[R-sig-Debian] Newbie Questions

[Michael Dewey]

At 18:56 25/07/2008, Michael Conklin wrote:
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>I have followed the read me file. Forgive my ignorance of Debian but I get
>messages like:
>
>Couldn't stat source package list http://cran.wustl.edu etch-cran/ Packages
>
>which is not particularly helpful to me. In addition the read me file
>instructions "install as usual" are not helpful because I have not installed
>as usual before. :)

Michael, have you also looked at the Wiki entry
http://wiki.r-project.org/rwiki/doku.php?id=getting-started:installation:debian
which describes more or less the same things in a slightly different way?

I also found reading the posts on this list quite 
helpful to give some more meat to the skeleton 
instructions which, as you say, assume you know 
something about Debian. I was trying to install R 
on an Asus EEE (and ultimately succeeding) and 
like you had very limited knowledge of Linux.

>Here is a very basic question for debian -- should I type:  apt-get install
>pkgname or aptitude install pkgname. They seem to attempt to do the same
>things but I get different results.
>
>Thanks for your patience.
>
>
>On 7/25/08, Vincent Goulet <vincent.goulet at act.ulaval.ca> wrote:
> >
> > Michael,
> >
> > I think most of your issues will be answered in the Debian README on CRAN:
> >
> >        http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/
> >
> > I would recommend removing the version of R you compiled yourself and
> > rather opt for the binaries provided on CRAN for etch by Johannes.
> >
> > HTH    Vincent
> >
> > Le ven. 25 juil. à 12:37, Michael Conklin a écrit :
> >
> >  I am new to Linux (not to R) and I am experimenting with a Linux machine
> >> with Debian etch and the Gnome desktop environment installed. Since the
> >> stable release has R2.4 I elected to build R from sources and was able to
> >> successfully install R2.71.  I had some trouble installing some packages
> >> (specifically the XML package) and saw advice on the list on how to
> >> install
> >> R binaries using aptitude.  Now, I apparently have 2 versions of R
> >> installed
> >> and depending on how I start R I get different versions. If I start R via
> >> the Gnome menu I get R2.4 in a terminal window. If I type R in a terminal
> >> window that I have opened I get R2.71.  In both cases R.home() shows the
> >> same directory /usr/lib/R.  I seem to have a lot of trouble understanding
> >> where things are and how to control profile files and start up options on
> >> the Debian system.  Any advice would be most appreciated.
> >>
> >> Michael Conklin
> >>
> >>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
>
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Michael Dewey
http://www.aghmed.fsnet.co.uk