the following
$ sudo aptitude purge octave-miscellaneous octave-struct octave-optim
$ sudo aptitude install octave3.2-headers libncurses5-dev
## start octave with root privileges
$ sudo octave
## at the octave prompt run the following
octave> pkg install -nodeps -forge struct miscellaneous optim
octave> exit

Then start octave as regular user and see if that solves your problem.

Carnë