I have tried to install XeTeX on my Debian system, but this does not appear to work. Here are the steps I took:
- I loaded TeX Live 2011 with
tlmgr -gui
. - I loaded a repository.
- I selected "not installed packages".
- I selected "collection-xetex".
- I clicked "install".
- The log reported the installation of the included packages, including
xetex
. - Then a warning appeared saying "Running install collection-xetex failed. Please consult the log window for details."
The log reports the following:
/usr/local/bin/fmtutil: 1: xetex: not found
Error: `xetex -ini -jobname=xelatex -progname=xelatex -etex xelatex.ini' failed#
fmtutil: Error! Not all formats have been built successfully.
Visit the log files in directory
/usr/local/texlive/2011/texmf-var/web2c
for details.#
This is a summary of all
failed' messages:
xetex -ini -jobname=xetex -progname=xetex -etex xetex.ini' failed
`xetex -ini -jobname=xelatex -progname=xelatex -etex xelatex.ini' failedtlmgr: exiting unsuccessfully (status 1).
Some additional details:
- I was unable to find a
xelatex
command anywhere in the path. - Rebooting the computer resulted in no known change.
- Uninstalling and reinstalling from a different repository produced identical results.
- The TeX Live Manager 2011 GUI currently reports that "collection-xetex" is installed.
What do I need to do to get XeTeX working?
Best Answer
The problem lies in the fact that you chose to create symbolic links for the executables in
/usr/local/texlive/2011/bin/<architecture>
to/usr/local/bin
.With
tlmgr
there's the possibility to update them, but the action is not performed automatically.However, my advices are:
Always install the full TeX Live
Never create symbolic links, particularly on Debian based systems
If you don't have strict space constraints, do a full TeX Live install. It would have avoided the problem of installing the XeTeX subsystem.
Changing what's in
/usr/local/bin
is dangerous as other system utilities may choose to install something there. It's better to change thePATH
variable and the safest method is to write a filezzz-texlive.sh
containingand move it into
/etc/profile.d
. After a logout/login cycle, thePATH
variable will contain the correct directory for the executables.