[tex-live] texlive 2014 Comments. -- Overly complex and difficult to install on RedHat/Fedora !! -- A long answer --

Norbert Preining preining at logic.at
Thu Aug 7 02:10:29 CEST 2014


Hi Andre

(please leave the mailing list in Cc!!!)

On Wed, 06 Aug 2014, Andre Gompel wrote:
> now does not work anymore "out of the box" and therefore need fixes.

Again, wrong.

> could better use your volunteer time , by just installing "texlive 2014"
> on Fedora 20 x86_64, (latest)

Done that:
* installed fedora 20 into a virtual machine with all defaults, nothing
  changed at all
* installed texlive with default settings as root
* set
	PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2014/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH
  in my .bashrc as user
* run latex on a sample document, and dvips, and pdflatex, all fine.

So what do you tell me is not working out of the box?

> broken with the paths, or perhaps the softlinks... and it really does
> not work "out of the box". 
> 
> And yes, I can fix, and do not need help, but this was not my point. 

You still did not specify *what* is broken besides unclear 
insinuations.

> And what is this *more*?   MORE IS PROBABLY softlinks broken,

Which soft links?

By default the installer does *not* create any links into
the binary directories.

>  because of the (not so new) FEDORA/RED_HAT directory tree structure, where almost everything now is on top of /usr.

Irrelevant, I have installed everything into /usr/local/texlive/2014
as by default, and added the path, all works.

> >    Now I am in "environment variables hell"
> 
> No need for environment variables besides adjustment of the PATH.
> Please be a bit more specific.

You still did not explain what is the problem.

> It is there, it has been followed many many times, and it has proven
> quite stable over the last N years (for N >= 10)
> 
> HERE, I just cannot agree, and what you write suggest that you did not do any testing with Fedora 20, or RHLE, or CentOS (recent versions).

Are you telling me, who has written most of the code, that it is not
working without providing any proof?

I have made exactely what you told me, see above, with the expected
result, that everything works.

> FURTHERMORE, I stopped using the "standard RPM Latex packages" on Fedora, because they are broken:

THey are from 2013, but they are fine.

>> THere are hardly any differences between Win and Unix in terms of the
>> actual installer, besides that there are a few different options.
> 
> If you suggest Windows and Linux are the same system, you must either be joking... or may have to do some reading...

Aehm, I never suggested that. Please stay at the facts and read what
I wrote.

Do you really believe *I* don't know the difference between the systems?

> I do suggest that if the Red-Hat derivatives standard packages (RPM) have been now broken for about two years, it is because the proper information to fix them is missing.

What are you talking? Fedore20 ships telxive 2013, thus, it cannot be
two years broken.

> So a few people (including me) who may fix them, did not even try because what is needed for TEXLIVE to work, is not so obvious.

Instead of whining, what about actually *saying* what is broken?
And even better, *fixing* it if you are so capable!

> >    But for many non-technical Latex users, a seamless and simple install
> > which works "straight out of the box" would be great, GUI or NOT.
> 
> It does.    SORRY NOT FOR ME, DID YOU REALLY TRY THIS ON FEDORA 20 X86_64  ?????

Done that, succeeded without a single hinch. Enjoy.

> I explained that I used Linux/Texlive for a long time, so you would not suspect a beginner's mistake.

I still *do* suspect this. Or better, a long term user who believes
who knows around the system, in thus messes it up.

> 1) I explained it did not work, "out of the box" (unfound files etc...).

No, you didn't: Not one line of terminal output or which file
has not been found.

> warning: kpathsea: configuration file texmf.cnf not found in these directories: /usr/bin:/usr/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf/web2c:/usr:/usr/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/texmf/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texlive:/usr/share/texlive/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texlive/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/share/texlive/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/share/texlive/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/share/texlive/texmf/web2c.

Output of 
	which tex
please

Norbert

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PREINING, Norbert                               http://www.preining.info
JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
GPG: 0x860CDC13   fp: F7D8 A928 26E3 16A1 9FA0  ACF0 6CAC A448 860C DC13
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