[R-sig-Debian] Confused about versions of R and Debian
Dirk Eddelbuettel
edd at debian.org
Mon Feb 18 13:32:28 CET 2008
Michael,
On 18 February 2008 at 09:49, Michael Dewey wrote:
| I have recently acquired an Asus EEE PC which runs a version of
| Xandros which I believe to be a fork of Debian. I have been using R
| under various versions of Windows for some years but this is my first
| move into the world of Unix. I have installed Texlive from a CD and I
Well, "a" cd? Was it source? Was it binary? If binary, was it versioned?
| have successfully added a UK-based repository and installed Texmaker.
| Now I would like to add R. There are dire warnings on the EEE forums
| about the dangers of using Debian repositories so I would like some
| more advice before I download things.
|
| 1 - If I download from the Debian repository using stable (which is
| the distribution I have - etch) will I get old versions of R? I do
| not understand what stable means here, is it like being frozen at
| some point in time?
Correct, with the version that was current at the time of the freeze.
| Do I need to using testing, and if so is that
| likely to have compatibility problems with my system?
Maybe. We can't tell as we don't run Xandros.
Note that CRAN has backports of R for Debian testing.
| 2 - If I download from my favourite CRAN (Bristol, UK) it seems I do
| not get all the contributed packages. Is that correct? If so I do not
| quite see the point so I suspect I misunderstand here.
You get the current R for Debian testing. You would need to call
install.packages() yourself for packages you need.
We cannot and do not know how testing and Xandros mix.
| 3 - As a last resort I should install from sources but a poster to
| R-help suggested he had had problems with this. Where do I find what
| versions of compilers and so on I need to build from source?
Call
sudo apt-get build-dep r-base
which installs them for you (if you have deb-src entries for apt).
| I know I should just try it and see but I am reluctant to do that
| because of the dire warnings about damaging the system by using
| non-Xandros repositories. I also do not yet know how to un-install
| things either.
|
| For the record I am using the command line and apt-get and I have
| enabled pinning to give the EEE repositories highest priority.
One thing you have not mentioned is to backup your Xandros installation, and
go to regular Debian. If I were you, I'd consider that. Just run Debian
testing on the Eee. See eg
http://syn.theti.ca/articles/2008/02/16/bits-from-the-debian-eee-pc-team
for the latest from the Debian Eee team.
Dirk
--
Three out of two people have difficulties with fractions.
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