No release with state equal to: 'stable' found for 'Packagename'

answer by Greg Beaver

The package in question does have releases, but none that are stable. There are two solutions.

1. Set preferred_state to alpha or beta and then install

   $ pear config-set preferred_state alpha

   $ pear install Packagename

2. Find out the stability or version number of the latest release and install it directly.

   $ pear install Packagename-alpha

   $ pear install Packagename-1.5.3