LyX ⇒ Lyx-2.2.0 fails on Biblatex/natbib

[ExecutorElassus]

@johannes: I have biblatex v3.4, and biber v2.4. How obsolete are those? My distribution doesn't seem to have newer versions.

@phillip: Using the files for the simple examples involves using their own .bib files, which were included in the .zip. They still didn't work. Or rather, bibtex8 seemed to work, but biber did not.

Also, I keep my .bib file in an absolute path because I have dozens of documents that all use the same .bib file. I can't move it around.

Cheers,

EE

[ExecutorElassus]

Update: reinstalled both biber and biblatex. Now my own document won't compile, with the following error:

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! Package xkeyval Error: `BABELSHORTHANDS' undefined in families `german'.

Xetex fails with an error. Also, the log is full of errors that the citation keys (ie, the keys in my .bib file) are "undefined", meaning it can't find the .bib file.

So, yes, it seems my bibliography is very broken, despite reinstalling both biber and biblatex (even when using the "small example" with its own .bib file). It also gives the following error:

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Package biblatex Warning: File 'bibliography-biblatex-biber.bbl' is wrong format version - expected 2.7.

What might be causing this?

Cheers,

EE

[ExecutorElassus]

I've tried bibtex8 as the backend on my main file. It doesn't work, either, throwing the following error:

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! Undefined control sequence.
\blx@slist@name ->\cms 
                       @choose/global/
\entry ...ata@\the \c@refsection @\blx@slist@name 
                                                  @\abx@field@entrykey }\csu...
l.20   \entry{aarseth1997cybertext}{book}{}
                                           
The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.

That \entry is a bibtex key from my bibliography file, which I now have both in a Lyx note and in a comment, as well as in an absolute path in the preamble with an \addbibresource command.

@Philip, what did you mean by "\renewcommand\citet{\autocite}" being wrong?

My distro is still on texlive-xetex-2015. Could that be causing problems with this? All the core texlive packages appear to be at 2015.

Cheers,

EE

[Johannes_B]

I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but you cannot just switch bib engines. You have to clear all the auxiliary files created by LaTeX before switching.

[ExecutorElassus]

No, that hadn't been mentioned. Where do I find the auxiliary files?

Cheers,

EE

[ExecutorElassus]

Update: according to this bug, latex compilation with biblatex-3.4 will break if biber is still at 2.4 (which it still is on my distro).

So, I'll wait to see if they update biber sometime, and report back.

Cheers,

EE

[ExecutorElassus]

Another update: thanks to an overlay (ie, a 3rd-party repository for my distro) I installed biber-2.5. It didn't help: I still get errors like this:

Code: Select all

! Undefined control sequence.
\blx@slist@name ->\cms 
                       @choose/global/
\entry ...ata@\the \c@refsection @\blx@slist@name 
                                                  @\abx@field@entrykey }\csu...
l.20   \entry{aarseth1997cybertext}{book}{}
                                           
The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.

for every \entry I have. I'm guessing this means that biblatex/biber can't read my .bib file, but perhaps I'm wrong? What might be going on here?

Cheers,

EE

[PhilipPirrip]

A lot is going on there, so you should try to reduce the problem somehow. Try with a .bib file with only one entry. Try \usepackage[...]{biblatex} instead of \usepackage[...]{biblatex-chicago}. Try removing all but necessary packages. In short, do all the work we'd have to do to debug your problem. The error message you're showing doesn't really tell much, go to LyX>Document>LaTeX log, and check what it says for log type LaTeX AND Bibtex.

[PhilipPirrip]

"\renewcommand\citet{\autocite}" is wrong because \citet takes one argument, thus

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\renewcommand{\citet}[1]{\autocite{#1}}

. You should test without this first. Your document is a mess! Do you still have calls to \bibliography AND \addbibresource at the same time? Test your new biber on minimal examples from LyX wiki!

[ExecutorElassus]

Update: two things. I am dumb, and after updating biber, forgot to re-set the bibliography processor back to use it instead of bibtex8. So I'm no longer running into errors about undefined keys relating to my bibliography file. So, that problem has its roots in my distro updating biblatex but not biber, and appears fixed.

Second, however, is a somewhat thornier issue. In my (admittedly very crufty) file, I have polyglossia enabled. I've gone back through the log to trace every instance of the following type of error:

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! Package xkeyval Error: `BABELSHORTHANDS' undefined in families `german'.

See the xkeyval package documentation for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
\GenericError  ...                                
                                                  \endgroup 
\XKV@s@tk@ys ...ndefined in families `\XKV@fams '}
                                                  \fi \fi \else \ifXKV@inpox...

\XKV@f@r ...nnil \expandafter \@gobbletwo \else #2
                                                  \expandafter \XKV@f@r \fi ...

\XKV@for@n ... \expandafter \XKV@f@r \fi #2{#3}#1,
                                                  \@nil ,
\XKV@setkeys ...keys \expandafter {\XKV@resb }{#1}
                                                  \XKV@usepresetkeys {#1}{pr...
<argument> ...tkeys {german}{BABELSHORTHANDS=TRUE}
                                                  \use@localhyphenmins {germ...

\@secondoftwo #1#2->#2
                      
\@ensure@LTR #1->\if@RTL \LRE {#1}\else #1
                                          \fi 
<to be read again> ...S=TRUE]{MUSIKALISCHE GRAFIK}
                                                  »
\reserved@a ...hands=true]{musikalische Grafik}»}

Every time that error occurs, it is around a chapter or section title that includes a word in a foreign language (that is, set with Lyx as being a different language, not just foreign words).

I'm not *exactly* sure yet which of my various modules is causing it to fail, and I can't yet reproduce the exact error message using the MWE from the wiki. I'm trying to narrow it down a bit. But I didn't have this problem with the previous version of Lyx, so I suspect it's doing something weird with where it places the control sequences for language switching.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers,

EE