Address `languageserver` and `jsonlite` VS Code R extension errors

[MiguelRodo]

Libraries

Here are paths under various settings:

# vs code extension paths
R library paths:
"/home/rstudio/.cache/R/renv/library/Prac23StatsSeecCourseSimpleReg-ebd2789b/linux-ubuntu-jammy/R-4.4/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
"/home/rstudio/.cache/R/renv/sandbox/linux-ubuntu-jammy/R-4.4/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/25ebdc09"
Error in loadNamespace("jsonlite") : 
  there is no package called ‘jsonlite’
Calls: loadNamespace -> withRestarts -> withOneRestart -> doWithOneRestart
Execution halted

# renv paths
"/workspaces/.local/.cache/R/renv/linux-ubuntu-jammy/R-4.4/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
"/home/rstudio/.cache/R/renv/sandbox/linux-ubuntu-jammy/R-4.4/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/25ebdc09"

# renv paths (with sandbox disabled)
"/workspaces/.local/.cache/R/renv/linux-ubuntu-jammy/R-4.4/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
"/usr/local/lib/R/library"

# non-renv paths:
"/workspaces/.local/lib/R"
"/usr/local/lib/R/site-library"
"/usr/local/lib/R/library"  

what worked (with sandbox enabled)

1. In workspace directory, run radian --vanilla
2. Run the following:

lib_path <- "/home/rstudio/.cache/R/renv/sandbox/linux-ubuntu-jammy/R-4.4/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/25ebdc09"
install.packages(
  c("jsonlite", "languageserver"),
  lib = lib_path,
  repos = "https://cloud.r-project.org"
)

No matter how I start R, by default I install into libraries not used by the VS Code extension.

The workaround in future is just to start R in vanilla mode, and install languageserver and jsonlite, explicitly installing into the paths indicated by the VS Code R extension.

To use the above code then, just replace the value of lib_paths with the relevant value.

[MiguelRodo]

Upon starting the container, we could run Rscript --vanilla -e '<cmd>; install.packages(c("jsonlite", "languageserver"))' where <cmd> is the following (with semi-colons in between):

# 1. get home directory
#2. get .cache/R/ren/library subdirectory
# 3. List whatever directories are in there, and `cd` into the one that was created last
# 4.Cd into whatever directory was created last
# 5. CD into the directory whose <major>.<minor> version matches current
# 6. CD into whatever directory was created last
/home/rstudio/.cache/R/renv/library/Prac23StatsSeecCourseSimpleReg-ebd2789b/linux-ubuntu-jammy/R-4.4/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu