[R] installation: while running make, unable to run pdflatex on 'NEWS.tex'

[Benjamin Tyner]

A kind member of R-core suggested this is due to a misconfiguration on 
my system, and to post it to the mailing list for troubleshooting.

When trying to build R version 4.3.3, in at least two places during the 
process it gives LaTeX errors of the form:

(example 1)

    you should 'make docs' now ...
    make[1]: Entering directory '/home/btyner/R-4.3.3/doc'
    creating doc/NEWS
    creating doc/NEWS.pdf
    Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet =
    quiet, :
    unable to run pdflatex on 'NEWS.tex'
    LaTeX errors:
    ! LaTeX Error: File `pdftexcmds.sty' not found.

    Type X to quit or <RETURN> to proceed,
    or enter new name. (Default extension: sty)

    ! Emergency stop.
    <read *>

    l.108 RequirePackage{pdftexcmds}[2018/09/10]
    ^^M
    ! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
    Calls: <Anonymous> -> texi2pdf -> texi2dvi
    Execution halted
    make[1]: /*/ [Makefile:74: NEWS.pdf] Error 1
    make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/btyner/R-4.3.3/doc'
    make: [Makefile:73: docs] Error 2 (ignored)

(example 2)

    make[1]: Entering directory '/home/btyner/R-4.3.3/src/library'
    building/updating vignettes for package 'grid' ...
    building/updating vignettes for package 'parallel' ...
    building/updating vignettes for package 'utils' ...
    building/updating vignettes for package 'stats' ...
    processing 'reshape.Rnw'
    Error: compiling TeX file 'reshape.tex' failed with message:
    unable to run pdflatex on 'reshape.tex'
    LaTeX errors:
    ! LaTeX Error: File `pdftexcmds.sty' not found.

    Type X to quit or <RETURN> to proceed,
    or enter new name. (Default extension: sty)

    ! Emergency stop.
    <read *>

    l.108 RequirePackage{pdftexcmds}[2018/09/10]
    ^^M
    ! ==> Fatal error occurred, no output PDF file produced!
    Execution halted
    make[1]: ** [Makefile:103: vignettes] Error 1
    make[1]: Leaving directory '/home/btyner/R-4.3.3/src/library'
    make: ** [Makefile:81: vignettes] Error 2

here is my |pdflatex --version| info:

    pdfTeX 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.22 (TeX Live 2022/dev/Debian)
    kpathsea version 6.3.4/dev
    Compiled with libpng 1.6.37; using libpng 1.6.37
    Compiled with zlib 1.2.11; using zlib 1.2.11
    Compiled with xpdf version 4.03

my platform info:

    Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)
    Running under: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS

I installed from this file with corresponding md5sum

    R-4.3.3.tar.xz 5602f5996107c346dba12a16e866d2e2

The specific commands I ran which led to the error were:

    wget https://cran.r-project.org/src/base/R-4/R-4.3.3.tar.xz
    mkdir R433
    tar xJf R-4.3.3.tar.xz
    cd R-4.3.3
    ./configure --prefix=/home/btyner/R433
    make

Happy to provide any additional information needed.