Rstudio portable not working from version 2022.12.0-353

RStudio IDE
#1

Dear all,

Starting from RStudio version 2022.12.0-353 we are not able to run RStudio as a portable application anymore. Instead of portable thumbdrive, we have been using a network share. Running RStudio from UNC path worked with all the previous versions past 4 years, using the same setup method as for portable drive: https://support.posit.co/hc/en-us/articles/200534467-Creating-a-Portable-Version-of-RStudio-for-a-USB-Drive

Now we simply receive "RStudio has stopped working", without much clarification.

image
image974×838 193 KB

Can someone suggest what changed from version 2022.12.0-353 and forth that could have caused this issue, as this does not seem intentional?

I have also tried version RStudio-2023.03.0-386, resulting to the same issue.

Thank you,
Mart

#3

My problem may be related to this one. I am trying to create a portable version of RStudio.

The portable version of RStudio crashes on restart if I point to the portable version of R in Tools > Global Options. Please note that I can point the Desktop version to the portable R and it doesn't crash RStudio on restart so I believe there is something wrong with Portable RStudio.

To fix this, I have to delete the RStudio folder in the "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming" folder.

To be truly portable, portable RStudio should not use the settings in the Roaming folder. For example, I have RStudio and R installed on the hard drive and changing the R version for portable RStudio also changes it for the Desktop version. I want the two versions to be totally separate.

Please let me know If I can help with troubleshooting.

#4

You can change this behavior with the XDG_CONFIG_HOME environment variable.

#5

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for responding.

Does your response help the original poster (Mart) solve his problem too? I don't want to be accused of hijacking Mart's post.

I am not an expert so I wouldn't have the first idea how to use `XDG_CONFIG_HOME. Would I use that in a bat file? Would I have to do this on every machine I need to use the portable version of RStudio (if so, then this is not a portable solution)? Do you think this is the reason portable RStudio isn't working? I don't. And why can't the developers of the portable version fix this so I don't have to figure out how to make it work? I have tred a bunch of different suggestions (except yours) and nothing has fixed the problem.

There are still many unanswered questions. I realize you are not the developer for portable RStudio but maybe you know the right person to contact.

Ken

#6

There are a bunch of ways to set environment variables on Windows; the right one depends on your use case. The safest thing to do is to set it during RStudio's launch; you can do that in a batch script or by customizing the RStudio launch shortcut.

Other possibilities include setting it at the user or system level in Windows itself. That might be appropriate if you are using Group Policy or something to manage a large number of Windows instances.

Even portable applications should write user preferences to the Roaming folder! It's how all Windows applications should work. Many "portable" applications need to be able to run from write-protected media, so storing user preferences alongside the application binaries isn't preferred.

I would be surprised if it is, to be honest. Are you seeing the same crash as the original poster? If not, start a new thread and post screenshots and any text you can glean and we'll see what we can figure out.

Sorry this has been frustrating!

#7

Jonathan,

Before I do that, can you confirm that these are the correct links for portable R and portable RStudio? I think it is possible I don't have the right links.

Portable R: R Portable download | SourceForge.net

Portable RStudio: R Portable - Browse /R-Studio/0.97.551 at SourceForge.net

I will put together all the steps and screenshots once I hear from you.

Thanks!

Ken

#8

Jonathan,

Followup: And I don't think this post is correct:

I am not sure this post is valid. Can you tell me if anything here is incorrect?

Thanks,

Ken

#9

Those are very out of date! You want the "installer-less" version of RStudio for Windows. Go here:

then scroll down to Zip/Tarballs, and download the .zip file for Windows.

#10

Jonathan,

Success! Here is what I did. I downloaded the zip file here:

https://download1.rstudio.org/electron/windows/RStudio-2023.03.0-386.exe

I unzipped the contents of that file to a folder on an external hard drive called RStudio (F:\RStudio; note that the drive letter will likely change when I plug the drive into different computers).

I already had a copy of R installed on the computer's hard drive so I just copied it to the RStudio folder on the external drive. The path to R is F:\RStudio\R-4.2.2

When RStudio launches, I changed the location of R using Tools > Global Options. The file I selected was located here: F:\RStudio\R-4.2.2\bin\x64\R.exe

After exiting and restarting RStudio, the path to the portable copy of R was found! [By the way, this is where it was crashing before. Maybe I was just selecting the wrong file. To fix, I had to delete the RStudio folder in the C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming folder. So, this is progress! Thank you very much.]

The only remaining issue is how to keep the location for R for the Desktop version of RStudio separate from that for the portable version of RStudio. In other words, right now when I set the location of R for the portable version of RStudio it also sets the location for the Desktop version of RStudio. It would be ideal if portable RStudio didn't interact at all with the hard drive. I am not sure what the best approach would be but if this can be accomplished with a shortcut parameter we should try that first. Can you give me an example to try out?

Thanks for all your help.

Ken

#11

Followup: Portable RStudio does not work on computers that don't have R installed. When portable RStudio starts, it pops up a message that R is not installed with no option to point to portable R.

#12

This topic was automatically closed 21 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

If you have a query related to it or one of the replies, start a new topic and refer back with a link.