TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ tlmgr Not availabe

[Kiltman67]

I'm trying to set up TeXLive on Kubuntu 9.04, installed the "scheme-basic". I've been trying to use tlmgr to add an extra package I need, but the command is not found. I saw an earlier thread which offered the solution of completely removing it and reinstalling the whole DVD. This seems like a rather drastic solution though.

I have removed and reinstalled the same basic version, but no luck. Does anybody know what the cause is and how to fix it? as there doesn't seem to be many people having this problem.

[frabjous]

I think tlmgr is new with TeXlive 2008. If you installed through synaptic, you probably have an older version of TeXlive installed. You can check your version with the command tex -v.

[Kiltman67]

TeX 3.141592 (Web2C 7.5.6)
kpathsea version 3.5.6
Copyright 2007 D.E. Knuth.

This is what I got from tex -v, I installed it with the instal-tl, rather than Synaptic.

[frabjous]

Hmm...

When was this? I get:

TeX 3.1415926 (Web2C 7.5.7)
kpathsea version 3.5.7
Copyright 2008 D.E. Knuth.

And I installed several months ago.

Ubuntu actually ships with an older version of TeX, if I'm not mistaken. Do you have a /usr/local/texlive/2008/ directory? If so, maybe you just forgot to add the texlive binary folder to your path, so it's calling the old one (and can't find tlmgr)....

[Kiltman67]

I just installed it today, got the install-tl from: ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/systems ... lnet/2008/

I have the /usr/local/texlive/2008/ directory, which folder are you suggesting I add and to where?

Thanks

[frabjous]

You need to add the texlive 2008 binary directories to your path. (Your path is the environmental variable that determines what folders are searched when you try to run programs.) It appears you have BOTH texlive 2007 and texlive 2008 installed, but only the texlive 2007 binaries are in your path, so the 2008 programs are not executed when you try to call them.

It says to do this on the installation instructions for tl-install here:
http://www.tug.org/texlive/quickinstall.html

In Ubuntu 9.04 (not Kubuntu), I accomplished this by editing the .profile file in my home directory, and added these lines at the end:

PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-linux:$PATH
MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/doc/man:$MANPATH
INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/doc/info:$INFOPATH

(You could put them in .bashrc or similar if you prefer.)

(Then logged out and logged back in.) I think the same process should work for Kubuntu, but I've never used Kubuntu, so I don't know. Otherwise google editing your path for Kubuntu.

(Also if you're using the 64bit version, the directory won't be "i386-linux", but something similar... you'll have to check.)

[Kiltman67]

Thanks, following your advice I managed to get access to tlmgr, but I've hit another problem. I tried to install the package I wanted through the gui and got the following error:

install: apa
Tk::Error: /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-linux/tlmgr: mkdir(/usr/local/texlive/2008/temp/) failed, goodbye: Permission denied
TeXLive::TLUtils::mkdirhier at /usr/local/texlive/2008/tlpkg/TeXLive/TLUtils.pm line 533
TeXLive::TLMedia::_install_package at /usr/local/texlive/2008/tlpkg/TeXLive/TLMedia.pm line 258
TeXLive::TLMedia::install_package at /usr/local/texlive/2008/tlpkg/TeXLive/TLMedia.pm line 158
main::action_install at /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-linux/tlmgr line 1808
main::execute_action at /usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-linux/tlmgr line 293
main::execute_action_gui at /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/scripts/texlive/tlmgrgui/tlmgrgui.pl line 696
main::install_selected_packages at /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/scripts/texlive/tlmgrgui/tlmgrgui.pl line 456
main::__ANON__ at /usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/scripts/texlive/tlmgrgui/do_listframe.pl line 208
Tk callback for .notebook.install.labelframe2.button
Tk::__ANON__ at /usr/lib/perl5/Tk.pm line 250
Tk::Button::butUp at /usr/lib/perl5/Tk/Button.pm line 175
<ButtonRelease-1>
(command bound to event)

I tried running it with gksudo and before it brings up the login prompt I get the error message "User i does not exist".

I also tried installing it via the command line, but it still fails. Where am I going wrong?

[Kiltman67]

Managed to find the solution elsewhere, changed the owner of the /usr/local/texlive/2008/ to myself, rather than the root.