Using a macro makes pdfetex quits and exits with bad status

After fixing a few other problems associated with the following

x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc: error: MiscXS.c: No such file or directory

The fix was done by doing

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install build-essential

Now I run into a different problem, namely


texi2pdf 06a-amcoh.texi
/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi: texinfo.tex appears to be broken.
This may be due to the environment variable TEX set to something
other than (plain) tex, a corrupt texinfo.tex file, or
to tex itself simply not working.
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.18 (TeX Live 2017/Debian) (preloaded format=etex)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./txiversion.tex
! I can't find file `texinfo.tex'.
l.1 \input texinfo.tex
                       @bye
(Press Enter to retry, or Control-D to exit)
Please type another input file name:
! Emergency stop.
l.1 \input texinfo.tex
                       @bye
No pages of output.
Transcript written on txiversion.log.
/usr/local/bin/texi2dvi: quitting.