I am trying to run a multi-level model using the lmer function from the lme4 package but when I try and run the model, I get the following error:

Error in initializePtr() :

function 'cholmod_factor_ldetA' not provided by package 'Matrix'

This is what my code currently looks like:

install.packages("lme4")
library(lme4)

tools::package_dependencies("Matrix", which = "LinkingTo", reverse = TRUE)[[1L]]
install.packages("lme4", type = "source")
library (lme4)
library (Matrix)

model <- with(df, 
             lmer(weight ~ 1
                  + age*social_contact_family 
                  + baseline_weight + height
                  + sex + ethnicity_cat 
                  + (1 + age|id),
                  REML = TRUE))

I have tried restarting the session, uninstalling and re-installing packages, and changing the process of installing “lme4”. I have tried the code based on responses in these forums, which still doesn’t work:

• https://forum.posit.co/t/error-in-loading-lme4-and-matrix-packages-to-create-a-generalized-linear-mixed-effects-model/182172 and
• “Error in initializePtr() : function ‘cholmod_factor_ldetA’ not provided by package ‘Matrix'” when using lmer function in R

I have an up-to-date version of the package and of R.

Please can someone suggest a solution?

Thank you!