LyX doesn't launch

JohnGalt · Post by **JohnGalt** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 12:49 pm

Hello community,

I ran across a strange issue recently. When working on my thesis, LyX suddenly would not compile the .pdf anymore - pressing the preview button started a process for about two seconds, then stopped, without any error messages or .pdf output. I subsequently tried reconfiguring Lyx, but the reconfiguration stopped with an error.
Annoyed I closed LyX and tried to restart it, just to find, that LyX.exe would not start the program anymore. I tried running it as an administrator, to no avail, and even re-installed LyX, yet the problem persists.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience and could tell me how to fix the issue?

Best regards,
J.Galt

Learn LaTeX easily with newest books:

The LaTeX Beginner's Guide: 2nd edition and perfect for students writing a thesis

The LaTeX Cookbook: 2nd edition full of practical examples for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and more

LaTeX Graphics with TikZ: the first book about TikZ for perfect drawings in your LaTeX thesis

Post by **Stefan Kottwitz** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 1:00 pm

Hello John!

JohnGalt wrote:I subsequently tried reconfiguring Lyx, but the reconfiguration stopped with an error.

Please tell us the error message.

JohnGalt wrote:LyX.exe would not start the program anymore.

Do you get an error message here?

Stefan

JohnGalt · Post by **JohnGalt** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 1:10 pm

Unfortunately I did not note down the error message, as I did not fathom the issue at that point. The error message appeared in the same window normally informing you about eh successful reconfiguration, and that you should restart lyx. For me it said something like LyX/LaTeX could not reconfigure, and that I should try again. I did so, with the same result.

Post by **Stefan Kottwitz** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 1:21 pm

Did you restart the computer? Perhaps it's a simple resource issue, like running out of memory or any operating system issue.

Stefan

JohnGalt · Post by **JohnGalt** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:06 pm

Yes, I have tried that - unfortunately, it did not resolve the issue either.

Post by **Stefan Kottwitz** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:31 pm

I still don't know what error message do you get now when you try to start. (not the first one, before restart)

Stefan

Post by **scottkosty** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 4:02 pm

I've never seen this before on Ubuntu, and I haven't heard of stories like this either. Can you start LyX from the command prompt?

JohnGalt · Post by **JohnGalt** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 6:56 pm

I tried starting it via the command start C:\"Program Files (x86)"\"LyX 2.2"\bin\LyX.exe, but nothing happened, no error message, no window opening, just like what keeps happening otherwise.

Post by **Stefan Kottwitz** » Sun Nov 13, 2016 7:18 pm

Try starting the program cmd. That's a command line. Enter the command lyx or lyx.exe. Do you get any output then? (this may show an error message hidden when starting LyX via GUI).

Stefan

JohnGalt · Post by **JohnGalt** » Mon Nov 14, 2016 12:27 am

here's the output, it's the same for both lyx and lyx.exe.

C:\Users\John>lyx.exe
'lyx.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

When using the full path, as described above, simply nothing happens.

LaTeX.org

LyX ⇒ LyX doesn't launch