> | Packages compiled locally can simply be rebuilt using > | > | update.packages(lib.loc="/usr/local/lib/R/site-library", > | checkBuilt=TRUE) > | > | However the packages provided by Debian packages are installed in a > | directory only writable by privileged users. > > That's irrelevant. You also need to be "privileged" to install a .deb > package.
Not quite irrelevant, as it was recommended on r-help to Göran, who first reported this for Debian, to just use update.packages(checkBuilt=TRUE) which tries to reinstall also the packages in /usr/lib/R/site-library, which should be left to the Debian package management.