[R-sig-Debian] R installation problems on Linux Mint 18.1 via jessie-cran3

[Johannes Ranke]

Am Donnerstag, 27. April 2017, 15:05:32 schrieb J C Nash:
> Is there a reason for jessie-cran3 rather than xenial? For Linux Mint 18
> (admittedly not 18.1) I have
> 
> deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu xenial/
> 
> as one of the apt entries.
> 
> JN

Seconded. You should not expect that mixing apt entries for Ubuntu and Debian 
will work.

> > It didn't work and I simply get the same SHA1 weak algorithm error when
> > running -sudo apt-get update- or -sudo apt update-. 

jessie-cran3 is made for Debian jessie which uses a somewhat dated version of 
apt, which does not complain about weak SHA1 checksums.

> > (Why is this issue not
> > mentioned at all here <https://cran.r-project.org/> and why have users
> > like
> > me had to go ferreting for it, amongst other things?)

Because Michael Rutter (for the Ubuntu backports) and myself (for the Debian 
backports) try our best to make things just work for the distributions for 
which these backports are advertised. The user should generally not have to 
worry about the checksum algorithms used by his distribution.

Mint 18.1 is based on Ubuntu 16.04 AKA Xenial Xerus. So it seems to me you 
should use an apt entry (and only *one* for the CRAN R packages) for xenial as 
John recommended.

Kind regards, I sort of feel with you, as I sometimes also get frustrated. But 
usually the satisfaction to work with free software prevails!

Cheers,

Johannes

> > 
> > I've been a Linux user for six years and pride myself on researching as
> > many possible forums when trying to fix stuff before asking for any help,
> > have never had to confront this nonsense and I'm really fed up with this
> > now; I very strongly object to what have been hitherto (reasonably)
> > straightforward R download and installation procedures making a total
> > idiot
> > of me when I try my damnednest to follow all the steps to do it all
> > correctly in much the same way as I have done before without too many
> > issues.
> > 
> > Please advise at your very earliest convenience and help me sort this out.
> > Thank you.
> 
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