[R-sig-Debian] r-base installation fails on Ubuntu 14.04

[Barnet Wagman]

I am unable to install R on an up to date (i.e. apt upgraded) Ubuntu 
14.04 system.  According to 
https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/README (and many other sources),
R is available for this version of Ubuntu (which is a stable version).

I currently have

    deb https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu trusty/

in sources.list.  I've tried this with and without

    deb https://  mirrors.rit.edu/ubuntu trusty-backports main
    restricted universe

I've tried installing using apt-get , aptitude, and synaptic. (I have, 
of course, run apt-get update.) All hit problems they cannot resolve 
(listed below).

I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.  I've installed R on many linux 
distributions in the past (suse, redhat, debian, most recently 
elementary os) and never run into anything like this before.   (I'm 
getting desperate enough to consider building R from src, but as I 
recall getting the right libraries installed isn't that easy).

Using apt-get install, I get the error message:

    Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
    requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
    distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
    or been moved out of Incoming.
    The following information may help to resolve the situation:

    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
      r-base : Depends: r-base-core (>= 3.2.4-revised-1trusty0) but it
    is not going to be installed
               Depends: r-recommended (= 3.2.4-revised-1trusty0) but it
    is not going to be installed
               Recommends: r-base-html but it is not going to be installed
      r-base-dev : Depends: r-base-core (>= 3.2.4-revised-1trusty0) but
    it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: gfortran but it is not going to be installed
                   Depends: liblapack-dev but it is not going to be
    installed or
                            libatlas-base-dev but it is not installable
    E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Using aptitude:

    root at bwud:/home/moi# aptitude install r-base
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
       cdbs{a} dh-translations{a} gfortran{a} gfortran-4.8{ab}
    libblas-dev{a} libblas3{a} libbz2-dev{a} libgfortran-4.8-dev{ab}
    libgfortran3{ab}
       libjpeg-dev{a} libjpeg-turbo8-dev{a} libjpeg8-dev{a}
    liblapack-dev{a} liblapack3{a} liblzma-dev{a} libncurses5-dev{a}
    libpcre3-dev{a}
       libpcrecpp0{a} libpng12-dev{a} libreadline-dev{a}
    libreadline6-dev{a} libtinfo-dev{a} python-scour{a} r-base
    r-base-core{a} r-base-dev{a}
       r-base-html{a} r-cran-boot{a} r-cran-class{a} r-cran-cluster{a}
    r-cran-codetools{a} r-cran-foreign{a} r-cran-kernsmooth{a}
       r-cran-lattice{a} r-cran-mass{a} r-cran-matrix{a} r-cran-mgcv{a}
    r-cran-nlme{a} r-cran-nnet{a} r-cran-rpart{a} r-cran-spatial{a}
       r-cran-survival{a} r-doc-html{a} r-recommended{a} zlib1g-dev{a}
    0 packages upgraded, 45 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 47.8 MB of archives. After unpacking 105 MB will be used.
    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
      gfortran-4.8 : Depends: gcc-4.8-base (= 4.8.2-19ubuntu1) but
    4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1 is installed.
                     Depends: gcc-4.8 (= 4.8.2-19ubuntu1) but
    4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1 is installed.
      libgfortran3 : Depends: gcc-4.8-base (= 4.8.2-19ubuntu1) but
    4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1 is installed.
      libgfortran-4.8-dev : Depends: gcc-4.8-base (= 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)
    but 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1 is installed.
                            Depends: libgcc-4.8-dev (= 4.8.2-19ubuntu1)
    but 4.8.4-2ubuntu1~14.04.1 is installed.
    The following actions will resolve these dependencies:

           Keep the following packages at their current version:
    1)      gfortran [Not Installed]
    2)      gfortran-4.8 [Not Installed]
    3)      libgfortran-4.8-dev [Not Installed]
    4)      libgfortran3 [Not Installed]
    5)      liblapack-dev [Not Installed]
    6)      liblapack3 [Not Installed]
    7)      r-base [Not Installed]
    8)      r-base-core [Not Installed]
    9)      r-base-dev [Not Installed]
    10)     r-base-html [Not Installed]
    11)     r-cran-boot [Not Installed]
    12)     r-cran-class [Not Installed]
    13)     r-cran-cluster [Not Installed]
    14)     r-cran-codetools [Not Installed]
    15)     r-cran-foreign [Not Installed]
    16)     r-cran-kernsmooth [Not Installed]
    17)     r-cran-lattice [Not Installed]
    18)     r-cran-mass [Not Installed]
    19)     r-cran-matrix [Not Installed]
    20)     r-cran-mgcv [Not Installed]
    21)     r-cran-nlme [Not Installed]
    22)     r-cran-nnet [Not Installed]
    23)     r-cran-rpart [Not Installed]
    24)     r-cran-spatial [Not Installed]
    25)     r-cran-survival [Not Installed]
    26)     r-recommended [Not Installed]



    Accept this solution? [Y/n/q/?] Y
    No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
    0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 0 B of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.

thanks


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