[tex-live] Running Live - no access to C drive

Reinhard Kotucha reinhard.kotucha at web.de
Sun Apr 1 01:48:01 CEST 2007


>>>>> "Siep" == Siep Kroonenberg <siepo at cybercomm.nl> writes:

  > Wouldn't it be better to make the Windows version of tlpmgui
  > suitable for portable use? All it would take is using
  > %USERPROFILE% instead of the root of the c:-drive, better
  > Ghostscript-detection and a different policy for handling
  > pre-installed Ghostscript, Perl and TeX.

AFAIK tlpmgui for Linux and Windows share most of the code already.

Regarding Ghostscript, it would be nice if we can simply put an
unmodified version of Ghostscript on the CD/DVD.  At the moment there
are two problems:

    1. Batch files are not installed by the gs installer.

    2. The fonts had been modified but the UniqueID had not been
       changed. 

The first problem can be solved easily by sending a bug report.  I
can't imagine that the current behavior is intended.

The second problem can be solved this way too, but if a bug report
results in a discussion I'd rather wait until Jacko provides
replacements for all the URW fonts.  I assume that Jacko's fonts will
be shipped with ghostscript when they are ready anyway.  This will
enhance the ghostscript distribution significantly. 

Detection of a pre-installed Perl worked fine for me.  During the
installation process a Window popped up asking me whether Perl should
be installed or not.  Well, it would be nicer if this happens at the
very beginning of the installation process, but maybe I overlooked
something in the main menu.

As far as TeX is concerned, sigh, this was painful.  The installer
detected an old version of TeXLive and started in maintenace mode.
Renaming the texlive2005 directory had not been sufficient.  I had to
remove TL2005 related environment variables too.  This is extremely
painful on Windows.  I do not see any good reason why an installer
does not simply prepends the path to a new version of TeXLive to the
%PATH% variable.

The documentation says that there is an option "-install-mode" but
when you insert the CD/DVD into the drive the installer window pops up
and you have to proceed without having the opportunity to read the
documentation.

All the documentation is completely useless if the installer is
launched when the disk is inserted.

I'm also wondering, though so much effort had been taken to provide an
installer for Windows which works for some UNIX derivates too,
installing TeXLive on a UNIX system (using the shell script) is so
easy.

Regards,
  Reinhard  

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