My Emails a week or so back were about installing Rstudio and the R shiny server on Debian. I was using an old Toshiba laptop as a sandbox for that and it would only install i386 (same for Ubuntu). Using the information at https://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/debian/ I did get to the point where I had R 3.5.2, Rstudio and the server on there (with some help from Dirk that is in the list archives). However, the server wouldn't start and I knew that the hardware I will need to run it from is amd64 so I stopped there and managed to find another old laptop (an advent) that would install amd64 Debian. So I downloaded a new clean iso of stretch amd64 and it installed OK but my first time through I seemed to hit a total mess of refusals to load from repositories because of missing release files and/or missing png keys. I lost track of where I'd gone wrong with /etc/apt/choices.list, wiped the installation and started again! I installed a few packages through synaptic: no warnings, fine, I added contrib through synaptic settings: no problems. I installed emacs, no problems! But now I'm stuck and I am hoping to sort things with the help of the list so here's where I am: root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# apt-get update Hit:1 [ http://security.debian.org/debian-security | http://security.debian.org/debian-security ] stretch/updates InRelease Ign:2 [ http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian | http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian ] stretch InRelease Hit:3 [ http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian | http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian ] stretch-updates InRelease Hit:4 [ http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian | http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian ] stretch Release Get:5 [ http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian | http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian ] jessie-cran35/ InRelease [4,369 B] Ign:5 [ http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian | http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian ] jessie-cran35/ InRelease Get:7 [ http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian | http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian ] jessie-cran35/ Packages [17.8 kB] Fetched 22.2 kB in 0s (27.5 kB/s) Reading package lists... Done W: GPG error: [ http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian | http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian ] jessie-cran35/ InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY FCAE2A0E115C3D8A W: The repository ' [ http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian | http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian ] jessie-cran35/ InRelease' is not signed. N: Data from such a repository can't be authenticated and is therefore potentially dangerous to use. N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details. OK, that fits the advice about secure apt in Johannes's page so: root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# apt-key adv --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 'E19F5F87128899B192B1A2C2AD5F960A256A04AF' Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.qC3CUffAEm/gpg.1.sh --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key E19F5F87128899B192B1A2C2AD5F960A256A04AF gpg: failed to start the dirmngr '/usr/bin/dirmngr': No such file or directory gpg: connecting dirmngr at '/tmp/apt-key-gpghome.qC3CUffAEm/S.dirmngr' failed: No such file or directory gpg: keyserver receive failed: No dirmngr Might be worth adding a warning about this to that page but I think I can manage this (!) and I installed it using synaptic after this: root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# apt-get install drmngr Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done E: Unable to locate package drmngr Synaptic installed it fine. So now I can do this: root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# apt-key adv --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 'E19F5F87128899B192B1A2C2AD5F960A256A04AF' Executing: /tmp/apt-key-gpghome.qnQrK8dgus/gpg.1.sh --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key E19F5F87128899B192B1A2C2AD5F960A256A04AF key AD5F960A256A04AF: 4 signatures not checked due to missing keys gpg: key AD5F960A256A04AF: public key "Johannes Ranke (Wissenschaftlicher Berater) < johannes.ranke at jrwb.de >" imported gpg: Total number processed: 1 gpg: imported: 1 root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# So now I try to install R base using synaptic and I get a message like "Warning: you are about to install software that cannot be ..." (paraphrasing) So I try this: root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# apt-get install r-base Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 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 (>= 3.5.2-1~jessiecran.0) but it is not going to be installed Depends: r-recommended (= 3.5.2-1~jessiecran.0) but it is not going to be installed Recommends: r-base-html but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# apt-get install r-base-core Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done 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-core : Depends: libicu52 (>= 52~m1-1~) but it is not installable Depends: libpng12-0 (>= 1.2.13-4) but it is not installable Depends: libreadline6 (>= 6.0) but it is not installable Recommends: r-recommended but it is not going to be installed Recommends: r-base-dev but it is not going to be installed Recommends: r-doc-html but it is not going to be installed E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. root at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt# r-base-core: Depends: libicu52 (>=52~m1-1~) but it is not installable Depends: libpng12-0 (>=1.2.13-4) but it is not installable Depends: libreadline6 (>=6.0) but it is not installable Recommends: r-recommended but it is not going to be installed Recommends: r-base-dev but it is not going to be installed At this point, before trying anything more under my own, perhaps inept, steam, I decided to stop and ask the list if someone can see from those messages what I'm doing wrong. Here is my current sources.list: chris at DebianAdvent:~$ cd /etc/apt chris at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt$ cat sources.list # deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.6.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST 20181110-11:34]/ stretch main # deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 9.6.0 _Stretch_ - Official amd64 NETINST 20181110-11:34]/ stretch main deb http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free deb-src http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian/ stretch contrib main non-free deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ stretch/updates main # stretch-updates, previously known as 'volatile' deb http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian/ stretch-updates main deb-src http://mirror.mythic-beasts.com/debian/ stretch-updates main ### that was where I'd gotten to with synaptic ### this is for CRAN for Debian deb http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian jessie-cran35/ deb-src http://cran.ma.imperial.ac.uk/bin/linux/debian jessie-cran35/ chris at DebianAdvent:/etc/apt$ TIA, Chris
Chris Evans <chris at psyctc.org> Skype: chris-psyctc Visiting Professor, University of Sheffield <chris.evans at sheffield.ac.uk> I do some consultation work for the University of Roehampton <chris.evans at roehampton.ac.uk> and other places but this <chris at psyctc.org> remains my main Email address. I have "semigrated" to France, see: https://www.psyctc.org/pelerinage2016/semigrating-to-france/ if you want to book to talk, I am trying to keep that to Thursdays and my diary is now available at: https://www.psyctc.org/pelerinage2016/ecwd_calendar/calendar/ Beware: French time, generally an hour ahead of UK. That page will also take you to my blog which started with earlier joys in France and Spain!