Hi First I don't understand why my mail comes so late on the list since I posted it a few days ago. But anyway ..
From: Andrew Benton <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Latex Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:51:07 +0100 > On 16/08/10 17:23, Pierre Lorenzon wrote: >> >> Hi, >> >> From: Andrew Benton<[email protected]> >> Subject: Latex >> Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:07:07 +0100 >> >>> Hello World! >>> I read an interesting article about typesetting with Latex so I thought >>> I'd try it out. I've spent a few days working on texlive, I can install >> >> I have been working with LaTeX for almost 20 years hence I >> can confirm that it is very powerful. >> >> >>> it but it doesn't work. Does anyone know of a guide to installing >> >> Hum ! can you be more precise than "it does not work ?" > > Sure, when I try to use pdftex to turn a .tex file into a .pdf it says: > > andy:~$ pdftex example1.tex > This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (Web2C 2009) > > kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdftex.fmt > I can't find the format file `pdftex.fmt'! Hum ! I can't find ! When you see something like that first try texhash before anything else. The TeX system maintains its own database to locate the components of the system and the tool designed to update this database is precisely texhash. If you use the automated procedure to install texlive, Ie. the script provided with the distribution that installs precompiled tools, texhash is run automatically. But if you compile the whole stuff from scratch , it might be that texhash has not been run and then that the database is outofdate. Even if my system is an lfs where I built everything the exception is texlive for which I installed the precompiled stuff that works perfectly. > andy:~$ > > Googling on that led me to a pdftex manual.pdf which said I should > generate the format files with: > pdftex -ini -fmt=pdftex plain \\dump > However, when I try that I get: > This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (Web2C 2009) (INITEX) > ! I can't find file `plain'. > <*> plain > \dump > (Press Enter to retry, or Control-D to exit) > Please type another input file name: > > So I gave up. I was not impressed. > >> In principal, the texlive installation is straight forward and >> it should work once you have installed it. Anyway it does not >> mean that you are able to write a correct LaTeX code but at >> least that the LaTeX compiler starts. Does it or not ? >> Learning the language itself is another problem but not >> covered by the question of the texlive installation. >> >>> texlive? There's an interesting page in the CBLFS wiki >>> http://cblfs.cross-lfs.org/index.php/TeXLive >>> but it's a couple of years old and some of the links are dead. So I've >>> given up on texlive for now and thought I'd try tetex. Does anyone know >>> where I can download tetex? Or is that as difficult as texlive? >> >> In my opinion it won't be easier. Indeed to install teTeX you >> have to compile the whole stuff. Moreover I would not >> recommend the use of teTeX since this system is no longer >> maintained by its developper precisely because of the >> presence of texlive who provides all the features previously >> provided by teTeX. > > I couldn't get tetex to compile; it uses getline for the name of a > function which clashes with glibc. I couldn't get past that. At least > texlive compiles. OK ! I suspect in fact that your problem is not very serious ! Simply this question of database I mentioned above. Anyway I should confess that I never compiled texlive. > >> >> Anyway I have installed several generations of LFS on my >> systems and texlives everywhere and it always works. Hence if >> you have a quite standard LFS, texlive should install and work >> on your system. Anyway if you encounter problems do not >> hesitate to send me a more precise description of the >> problems and I'll try to help you. > > Do you know how to create the pdftex.fmt file it is looking for? Hum ! I suspect that you do not have to create it. As I said it is probably present but not yet findable by the compiler. Are the steps describing compilation, installation and particularly CONFIGURATION (the point we are interested in) of texlive well documented ? Do you absolutly need to recompile this system or won't it be simpler to install the precompiled package. I know that it is not really the lfs mind to install precompiled things. Anyway doing this way you could work a little bit with LaTeX and make your own opinion if it is useful or not for you. Once you'll be convinced that this tool is suitable for you you might make big efforts to compile it. But I am not sure that recompiling the TeX compiler will greatly improve its performances. Pierre > > Andy > -- > http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support > FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html > Unsubscribe: See the above information page -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
