install latest version of R 3.2.1 (World-Famous Astronaut) on Linux Mint 17.1 (MATE)

I just switched from Mac to Linux, so while I have a basic understanding of Linux structure, there are still some things Im trying to clear up. This is one of them.

I have tried multiple ways (referencing multiple forum posts) to install the latest version of R (3.2.1 “World-Famous Astronaut”) on Linux Mint 17.1 (MATE).

I tried different sources lists, the most recent being:

deb http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/debian wheezy-cran3/

but when I call:

apt-cache showpkg r-base-dev

with each of the ones I try, I always get:

3.0.2-1ubuntu1

as the most recent one available.

Also, my sources.list only contains that above deb, so I do not think its a /etc/apt/preferences/ issue.

Has anyone been able to install 3.2.1 on Linux Mint?

Thanks in advance!

• Tom

Answer

Ok, I figured it out. Thanks for all the help! I will post an answer here for anyone else trying to figure this out:

First I ran:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

to get into my sources.list. To that I added:

deb http://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/debian wheezy-cran3/

and then added the key: (thanks Dirk for the suggestion):

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keys.gnupg.net --recv-key 381BA480

sudo apt-get update

then when I ran:

apt-cache showpkg r-base-dev

to see the available packages. The top one was:

Package: r-base-dev
Versions: 
3.2.1-1~wheezycran3.0(/var/lib/apt/lists/cran.rstudio.com_bin_linux_debian_wheezy-cran3_Packages)

so, finally I ran:

sudo apt-get install -f r-base=3.2.1-1~wheezycran3.0

which worked great!