Running R in Ubuntu...really basic..sorry

Hi, I've actually run R quite a bit in Windows.  I've had a release
8.04 of Ubuntu running a laptop for 3 days now.  After struggling for
much of that time to install R, I finally figured out that Dell
shipped with the sources.list obsolete or just plain wrong.  So I
finally got it installed last night (for some reason v2.6.2, not
v2.9.x).  This morning I was able to download and install the
LearnBayes package.  My biggest problem right now is that I don't know
how to run R except as a local-directory command in the Terminal.
Certain R commands cause the terminal to go into some changed state
and not take any more commands.  Right now for example I ahve a last
line that is darkened in over (END) and it's sitting there. Any
advice?

Oh, if you suspect something in your sources.list (specific to Dell)
email ma and I'll explain.  Thanks.  Room533