R SIG Debian - Nov 2008 - Installing R offline in Ubuntu

Hi,

I've just bought a new laptop, which will have Ubuntu Linux
pre-installed.

When it arrives, one of the first things I want to do is to install R.
However, when I went to look at the instructions on the CRAN site, it
seems that they are geared towards computers that are connected to the
internet.  Mine won't be: I've always reserved my home laptop for
working offline.

So my question is:  Are there any instructions for installing R on an
offline Ubuntu machine?  (This process was pretty straightforward with
the MS Windows distribution of R: you just downloaded the .exe setup
program and ran it...)

Many thanks,

Andrew Wilson

Hi,
> So my question is:  Are there any instructions for installing R on an
> offline Ubuntu machine?  (This process was pretty straightforward with
> the MS Windows distribution of R: you just downloaded the .exe setup
> program and ran it...)

Well, downloading .exe means that some net connection is present, so  
why not adding the repositories to the sources.list file and just  
using synaptic.

Having said that, you could probably just download the .deb files you  
need from CRAN on computer 1, put them in a usb stick and then install  
on the laptop. That should be as easy as installing R on win, as long  
as you get all the deb files you need (I'd use a brute force attitude  
and  just get all the debs in the repo to avoid problems).

My final though is, not having internet connection probably means a  
substantial amount of swapping files around to keep the whole systme  
up to date or, alternatively, installying things once and living with  
software that will be out of date in about 6 months max.

Cheers,

F

PS obviously if you choose to download the .deb files you want to make  
sure they are for the Ubuntu release installed on the laptop.

--
Federico C. F. Calboli
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
Imperial College, St. Mary's Campus
Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG

Tel +44 (0)20 75941602   Fax +44 (0)20 75943193

f.calboli [.a.t] imperial.ac.uk
f.calboli [.a.t] gmail.com




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