[Tex/LaTex] Why can’t I install MacTeX or BasicTeX on the Mac

installingmactex

I am a beginner for LaTeX and I was trying to install the package BasicTeX on my mac (version 10.7.3). Everything went well – downloading the .zip file from TUG, unarchiving–until I actually started to install the package.

Here is what I got at the last stage of the installation. Everything working fine up till now.

But then

Here is the error.

I also tried MacTeX but it also failed. Here is the installer log for the full MacTex:

**Apr 11 20:39:04 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7796]: PackageKit: ----- Begin install -----**

**Apr 11 20:43:07 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7796]: PackageKit: Install Failed: Error Domain=PKInstallErrorDomain Code=112 "An error occurred while running scripts from the package “Ghostscript-9.02.pkg”." UserInfo=0x7fd45e807e90 {NSFilePath=./postflight, NSURL=file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/Ghostscript-9.02.pkg, PKInstallPackageIdentifier=org.tug.mactex.ghostscript9.02, NSLocalizedDescription=An error occurred while running scripts from the package “Ghostscript-9.02.pkg”.} {
        NSFilePath = "./postflight";
        NSLocalizedDescription = "An error occurred while running scripts from the package \U201cGhostscript-9.02.pkg\U201d.";
        NSURL = "file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/Ghostscript-9.02.pkg";
        PKInstallPackageIdentifier = "org.tug.mactex.ghostscript9.02";
    }**

**Apr 11 20:43:08 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7783]: Install failed: The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.**

**Apr 11 20:43:08 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7783]: Displaying 'Install Failed' UI.**


**Apr 11 20:43:08 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7783]: 'Install Failed' UI displayed message:'The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.'.**

I tried deselecting the Ghostscript package but a similar problem occurred with "GUI Application", here is the full log:

Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: @(#)PROGRAM:Install  PROJECT:Install-686.3
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: @(#)PROGRAM:Installer  PROJECT:Installer-530
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Hardware: MacBookPro8,1 @ 2.70 GHz (x 4), 4096 MB RAM
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Running OS Build: Mac OS X 10.7.3 (11D50b)
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: TMPDIR=/var/folders/r2/gx0svmcs5h95bd34kkrvzknr0000gn/T/
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: SHELL=/bin/bash
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: HOME=/Users/William
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: USER=William
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: LOGNAME=William
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: DISPLAY=/tmp/launch-NlNQAn/org.x:0
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/tmp/launch-mwoggh/Listeners
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: Apple_Ubiquity_Message=/tmp/launch-wNPeC9/Apple_Ubiquity_Message
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: Apple_PubSub_Socket_Render=/tmp/launch-ZINUEC/Render
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: COMMAND_MODE=unix2003
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Env: __CF_USER_TEXT_ENCODING=0x1F5:0:0
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: MacTeX-2011  Installation Log
Apr 11 21:06:12 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Opened from: /Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg
Apr 11 21:07:03 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: InstallerStatusNotifications plugin loaded
Apr 11 21:08:18 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFPKGDerivedDocument sortedPackageLocations]: result = (
    "file://localhost"
)
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro runner[7847]: Administrator authorization granted.
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: ================================================================================
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: User picked Custom Install
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Choices selected for installation:
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:   Install: "MacTeX-2011"
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:       MacTeX-2011.mpkg : org.tug.mactex.mactex2011 : 1.3.0.1.3
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:   Install: "GUI Applications"
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:       GUI-Applications.pkg : org.tug.mactex.gui : 1.3.0.1.3
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:   Install: "ImageMagick Convert 6.6.9-3"
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:       ImageMagick-Convert-6.6.9-3.pkg : org.tug.mactex.imagemagick-convert-6.6.9-3 : 1.3.0.1.3
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:   Install: "Latin Modern Fonts"
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:       Latin-Modern-Fonts.pkg : org.tug.mactex.latin-modern : 1.3.0.1.3
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:   Install: "TeX Live 2011"
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]:       TeXLive-2011.pkg : org.tug.mactex.texlive2011 : 1.3.0.1.3
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: ================================================================================
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: It took 0.00 seconds to summarize the package selections.
Apr 11 21:08:25 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFPKGDerivedDocument sortedPackageLocations]: result = (
    "file://localhost"
)
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: location = file://localhost
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/GUI-Applications.pkg
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/ImageMagick-Convert-6.6.9-3.pkg
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/Latin-Modern-Fonts.pkg
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/TeXLive-2011.pkg
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: -[IFDInstallController(Private) _buildInstallPlan]: file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Set authorization level to root for session
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Will use PK session
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Starting installation:
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Configuring volume "Macintosh HD"
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Preparing disk for local booted install.
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Free space on "Macintosh HD": 433.11 GB (433109905408 bytes).
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Create temporary directory "/var/folders/r2/gx0svmcs5h95bd34kkrvzknr0000gn/T//Install.7837eNj0ED"
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: IFPKInstallElement (6 packages)
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Using authorization level of root for IFPKInstallElement
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: ----- Begin install -----
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: request=PKInstallRequest <6 packages, destination=/>
Apr 11 21:08:26 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: packages=(
    "PKJaguarPackage <file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg>",
    "PKJaguarPackage <file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/GUI-Applications.pkg>",
    "PKJaguarPackage <file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/ImageMagick-Convert-6.6.9-3.pkg>",
    "PKJaguarPackage <file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/Latin-Modern-Fonts.pkg>",
    "PKJaguarPackage <file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/TeXLive-2011.pkg>",
    "PKJaguarPackage <file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg>"
)
Apr 11 21:08:27 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: Extracting file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/GUI-Applications.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/Cleanup At Startup/PKInstallSandbox-tmp/Root, uid=0)
Apr 11 21:08:38 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: Extracting file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/ImageMagick-Convert-6.6.9-3.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/Cleanup At Startup/PKInstallSandbox-tmp/Root, uid=0)
Apr 11 21:08:39 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: Extracting file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/Latin-Modern-Fonts.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/Cleanup At Startup/PKInstallSandbox-tmp/Root, uid=0)
Apr 11 21:08:39 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: Extracting file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/TeXLive-2011.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/Cleanup At Startup/PKInstallSandbox-tmp/Root, uid=0)
Apr 11 21:10:52 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: Shoving /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/Cleanup At Startup/PKInstallSandbox-tmp/Root (3 items) to /
Apr 11 21:12:19 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: Executing script "./postflight" in /Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/GUI-Applications.pkg/Contents/Resources
Apr 11 21:12:22 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro installd[7850]: PackageKit: Install Failed: Error Domain=PKInstallErrorDomain Code=112 "An error occurred while running scripts from the package “GUI-Applications.pkg”." UserInfo=0x7ffb9d7e09f0 {NSFilePath=./postflight, NSURL=file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/GUI-Applications.pkg, PKInstallPackageIdentifier=org.tug.mactex.gui, NSLocalizedDescription=An error occurred while running scripts from the package “GUI-Applications.pkg”.} {
    NSFilePath = "./postflight";
    NSLocalizedDescription = "An error occurred while running scripts from the package \U201cGUI-Applications.pkg\U201d.";
    NSURL = "file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/GUI-Applications.pkg";
    PKInstallPackageIdentifier = "org.tug.mactex.gui";
}
Apr 11 21:12:22 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: install:didFailWithError:Error Domain=PKInstallErrorDomain Code=112 "An error occurred while running scripts from the package “GUI-Applications.pkg”." UserInfo=0x7f9de9616730 {NSFilePath=./postflight, NSURL=file://localhost/Users/William/Downloads/MacTeX-2011.mpkg/Contents/Packages/GUI-Applications.pkg, PKInstallPackageIdentifier=org.tug.mactex.gui, NSLocalizedDescription=An error occurred while running scripts from the package “GUI-Applications.pkg”.}
Apr 11 21:12:22 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Install failed: The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.
Apr 11 21:12:22 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: IFDInstallController E9535990 state = 7
Apr 11 21:12:22 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: Displaying 'Install Failed' UI.
Apr 11 21:12:22 William-Lius-MacBook-Pro Installer[7837]: 'Install Failed' UI displayed message:'The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance.'.

I tried repairing permission for the harddrive but the same problems persists. And even if I select only "TeX Live" when installing full MacTex, it still fails.

Can anybody help explain what's going on here? It's kind of frustrating to get stuck at this stage. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Best Answer

Someone on the Ars Technica forums realized what was wrong. I will bet quite a bit of money that you used The Unarchiver to unzip the file that contained the .mpkg file. Apparently, something about the way it unzips introduced some sort of corruption. If you go back, and instead of using The Unarchiver, use Apple's own Archive Utility, then try the installation using that newly unzipped .mpkg, it should work. It worked fine for me.

Related Question