installingpackages
I use a old red hat distribution offline (no internet connexion) and I don't have root privilege, only some repository that I can work with.
I would like to install a newer TeX live version and some extra package. How should I proceed ? Is there any way to re-compile the source like ./configure make make install ?
EDIT: My aim is to install some extra packages in this configuration
You can install xpatch via the MiKTeX Package Manager. In your windows program folder are the folders Maintenance and Maintenance (Admin). For package installation you should start the Package Manager as admin. In the menu Repository just Synchronize yours with the source repository first. After that look for the xpatch package, mark it and click Install in the Task menu. Thats all. If there are other packages which are needed by xpatch and they aren't installed just repeat the procedure with the Manager. To install all non installed packages in one run, go to Edit --> Select Installable Packages and than Task --> Install. So you have all available packages on your computer.
If you have other problems with the package (or with others), start the Update(Admin) in the Maintenance (Admin) folder and refresh the complete MiKTeX first.
I cannot solve your problem, BUT... If you need MikTeX immediately, then try using the portable version instead. If you are the only user (others at work do not need it), then you might consider placing it in a location where you can take full ownership rights (your user home directory?), if that is the problem.
As far as I can tell, the portable version works just the same as the installed version. The main difference is that the installed version will put your user customizations wherever Windows chooses to put them (depends on your OS configuration, might be hidden such as C:\Users\You\AppInfo\Roaming\MikTeX29) but in the portable version you can choose your own place to put your customizations, which should be a folder parallel to the MikTeX installation and with full user rights. Actually, how I did it was to first install to USB, get things working, then copy into my user directory. That seems to set permissions automatically (it did for me; your results may differ).
On the other hand, if all repositories are down, that would be a different issue. EDIT: I was able to run the updater and get a few updates just now. So the repositories seem to be OK.
Best Answer
Answer partially provide by samcarter :
DIR.DIR/texlive20xx/.install-tland follow the instructions. Install path and other stuff can be configure here. If your machine is offline untick "after install, use tlnet on CTAN for package updates" for obvious reasons.If final install or first run say that you need and do not have glibc-2.14 :
Methode 1:
Restart from step 3 and
/tmp/foobin.install-tl --custom-bin=/tmp/foobin.DIR/bin/customto your PATH. The “/custom” there is literal.Methode 2:
I haven't tested this on :
Download the 2017 iso ftp://tug.org/historic/systems/texlive/2017/install-tl-unx.tar.gz and follow steps as normal. Solution suggested here.