thank you for your reply "debernardis".
I tried installing R-core just like you said everything goes fine till it fails to install 9 of the 63 files( 63 because of the support files. dependencies, i guess). It says it needs 158 MB of free space which i have on my memory card where debian is installed. Do i need to have that much space on my device? It will take an N810 for that.

Sorry for the late reply. my macbook crashed. thanks to not buying their stupid warranty i am out 300 bucks.