TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ Installed but can't find the program?

[random]

I'm new to Linux, which is probably what's causing my problem. Just got started on Ubuntu. I installed texlive using the following in terminal:

sudo apt-get install texlive-full

It took a long time, and everything seemed to download and install fine. But I can't figure out how to start the program. Looks like everything downloaded and is available in:

~/.texlive/2008

I get the impression it should somehow be in /usr/local/ in order to work.

Any advice? Preferably giving me the exact code to enter in terminal, since I have no real idea what I'm doing.

[frabjous]

You got TeXlive 2008 from synaptic on Ubuntu? I thought they were still only hosting 2007.

Anyway, open up a terminal and type

tex -v

or

latex -v

This should tell you whether or not it's installed correctly and in your path, and what your version is. If it's not in your path, that's easy to fix.

It doesn't need to be in /usr/local/bin - it just needs to be in your path (or the symbolic links do).

~/.texlive/2008 probably just has config info, but I'm not sure.

[frabjous]

I should mention that if you were expecting something you could "run" from the GNOME menu, you probably should install an editor/IDE like Kile or TeXmaker as a front-end:

sudo apt-get install kile kile-doc

There's also a beta LaTeX plugin for gedit, but I wouldn't recommend that for a beginner.

[random]

Thanks!!!

Everything is up and running now. Kile has crashed on me a few times, but at least I have LaTeX up and running again... been using it on Mac and Windows for years and was worried when I couldn't get it running on Linux.