[Tex/LaTex] TeX Live error on Ubuntu 10.04: pdflatex.fmt doesn’t match pdftex.pool

errorstexliveUbuntu

I recently installed Ubuntu 10.04 over-top of Ubuntu 9.04, preserving my /home partition, but aside from that partition, it was a fresh install. I installed the texlive package (2009-7) from Ubuntu's main repository.

Now, when I try to run latex or pdflatex on a .tex file, I get the not so helpful error:

brian@thoralf:~/tmp$ pdflatex test.tex 
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (TeX Live 2009/Debian)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
---! /home/brian/.texmf-var/web2c/pdftex/pdflatex.fmt doesn't match pdftex.pool
(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

What can I do to fix this problem?

Best Answer

[I asked, then search the net. I've made my answer community wiki so as not to look like I'm rep-hunting.]

There was a bug filed against ubuntu 10.04 beta. I'm somewhat surprised it's not been fixed as it makes latex rather useless.

One commentator on the bug thread said that deleting /home/.texmf-var worked for them. Worked for me, too.

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