re- installing R linux ubuntu: unmet dependencies R

9
votes

I used aptitude install to install a package, Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric, that apparently I couldn't install because of dependencies. I removed a couple of more libraries while doing it. I uninstalled Rstudio but still can't install R on my machine. I'm on ubuntu and this is what I get while running sudo apt-get install r-base

The following packages have unmet dependencies: r-base : Depends: r-base-core (>= 2.15.3-1quantal0) but it is not going to be installed Depends: r-recommended (= 2.15.3-1quantal0) 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.

any ideas how to start from scratch and get R running again?

More of the Error log: The following packages have unmet dependencies r-base-core : Depends: libblas3 but it is not installable or libblas.so.3 but it is not installable or libatlas3-base but it is not installable Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15) but 2.13-20ubuntu5.3 is to be installed Depends: liblapack3 but it is not installable or liblapack.so.3 but it is not installable or libatlas3-base but it is not installable Depends: liblzma5 (>= 5.1.1alpha+20120614) but it is not installable –

5
rubuntupackagesapt-get
Have you followed the instructions at cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu ? – Ista
The following packages have unmet dependencies r-base-core : Depends: libblas3 but it is not installable or libblas.so.3 but it is not installable or libatlas3-base but it is not installable Depends: libc6 (>= 2.15) but 2.13-20ubuntu5.3 is to be installed Depends: liblapack3 but it is not installable or liblapack.so.3 but it is not installable or libatlas3-base but it is not installable Depends: liblzma5 (>= 5.1.1alpha+20120614) but it is not installable – HoofarLotusX
Maybe we should have started with "what version of Ubuntu?" – Ista
I'm on Ubuntu 11.10, oneiric – HoofarLotusX

5 Answers

14
votes

Try this

If you have added a line from new ubuntu repository to /etc/apt/sources.list, erase the line. Then, run the commands

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:marutter/rrutter 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get upgrade

It worked for me, the answer comes from here http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Upgrading-on-Ubuntu-from-2-11-1-to-2-15-1-td4636965.html

1
votes

  1. Uninstall previous R installation:

    sudo R --no-save
pkgList <- installed.packages(priority='NA')
remove.packages(pkgList)
q()
sudo apt-get remove --purge r-cran* r-base*

  2. Follow instructions (for R part) from: How to install R, JGR and Deducer in Ubuntu

0
votes

To list what you installed with aptitude type the following

xyz@sxyzcom~$ sudo apt-get remove

This should list what remains of your R install and possibly anything else missing dependencies Then you can run 

xyz@sxyzcom~$ sudo apt-get autoremove

and that should get you back to square one.

0
votes

If you are facing problems regarding Broken packages then first of all remove that package by first checking dependencies and then forcefully remove that package, and don't ever forget to reboot when you do make enormous changes in your system. To remove that package use these shell commands

$ sudo su

Then Enter your password

# apt-cache rdepends package-name
# apt-get --purge remove --force package-name

Use these shell commands

# apt-get clean
# apt-get autoclean
# apt-get update
# apt-get upgrade
# apt-get dist-upgrade
# reboot

This worked for me, Try this, I believe this will fix all your problems, Good luck.

0
votes

If you want to remove the package forcefully,you can do

sudo dpkg --remove --force-remove-reinstreq package_name

and then 

sudo apt-get update