*from Michael Rutter, Stack Overflow, and (of course) trial and error

Installing and setting up R on Ubuntu can be a frustrating experience due to multiple system dependencies.

Install R from a Personal Package Archive by Michael Rutter

Check for the current version here before the installation.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:marutter/rrutter3.5
$ sudo apt-get update

Install Key Package Dependencies

In Windows, external R package dependencies (except Java) are installed automatically, and users are frequently unaware what is happening behind the scenes.
In a linux environment, the same dependencies require explicit installation via the linux package manager.

  1. Install Java 
    $ sudo apt-get install default-jre
  2. Install Curl 
    $ sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev

    In the future, check for the current curl version:

    $ apt-cache search libcurl
  3. Install OpenSSL 
    $ sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
  4. Install LibXML 
    $ sudo apt-get install libxml2-dev