[R] problems accessing MS Access 2003 database with RODBC

[Boris.Vasiliev at forces.gc.ca]

Dear users,

I am trying to access a Microsoft Access database from R using RODBC
package 
but I have had little success.  The setup works with isql, RODBC seems
to 
connect to the database, but RODBC does not recognize the data in the
database.  Can anybody advise where I am going wrong?

I am using R version 2.10.1 on Ubuntu 8.04. ODBC version is 2.2.11.
Mdbtools 
version is 0.6pre1. RODBC version is 1.3.1.  Test database  with one
table
was created in MS Access 2003.

The ODBC configuration files are

/etc/odbcinst.ini:
[Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)]
Description = MDB Tools ODBC drivers
Driver = /usr/lib/libmdbodbc.so.0
Setup =
FileUsage = 1
CPTimeout = 
CRReuse =

/home/vasiliev/.odbc.ini:
[test_db]
Description = test events database
Driver = Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)
Database = /home/vasiliev/siginci/data/test_db.mdb
Trace = Yes
TraceFile = /home/vasiliev/odbc.log

When I test the set-up with isql it seems to work:

isql -v -m10 test_db
+---------------------------------------+
| Connected!                            |
|                                       |
| sql-statement                         |
| help [tablename]                      |
| quit                                  |
|                                       |
+---------------------------------------+
SQL> help
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| TABLE_CAT | TABLE_SCHE| TABLE_NAME| TABLE_TYPE| REMARKS   |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|           |           | MSysObject| SYSTEM TAB|           |
|           |           | MSysACEs  | SYSTEM TAB|           |
|           |           | MSysQuerie| SYSTEM TAB|           |
|           |           | MSysRelati| SYSTEM TAB|           |
|           |           | MSysAccess| SYSTEM TAB|           |
|           |           | tblA1     | TABLE     |           |
|           |           | MSysAccess| SYSTEM TAB|           |
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
SQLRowCount returns 7
7 rows fetched
SQL> help tblA1
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+
-----------+
| TABLE_CAT | TABLE_SCHE| TABLE_NAME| COLUMN_NAM| DATA_TYPE| TYPE_NAME |
COLUMN_SIZ|
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+
-----------+
|           |           | tblA1     | ID        | 4        | FIX ME    |
|
|           |           | tblA1     | Row       | 5        | FIX ME    |
|
|           |           | tblA1     | Value     | 4        | FIX ME    |
|
+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+-----------+
-----------+
SQLRowCount returns 3
3 rows fetched
SQL> select * from tblA1
+-----------+-------+-----------+
| ID        | Row   | Value     |
+-----------+-------+-----------+
| 1         | 1     | 2         |
| 2         | 10    | 10        |
| 3         | 30    | 30        |
| 4         | 40    | 40        |
+-----------+-------+-----------+
SQLRowCount returns 4
4 rows fetched

However, when the connection is opened in R, it appears to be empty.
DBMS details
are not recognized; table and data are unavailable:

> ch <- odbcConnect("test_db")
> odbcGetInfo(ch)
       DBMS_Name         DBMS_Ver  Driver_ODBC_Ver Data_Source_Name 
              ""               ""               ""        "test_db" 
     Driver_Name       Driver_Ver         ODBC_Ver      Server_Name 
       "test_db"        "test_db"          "03.52"          "03.52" 
> sqlTables(ch)
[1] TABLE_CAT   TABLE_SCHEM TABLE_NAME  TABLE_TYPE  REMARKS    
<0 rows> (or 0-length row.names)

Does anybody know what I am doing incorrectly? 
Sincerely,
Boris.