[R-sig-Debian] [R] Installing R on Ubuntu 6.10 via apt-get

[Johannes Ranke]

Hi,

* Vincent Goulet <vincent.goulet at act.ulaval.ca> [070309 19:20]:
> [Redirected to r-sig-debian where this belongs]
> 
> Le Vendredi 9 Mars 2007 06:43, Antonio Olinto a écrit :
> > Hi
> >
> > I'm using Linux Ubuntu 6.10 on a Pentium D 2.8.
> >
> > Well, following http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/README
> >
> > I wrote in the sources.list
> >
> > # R
> > deb http://CRAN.R-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu edgy/
> > deb http://www.vps.fmvz.usp.br/CRAN/bin/linux/ubuntu edgy/
> >
> > But after type "apt-get update" I got
> >
> > Falha ao baixar
> > http://www.vps.fmvz.usp.br/CRAN/bin/linux/ubuntu/edgy/Release Unable to
> > find expected entry Packages in Meta-index file (malformed Release file?)
> > Falha ao baixar http://CRAN.R-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/edgy/Release
> > Unable to find expected entry Packages in Meta-index file (malformed
> > Release file?)
> > W: Conflicting distribution: http://www.vps.fmvz.usp.br edgy/ Release
> > (expected edgy but got )

This means that in the Release file the distribution is not specified.

> > W: Conflicting distribution: http://CRAN.R-project.org edgy/ Release
> > (expected edgy but got )
> >
> > (PS. Falha ao baixar = Fail to download)
> >
> > The key of Vincent Goulet seems to be OK.
> >
> > Am I doing something wrong or there's really a problem with the Release
> > file?
> 
> Johannes,
> 
> Is this the kind of problem you were referring to in your Wednesday message? 
> Honestly, I did not understand the " I got error messages from apt due to the 
> very slim Release file produced when calling apt-ftparchive release without a 
> config file" part. Could you please explain in some more detail so I can fix 
> things.

If you call "apt-ftparchive release", then you get a release file just
with checksums, but with no further information about the repository.
To fix this, you can specify a config file. For example, in my
repository maintenance script

	http://www.uft.uni-bremen.de/chemie/ranke/r-cran/update_etch.sh

I call apt-ftparchive like this

	apt-ftparchive -c apt-ftparchive_etch.conf release etch

which makes apt-ftparchive use the config file apt-ftparchive_etch.conf
where some details about the repository are given. If you produce your 
Release file this way, the problem should go away.

I also included some more information in this config file, which means
that I can produce the Packages.gz and Sources.gz files by calling

	apt-ftparchive generate apt-ftparchive_etch.conf

which is the first line in the script referred to above.

Best,

Johannes
	
> 
> Antonio: I'll keep you posted when the problem is fixed.
> 
> -- 
>   Vincent Goulet, Associate Professor
>   École d'actuariat
>   Université Laval, Québec 
>   Vincent.Goulet at act.ulaval.ca   http://vgoulet.act.ulaval.ca

-- 
Dr. Johannes Ranke                 jranke at uni-bremen.de     Key ID: F649AF90
UFT Bremen, Leobenerstr. 1         +49 421 218 8971
D-28359 Bremen                     http://www.uft.uni-bremen.de/chemie/ranke