[R-sig-Debian] Broken R

[Ed Siefker]

Hi, I am running Debian Sid. I am having
trouble with the R packages.

Executing 'help()' or 'demo()' launches 'most' with no text.
'help.start()' works properly.

When I try to install a package, I get the following problem:

*********************************************************************
> install.packages("ctv")
Installing package(s) into ‘/usr/local/lib/R/site-library’
(as ‘lib’ is unspecified)
--- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---
Loading Tcl/Tk interface ... done
Warning: unable to access index for repository
http://cran.cnr.Berkeley.edu/src/contrib
Warning message:
In getDependencies(pkgs, dependencies, available, lib) :
  package ‘ctv’ is not available (for R version 2.14.2)
>
*********************************************************************

The system in question has a direct connection to the internet.
I can browse to the repository and find the ctv package.
The user has read and write permissions on '/usr/local/lib/R/site-library'

I don't know what to do here.  Can someone advise?