How to install rgl and netmata in R 3.3.1?

Question

I am reading the R Springer book of the authors. Their 00-installation script yields the following warings

# List of R packages
pkgs <- c("mada", "meta", "metafor", "metasens", "mvmeta", "netmeta",
          "rmeta", "ellipse")

# Use your favorite CRAN mirror (argument 'repos')
# See website http://cran.r-project.org/mirrors.html for a list of
# CRAN mirrors
install.packages(pkgs,
                 repos="http://cran.at.r-project.org/")

Warnings as root and repeated 4 times

Warning messages:
1: In install.packages(pkgs, repos = "http://cran.at.r-project.org/") :
  installation of package ‘rgl’ had non-zero exit status
2: In install.packages(pkgs, repos = "http://cran.at.r-project.org/") :
  installation of package ‘netmeta’ had non-zero exit status

R: 3.3.1
OS: Debian 8.5

Answer 1

The netmeta package imports the rgl package. To install the rgl package from source some libraries are required:

SystemRequirements: OpenGL, GLU Library, XQuartz (on OSX), zlib (optional), libpng (>=1.2.9, optional), FreeType (optional)

On Debian-based distributions it is easier to install the prebuilt binary package:

apt-get install r-cran-rgl 

Afterwards install.packages("netmeta") should work in R.