[vox-tech] apt-get problem

[Norm Matloff]

In my description of the apt-get problems that arose when I installed
the latest version of R, 2.10.0, I had one aspect incorrect:  I did not
use apt-get to download 2.10.0; that would have just gotten me version
2.6.2, which I already had and which did not have crucial features.
Instead, I went to the R Web page and downloaded a .deb file for Hardy
Heron (Ubuntu 8.04, my OS).  I then used gdebi to install it, getting a
warning message about "inconsistencies," as I wrote yesterday, after
which I could not use apt-get to download any other stuff, e.g. mplayer.
R itself worked fine.  Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Following some of the suggestions here, this evening I used the Update
Manager to update all packages.  That restored the old R, 2.6.2, which
is the latest version of R among my repositories (which are the ones
that came with the system, no additions by me).  So it didn't help.

I then downloaded R from the R Web page again, by this time version
2.10.1.  Interestingly, gdebi didn't give me an error message, but again
apt-get refused to download anything else afterward, citing
inconsistencies.  Synaptic Package Manager would not even come up;
instead, a little window came up saying "You have 12 broken packages on
your system!  Use the 'Broken' filter to locate them."  Naturally, I
declined.

I then followed the suggestion to use aptitude.  This turned out to
solve my problem, as it organized the information better (especially
from my point of view, as I don't know all the ins and outs of apt-get
etc.).  Some of the information there pointed to the r-recommended
package being for 2.6.2.  So I removed that using aptitude.

Well, of course, then R didn't work at all.  It was missing a library.
So, I ran gdebi again to re-reinstalled R, hoping that that would pick
up the libraries etc., and it worked!  R works fine, and I was able to
download mplayer.  Still odd that apt-get had blocked me from adding
mplayer just because of r-recommended.

Thanks for the help, everyone.  The suggestion to use aptitude was quite
valuable; in retrospect, of course, I should have thought of the
r-recommended problem, but aptitude really helped me zero in on it.
All the other comments at least clarified things for me, and thus were
valuable too.

Norm