Can't Install Old Version of R

[bjamil]

I set the version of R using the following attribute
node['r']['version'] = '3.2.0-1precise'

However, this gives me a converge error, the gist of it being:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
r-base : Depends: r-recommended (= 3.2.0-1precise) but 3.2.0-4precise0 is to be installed
Recommends: r-base-html but it is not going to be installed
STDERR: E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.
---- End output of apt-get -q -y install r-base=3.2.0-1precise ----
Ran apt-get -q -y install r-base=3.2.0-1precise returned 100

I tried to install via the command line with the following command but got the same error

sudo apt-get install r-base=3.2.0-1precise

Installation succeeded with the following command instead:

sudo apt-get install r-base=3.2.0-1precise r-recommended=3.2.0-1precise

[redterror]

I hit this also with 3.2.5-1trusty0. In that situation however it fails:

# apt-get install r-recommended=3.2.5-1trusty0 r-base=3.2.5-1trusty0 r-base-dev=3.2.5-1trusty0 r-base-core=3.2.5-1trusty0
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 r-recommended : Depends: r-cran-cluster (>= 1.9.6-2) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-foreign (>= 0.7-2) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-kernsmooth (>= 2.2.14) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-lattice (>= 0.10.11) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-mgcv (>= 1.1.5) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-nlme (>= 3.1.52) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-rpart (>= 3.1.20) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-survival (>= 2.13.2-1) but it is not going to be installed
                 Depends: r-cran-matrix but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I think the issue is with the underlying packages, but is partly addressed in this fork. I ended up just installing r-base-core and r-base-dev and other piecemeal packages.