# Cannot start RStudio in Binder

**URL:** <https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/cannot-start-rstudio-in-binder/20154>\
**Category:** Binder\
**Tags:** help-wanted\
**Created:** [June 28, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/cannot-start-rstudio-in-binder/20154 "2023-06-28T20:41:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sedv8808](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/sedv8808/32/10322_2.png) [@sedv8808](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/sedv8808)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 8:41pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/cannot-start-rstudio-in-binder/20154/1 "2023-06-28T20:41:53Z")

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I have this Binder Repository:

> **[GitHub - NeotomaDB/Current\_Workshop: Current Workshops for Neotoma](https://github.com/NeotomaDB/Current_Workshop)**
>
> Current Workshops for Neotoma. Contribute to NeotomaDB/Current\_Workshop development by creating an account on GitHub.

It has run without issues for a couple of years.

However, when I tried this week, I keep getting:

The error was:  
**500 : Internal Server Error**  
**could not start rstudio in time**

I have tried all sorts of ways: using a Docker, no Docker, and several things.  
I am using an `apt.txt` file, an `install.R` and a `runtime` file.

Even if I enter to the Jupyter lab interface and I try to open the Rstudio from there, it fails with the same error. I am a bit lost here.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fomightez](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/fomightez/32/495_2.png) [@fomightez](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/fomightez)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2023, 9:14pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/cannot-start-rstudio-in-binder/20154/2 "2023-06-28T21:14:35Z")

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Adding Docker in the repo shouldn’t be needed. Did somewhere or something recommend that?

If you seem to have changed a lot of stuff recently and so it is hard to diagnose at this point. The easiest at this point would be to make a new repo using [the example ’ Specifying an R environment with a runtime.txt file’](https://github.com/binder-examples/r) as a template and then modify it **step-by-step** with additional things in your Workshop software dependencies and see when it breaks. For instance, start with a runtime content/setting that works to get RStudio. It may break right away with the template as the service has been rocky. However, then you’d know it isn’t anything in your control. The current example [there](https://github.com/binder-examples/r) launches and RStudio works.