problems installing R on Slackware

has anybody recently installed R successfully on a Slack-14.2 or Slack-current machine ? going the usual Slackbuilds route with R-4.0.0 results in missing "NEWS.*.rds" files (i think these are files usually generated with latex on the fly) followed by :

Code:make[1]: Entering directory '/tmp/SBo/R-4.0.3/doc'
installing doc ...
mkdir -p -- /tmp/SBo/package-R/usr/doc/R-4.0.3
mkdir -p -- /tmp/SBo/package-R/usr/man/man1
/usr/bin/ginstall: cannot stat 'NEWS.2.rds': No such file or directory
/usr/bin/ginstall: cannot stat 'NEWS.3.rds': No such file or directory
Makefile:145: recipe for target 'install-sources2' failed
make[1]: *** [install-sources2] Error 1
make[1]: Leaving directory '/tmp/SBo/R-4.0.3/doc'
Makefile:96: recipe for target 'install' failed
make: *** [install] Error 1...while using slpkg -s sbo R mixes 3.5.1 with 4.0.0 which is then also followed by a crash :

Code:slpkg -s sbo R
Reading package lists... Done
Resolving dependencies... Done

The following packages will be automatically installed or upgraded
with new version:

+==============================================================================
| Package New version Arch Build Repos Size
+==============================================================================
Installing:
R 3.5.1 x86_64 SBo

Installing summary
===============================================================================
Total 1 package.
1 package will be installed, 0 already installed and 0 package
will be upgraded.

Would you like to continue [y/N]? y

[1/1][ Download ] --> R.tar.gz

--2020-10-15 21:55:41-- http://slackbuilds.org/slackbuilds/14.2/academic/R.tar.gz
Resolving slackbuilds.org (slackbuilds.org)... 66.85.79.67, 2604:5800:0:90::67
Connecting to slackbuilds.org (slackbuilds.org)|66.85.79.67|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 14846 (14K) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: '/tmp/slpkg/build/R.tar.gz'

R.tar.gz 100%[=======================================================================================================>] 14.50K 46.7KB/s in 0.3s

2020-10-15 21:55:41 (46.7 KB/s) - '/tmp/slpkg/build/R.tar.gz' saved [14846/14846]

[1/1][ Download ] --> R-3.5.1.tar.gz

--2020-10-15 21:55:41-- https://cran.cnr.berkeley.edu/src/base/R-3/R-3.5.1.tar.gz
Resolving cran.cnr.berkeley.edu (cran.cnr.berkeley.edu)... 169.229.19.202, 2607:f140:0:11::c
Connecting to cran.cnr.berkeley.edu (cran.cnr.berkeley.edu)|169.229.19.202|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 403 Forbidden
2020-10-15 21:55:42 ERROR 403: Forbidden.

+==============================================================================
| Download 'R-3.5.1.tar.gz' file [ FAILED ]
+==============================================================================

Would you like to continue [y/N]? y
tar: /tmp/slpkg/build/R/R-4.0.0.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
Total build time for the package R : 0.13 Sec

+==============================================================================
| Some error on the package R-3.5.1 [ FAILED ]
+==============================================================================
| See the log file in '/var/log/slpkg/sbo/build_logs' directory or read the README file
+==============================================================================any suggestions what to do next ? i just need to convert some precious *.RDS files to CSV files and need a working R environment, though literally only for a few minutes...