Is it impossible to install R 4.0 on Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS because r-base-core requires a libc6 version >= 2.29?

Question

I am trying to install R 4.0 on Ubuntu 18.04.4 LTS but I keep getting errors of

> sudo apt install r-base-core
Reading package lists... Done
Building depende         


        

Answer 1

Yes. It may be a bug in that specific package/version but you should upgrade to a newer Ubuntu version if you wish to use that package.

Upgrading Ubuntu is achieved using the command sudo do-release-upgrade. This assumes your user is authorised to run root/administrative commands. More detail may be found on the Ubuntu community site.

If waiting for a fix or upgrading aren't palatable, you may find running R in a Docker container is a better solution. This is an increasingly common method for running awkward development tools.

• An introduction may be found here: https://colinfay.me/docker-r-reproducibility/
• The Docker equivalent of the package you noted is here: https://hub.docker.com/_/r-base