MiKTeX and proTeXt ⇒ Manual Package Installation

[ptrcao]

It used to be that if a package was missing or unavailable, my text editor TeXworks would display a prompt to retrieve it from the online package database, or to install it from a local source. Now that doesn't happen automatically. And I can't even find a manual install option. I put the .sty file in the place where all the rest of my packages are but there is no way to install or call on it. What am I missing here?

I also prefer to use the native built in package manager. Why doesn't that automatically trigger anymore?

• Editor: TeXworks 0.4.x
• OS: Windows XP / Debian / Ubuntu

(I operate mostly from within Windows XP but I do switch to Debian or Ubuntu from time to time.) My TeX distribution on Windows is MiKTeX 2.8.

[thomasTC]

Have you remembered to refresh the file name database (Refresh FNDB) via MiKTeX Options (Programs -> MiKTeX -> Maintenance -> Settings)? You might also want to press the Update Formats button after having installed a new package.

In the 'general' tab, you should also be able to fix your package installation problem. Flip 'Install packages on-the-fly' to 'yes'.

[ptrcao]

Thanks thomas, this solved the problem on the windows side. What about in Linux?

[localghost]

[…] What about in Linux?

TeX Live (which is usually shipped with most Linux distributions) doesn't support automatic package installation. But you can always create a local installation tree in ~/texmf (a directory tree in your home folder, exactly /home/‹username›/texmf) following the TeX Directory Structure (TDS) standard. Running texhash on the terminal will add packages located in this tree to your TeX system.


Thorsten