have a look at tools::texi2dvi.  there seem to be a number of conditions
that will
generate an "unable to run" error, and you may be able to determine exactly
what is going on by looking at the
log carefully.  the problem will be solved by removing the condition(s)
causing the error(s); in my case that involved
installing texlive 2011 and cleaning up my resources and modifying
texmf.cnf; you may need to do that, or more, or less.

if you are ambitious, while the problem is in place, you might devise a
patch to texi2dvi that gives more
precise accounting of the problem at the R level.

On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 2:56 AM, Andreas Heider
<aheider@trm.uni-leipzig.de>wrote:

> You are right Vincent,
> I get the very same error!
>
>
> Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet,  :
>
>   unable to run 'pdflatex' on 'XYZ'
>
> Calls: <Anonymous> -> texi2pdf -> texi2dvi
> Execution halted
>
> But I am quite confused about how to solve this problem. It sounds kind of
> strange to me.
> Why does the call fail? The pdf is generated fine!
> Will my problems be solved just by installing Tex Live?
>
>
> 2011/9/15 Vincent Carey <stvjc@channing.harvard.edu>
>
>> As I have had various issues with latex lately I will comment a little.
>> For developers, I think it is fair to say that R-latex interaction has
>> become more important of late, owing to documentation capabiliites and
>> requirements.  Recently Herve added a comment to various vignettes
>>
>> % With MikTeX 2.9, using pstricks also requires using auto-pst-pdf or
>> running
>> % pdflatex will fail. Note that using auto-pst-pdf requires to set
>> environment
>> % variable MIKTEX_ENABLEWRITE18=t on Windows, and to set shell_escape = t
>> in
>> % texmf.cnf for Tex Live on Unix/Linux/Mac.
>>
>> which says a lot.  This mentions a few things I have not been directly
>> concerned with: write18 (?), pstricks, auto-pst-pdf and so on.
>>
>> Witnessing build error messages like
>>
>> Output written on parody.pdf (8 pages, 107975 bytes).
>> Transcript written on parody.log.
>> Error in texi2dvi(file = file, pdf = TRUE, clean = clean, quiet = quiet,
>> :
>>   unable to run 'pdflatex' on 'parody.tex'
>> Calls: <Anonymous> -> texi2pdf -> texi2dvi
>> Execution halted
>>
>> is somewhat confusing and might need to go to R-devel, as "unable to run"
>> seems not quite right.  It ran, and pdf was generated, but untoward events
>> did occur, and demise of the build is probably rightly called for.
>>
>> I bit the bullet and asked for installation of TexLive 2011.  I then had
>> to get rid of various .sty files in my TEXINPUTS that were no longer up to
>> date.  I followed the shell_escape setting noted by Herve, in a personal
>> texmf.cnf that can be identified through the TEXMFCNF environment variable
>> -- be sure to have : as a suffix to the value.
>>
>> No more "Execution halted".  I am free to deal with my other problems now.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 10:12 AM, James W. MacDonald <
>> jmacdon@med.umich.edu> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Andreas,
>>>
>>>
>>> On 9/15/2011 9:03 AM, Andreas Heider wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear mailing list,
>>>> I've setup everything in my local package derectory including Sweave
>>>> vignette and a PDF version of it.
>>>> The "Sweave" command runs fine, so does checking the package directly
>>>> from
>>>> the source directory.
>>>> However, when I try to BUILD from the source directory (via R CMD BUILD
>>>> directory) it throws me an error that texi2dvi stopped with error.
>>>>
>>>> What is wrong? How can I find out?
>>>>
>>>
>>> Without some output, nobody can tell what is wrong. And this is really an
>>> R-help and possibly an R-devel question.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Jim
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Thanks in advacne, Andreas
>>>>
>>>>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> James W. MacDonald, M.S.
>>> Biostatistician
>>> Douglas Lab
>>> University of Michigan
>>> Department of Human Genetics
>>> 5912 Buhl
>>> 1241 E. Catherine St.
>>> Ann Arbor MI 48109-5618
>>> 734-615-7826
>>>
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>>
>>
>

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