1. Install R

The latest version of R is 3.5, but version 3.4 is also available. Do one of the following, depending on which version of Ubuntu you are using, and which version of R you want.

• R 3.5 with Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, 16.04 Xenial Xerus, 18.04 Bionic Beaver

  For the latest R 3.5 packages, add the R repository and key. For more information, see The Comprehensive R Archive Network, Ubuntu.

  echo "deb http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu `lsb_release -sc`-cran35/" | sudo tee --append /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cran.list
  sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install r-base
  

  (If http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu does not work, or you want a mirror closer to you, replace cran.stat.ucla.edu with one of the URLs listed at CRAN Mirrors).

• R 3.4 with Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr, 16.04 Xenial Xerus, 17.10 Artful Aardvark

  For the latest R 3.4 packages, add the R repository and key. For more information, see The Comprehensive R Archive Network, Ubuntu.

  echo "deb http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu `lsb_release -sc`/" | sudo tee --append /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cran.list
  sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install r-base
  

  (If http://cran.stat.ucla.edu/bin/linux/ubuntu does not work, or you want a mirror closer to you, replace cran.stat.ucla.edu with one of the URLs listed at CRAN Mirrors).

• Universe Repository

  Sometimes R may not available from The Comprehensive R Archive Network for your version of Ubuntu (this usually happens when a new version of Ubuntu has just been released), or you may just want to install the version of R packaged specifically for Ubuntu. In that case, r-base can be installed from the Universe repositories.

  Ensure "Community maintained free and open-source software (universe)" is selected in the Software & Updates tool. Then do the following.

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install r-base
  

2. Prepare to Install R Studio

R Studio requires the JPEG runtime library, so install it.

    sudo apt install libjpeg62

Prior to Ubuntu 17.10, R Studio required the GStreamer libraries, so do one of the following, depending on which version of Ubuntu you are using.

• Ubuntu 12.04 to 16.04

  sudo apt install libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0 libgstreamer0.10-0
  

• Ubuntu 16.10 to 17.04 (32 bit)

  wget --tries=3 --timeout=120 http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gstreamer0.10/libgstreamer0.10-0_0.10.36-1.5_i386.deb
  wget --tries=3 --timeout=120 http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gst-plugins-base0.10/libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0_0.10.36-2_i386.deb
  sudo dpkg -i libgstreamer0.10-0_0.10.36-1.5_i386.deb
  sudo dpkg -i libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0_0.10.36-2_i386.deb
  sudo apt-mark hold libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0
  sudo apt-mark hold libgstreamer0.10
  

• Ubuntu 16.10 to 17.04 (64 bit)

  wget --tries=3 --timeout=120 http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gstreamer0.10/libgstreamer0.10-0_0.10.36-1.5_amd64.deb
  wget --tries=3 --timeout=120 http://ftp.ca.debian.org/debian/pool/main/g/gst-plugins-base0.10/libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0_0.10.36-2_amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i libgstreamer0.10-0_0.10.36-1.5_amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0_0.10.36-2_amd64.deb
  sudo apt-mark hold libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0
  sudo apt-mark hold libgstreamer0.10
  

  (For more information, see https://mikewilliamson.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/installing-r-studio-on-ubuntu-16-10/).

• Ubuntu 17.10 and higher

  No additional packages are needed.

3. Install R Studio

Download the binary version of R Studio and install.

Be sure to use the latest version in the wget command. You can get the URL for the latest release by right-clicking on the Ubuntu Debian installer near the bottom of the R Studio Download page.

• Ubuntu 12.04 to 15.10 (32 Bit)

  wget --tries=3 --timeout=120 https://download1.rstudio.org/rstudio-1.1.463-i386.deb
  sudo dpkg -i rstudio-*-i386.deb
  

• Ubuntu 12.04 to 15.10 (64 Bit)

  wget --tries=3 --timeout=120 https://download1.rstudio.org/rstudio-1.1.463-amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i rstudio-*-amd64.deb
  

• Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.10 and higher (64 Bit only)

  wget --tries=3 --timeout=120 https://download1.rstudio.org/rstudio-xenial-1.1.463-amd64.deb
  sudo dpkg -i rstudio-*-amd64.deb
  

4. Optional

Prior to Ubuntu 17.10, if you want to show R or R Studio in the "Education" category in the Unity Dash, instead of the "Development" category, do the following, respectively.

sudo sed -i "s|Graphics;|Education;|g" /usr/share/applications/R.desktop
sudo sed -i "s|Development;|Education;Math;|g" /usr/share/applications/rstudio.desktop

The easiest way to do this is to download Anaconda, it is fast and easy, and works with other tools such as Jupyter and Spyder if you use Python as well. Anaconda can be downloaded at https://docs.continuum.io/anaconda/install-linux.html. Once you have installed Anaconda, type

anaconda-navigator

into your terminal and the navigator will pop up. You will see rstudio there as being ready to install. Press install and it works.

On the other hand , don't bother with the Debian (.deb file) from the website, you are going to waste your time with the error codes.

POSSIBLE (DIFFERENT) PROBLEM:

The problem that you encounter after running make is likely already occurring earlier (the makefile is not created when the config script exits because it encounters a problem).

DEBUGGING:

You should be able to verify this by reading the output from that script.

Solving the error that you see after running the './config' command, will likely help you further installing the source code.

REPLICATION:

I tried to replicate you error and on my system I got the error:

"configure: error: --with-x=yes (default) and X11 headers/libs are not available"

If I run the script with the option '--with-x=no' then the configure script finished without errors and the makefile is generated.

SOLUTION:

The cause of the error is that you do have X11 but not the development files. After a manual install of the development files you can continue the installation of Rstudio.

sudo apt-get install libx11-dev libxt-dev

LINKS:

solution found via http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/A-problem-with-X11-quot-headers-libs-quot-td4655213.html

The proper way to install RStudio is the similar to the official instructions for RStudio Server:

sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
wget https://download1.rstudio.org/rstudio-xenial-1.1.463-amd64.deb
sudo gdebi rstudio-xenial-1.1.463-amd64.deb