Hi, just a side note regarding Debian testing: There are currently no backports to Debian testing on CRAN, I only provided them before etch was released, but already quite stable.
Best regards, Johannes * Dirk Eddelbuettel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [080218 13:40]: > > Michael, > > On 18 February 2008 at 09:49, Michael Dewey wrote: > | I have recently acquired an Asus EEE PC which runs a version of > | Xandros which I believe to be a fork of Debian. I have been using R > | under various versions of Windows for some years but this is my first > | move into the world of Unix. I have installed Texlive from a CD and I > > Well, "a" cd? Was it source? Was it binary? If binary, was it versioned? > > | have successfully added a UK-based repository and installed Texmaker. > | Now I would like to add R. There are dire warnings on the EEE forums > | about the dangers of using Debian repositories so I would like some > | more advice before I download things. > | > | 1 - If I download from the Debian repository using stable (which is > | the distribution I have - etch) will I get old versions of R? I do > | not understand what stable means here, is it like being frozen at > | some point in time? > > Correct, with the version that was current at the time of the freeze. > > | Do I need to using testing, and if so is that > | likely to have compatibility problems with my system? > > Maybe. We can't tell as we don't run Xandros. > > Note that CRAN has backports of R for Debian testing. > > | 2 - If I download from my favourite CRAN (Bristol, UK) it seems I do > | not get all the contributed packages. Is that correct? If so I do not > | quite see the point so I suspect I misunderstand here. > > You get the current R for Debian testing. You would need to call > install.packages() yourself for packages you need. > > We cannot and do not know how testing and Xandros mix. > > | 3 - As a last resort I should install from sources but a poster to > | R-help suggested he had had problems with this. Where do I find what > | versions of compilers and so on I need to build from source? > > Call > > sudo apt-get build-dep r-base > > which installs them for you (if you have deb-src entries for apt). > > | I know I should just try it and see but I am reluctant to do that > | because of the dire warnings about damaging the system by using > | non-Xandros repositories. I also do not yet know how to un-install > | things either. > | > | For the record I am using the command line and apt-get and I have > | enabled pinning to give the EEE repositories highest priority. > > One thing you have not mentioned is to backup your Xandros installation, and > go to regular Debian. If I were you, I'd consider that. Just run Debian > testing on the Eee. See eg > > http://syn.theti.ca/articles/2008/02/16/bits-from-the-debian-eee-pc-team > > for the latest from the Debian Eee team. > > Dirk > > -- > Three out of two people have difficulties with fractions. > > _______________________________________________ > R-SIG-Debian mailing list > [email protected] > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian -- Dr. Johannes Ranke [EMAIL PROTECTED] Key ID: F649AF90 UFT Bremen, Leobenerstr. 1 +49 421 218 63373 D-28359 Bremen http://www.uft.uni-bremen.de/chemie/ranke _______________________________________________ R-SIG-Debian mailing list [email protected] https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-debian
