diff --git a/ci/scripts/r_docker_configure.sh b/ci/scripts/r_docker_configure.sh
index 1cbd5f0b5ea96..52db2e6df6611 100755
--- a/ci/scripts/r_docker_configure.sh
+++ b/ci/scripts/r_docker_configure.sh
@@ -91,8 +91,9 @@ if [ -f "${ARROW_SOURCE_HOME}/ci/scripts/r_install_system_dependencies.sh" ]; th
   "${ARROW_SOURCE_HOME}/ci/scripts/r_install_system_dependencies.sh"
 fi
 
-# Install rsync for bundling cpp source and curl to make sure it is installed on all images
-$PACKAGE_MANAGER install -y rsync curl
+# Install rsync for bundling cpp source and curl to make sure it is installed on all images,
+# cmake is now a listed sys req.
+$PACKAGE_MANAGER install -y rsync cmake curl
 
 # Workaround for html help install failure; see https://github.com/r-lib/devtools/issues/2084#issuecomment-530912786
 Rscript -e 'x <- file.path(R.home("doc"), "html"); if (!file.exists(x)) {dir.create(x, recursive=TRUE); file.copy(system.file("html/R.css", package="stats"), x)}'
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 0e5034346e780..2efdb62db48bf 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -1417,6 +1417,7 @@ services:
       ARROW_DEPENDENCY_SOURCE: ''
       ARROW_SOURCE_HOME: '/arrow'
       FORCE_BUNDLED_BUILD: 'true'
+      LIBARROW_BINARY: 'false'
       LIBARROW_BUILD: 'true'
     extends: ubuntu-r
     command: >
@@ -1446,7 +1447,7 @@ services:
     shm_size: *shm-size
     environment:
       <<: [*common, *sccache]
-      LIBARROW_DOWNLOAD: "false"
+      LIBARROW_BINARY: "false"
       ARROW_SOURCE_HOME: "/arrow"
       ARROW_R_DEV: ${ARROW_R_DEV}
       # To test for CRAN release, delete ^^ these two env vars so we download the Apache release