I'm reading this
How to install TeX on Android phones?
post and I can't install TeX Live on Android 4.2.2 and I have tl4a-2013-06-10.tar.xz
, TL4A.apk
, tl4a-2013-06-18.tar.xz
, and texmf.cnf
on my tablet.
[Tex/LaTex] How to install TeX Live on Android tablet 4.2.2
androidtexlive
Best Answer
Now I am installing TeX Live for Android. I began installation 6 months ago; now I can make PDF and DVI of English LaTeX files, but the installation is still incomplete. I have Android 4.2.2 on an unrooted tablet with 16M internal memory. Unknown sources option is unchecked in Security options of tablet, Verify apps is checked (I changed Unknown sources option; AFAIR I disabled it before installation of TeX Live, but I am not sure).
I installed TeXLive for Android from Google Play Store. The installation was not complete. The binaries were not uncompressed (I could see that by verifying the available space on internal storage). As a result of installation of TeXLive for Android, I got Terminal Emulator for Android with necessary libraries ready to installation of TeX.
Installing the binaries: I used tl4a-2013-06-18.tar.xz Now it is available on https://code.google.com/p/texlive-for-android/downloads/ I unpacked the files from tl4a-2013-06-18.tar\bin directory of the archive to /data/data/texlive.androidport/bin directory on the tablet. (To see what directory install binaries to, I verified PATH variable:
ua_a110@android:/ $ echo $PATH
/vendor/bin:/system/bin:/system/xbin:/data/data/texlive.androidport/bin-base:/data/data/texlive.androidport/bin
The other story is how to extract files. I unpacked the archive on Windows PC to SD-card, plugged SD-card into tablet PC, and copied files at bin directory with
cat
andchmod 500
. Probably there is a better way.)Installing texmf tree. I tried to install the tree onto plugged-in SD-card, but I failed. C. MA suggests installation to /sdcard/texlive , and make changes to texmf.cnf. I installed the texmf tree to ~/texmf, which is one of default directories where tex searches files. I do not remember where I got
texmf.cnf
file from. Probably from I got it fromtetex
distribution or fromkpathsee
distribution. Copytexmf.cnf
to/sdcard/texlive
The easiest way was to copy texmf tree completely if there is available space. But I copied individual packages, some from texlive, some from CTAN, some from living MikTeX.Compiling tex formats. I have installed LaTeX from sources. But the easier way is (if texlive tree installed)
pdftex -ini latex.ltx
and then copy latex.fmt file to a directory where tex searches for format files (maybe to
~/texmf/web2c/
directory?). I copiedlatex.fmt
to~/formats/
directory.I did not tried wheter
latex.fmt
from other tex distribution works.Creating shortcuts. Verify that you do not have
latex
andpdflatex
files in tex binary directory. Then I created two fileslatex
andpdflatex
with in tex binaries directory with following content/data/data/texlive.androidport/bin/latex:
pdftex -output-format=dvi -fmt=/data/data/texlive.androidport/app_HOME/formats/latex.fmt $*
/data/data/texlive.androidport/bin/pdflatex:
pdftex -output-format=pdf -fmt=/data/data/texlive.androidport/app_HOME/formats/latex.fmt $*
(Each file contains one line, starts with
pdftex
and ends with$*
. Here/data/data/texlive.androidport/bin
is tex binary directory, and/data/data/texlive.androidport/app_HOME/formats
is a directory where I copiedlatex.fmt
.)Then I made this two files executable with
chmod 500
.METAFONT
. Configuredvipdfmx
anddvips
. I have not done that yet.I have copied PDF fonts from the other TEX distribution (MiKTeX). Now I can make DVI and PDF files of TEX file without generating new fonts. I can read PDF files with Adobe Reader. I cannot do anything with DVI files because
dvipdfm
anddvips
are not configured yet.Note that TeXLive for Android package does not contain an editor. But you can use and an editor from another app package. I use Kingsoft Office. One minor disadvantage is that it cannot open files with .tex extension. So I have to rename .tex files to .txt for editing. There are some specialized LaTeX editors in Google Play Store. I hope they can work side-by-side with TeXLive for Android: Author .tex with the editor, and then "convert" it to .pdf with TeXLive for Android, and then view it with your favourite PDF viewer. But I have not tried specialized TeX editors yet.