Unable to install R-2.11.1.pkg and up to R-3.0.2 in Mac OSX 10.8.5 I have an iMac 2013 with a Fusion Drive and OSX 10.8.5. No plans to migrate to Mavericks yet.

I have had issues also with x11 that I've solved with a "direct" install:

installer -pkg ~/Desktop/XQuartz.pkg -target / -allowUntrusted -store


But, when I try to install R-2.11.1 and above (I'm using R-2.10.1, and works well ;) ) I get the following message from the installer:

R 3.0.2 for Mac OS X 10.6 or higher (Snow Leopard build) can't be installed on this disk.
This build of R requires MAC OS X 10.6 or higher.


If I try from the Terminal

sudo installer -pkg ~/Desktop/R-3.0.2.pkg -target / -allowUntrusted -store


I receive this output from terminal:

installer: Note: running installer as an admin user (instead of root) gives better Mac App Store fidelity
installer: Warning: R-3.0.2.pkg was signed with a certificate that is not valid for store submission.
installer: Installation Check: Passed
installer: Volume Check: Fatal: Failure


And it fails.

What can I do? Delete some plist? Regenerate something? Reinstall Mountain Lion? I really prefer to not to have to rebuild from source.

I have had no issues installing R on my notebook with Lion.
Why are you using the -store option? You realise that if you have that then -allowUntrusted is ignored. To quote the man page In this mode, no other options are supported. That option is there to check that a package is ready to be submitted to Apple for the App Store.

Take that out. 

I also discovered that failed attempts seem to leave orphan installer processes running that seem to cause trouble in later attempts - even a kill -9 leaves them on the process stack.

Reboot your computer and then run Terminal. First go sudo -s so you get an actual root shell. Now installer -verbose -pkg ~/Desktop/R-3.0.2.pkg -target / in the root shell. Thats what worked for me under 10.9