Re: Switching from teTeX to TexLive in Ubuntu
The following message is a courtesy copy of an article
that has been posted to comp.text.tex as well.
Henk Koster <H.A.J.Koster@xs4all.nl> writes:
> I'm pretty sure that Ubuntu Edgy has the Debian packages, what with all
> that Debian policy stuff in /usr/share/doc/texmf-texlive. I believe I owe
> you a complete answer as to my frustrations with the Debian texlive
> packages, so I have installed a fresh copy of Ubuntu Edgy i386 in a
> Parallels VM on my little MacBook, then installed from the texlive
> packages everything except: only Dutch language packs; only English
> documentation. This is as close as possible to the way I installed from
> the TL CD-ROM on my work computer.
Thanks a lot Henk. I would like to stress, though, that you are not
using the Debian packages of TL. You are using the Ubuntu packages.
These are (most likely) build from the Debian source packages. I don't
know if the Ubuntu people have applied any additional patches. It is,
however, important to remember that these packages represent a snap-shot
of Debian unstable sometime in the past. This is particularly apparent
here: Most of your problems just would not exist if you had read the
proper documentation. Unfortunately at the time Ubuntu 'closed the
doors' this documentation was part of the tetex-bin package. Now it is
in tex-common (called 'TeX on Debian'). Some of them could also be
answered by reading the Debian TeX policy in tex-commmon, but that
document is not really meant for end users.
> First observation: the total disk space required by the Debian packages
> was about 700MB -- this is about 50MB less than when installing directly
> from the TL CD-ROM. Debian policy probably...
Maybe. For example, documentation files are compressed in Debian.
> Then it was time to install the proprietary Lucida Bright fonts and the
> recently acquired lucimatx style file and accompanying lucida.map file.
> The TL distribution provides a texmf-local directory for this, and I keep
> the contents of this directory on a USB stick for whenever I need to
> install a new TeX, like now. I installed my stuff to
> /usr/local/share/texmf-local.
The proper place would be TEXMFLOCAL, which is defined as
$ kpsexpand \$TEXMFLOCAL
/usr/local/share/texmf
This is also docuemtned in 'TeX on Debian' and the Debian TeX policy.
For that directory, ls-R files are automatically produced by texhash.
> Second observation: texhash does not include this directory, but (from the
> man-page) allows it to be added as a command line argument, or
> "texhash /usr/local/share/texmf-local". No problem, I thought, but read on.
Of course this does not help. TeX and friends don't search the entire
harddisk for ls-R files. Instead they look into the directories defined
in TEXMF, which in turn is defined in texmf.cnf.
> Then I needed to update updmap.cfg for my own lucida.map -- couldn't find
> the right place at first, but then changed
> /etc/texmf/updmap.d/10texlive-fonts-extra.cfg as follows:
> added the line "Map lucida.map"; commented out the lines "Map
> lucidabr.map" and "Map lumath.map". Then I ran "update-updmap", which
> went OK apparently.
It would have been simpler to use '--enable' and '--disable'. In
general, I would add entries that do not belong to any installed package
to a separate file in /etc/texmf/updmap.d/. The 'TeX on Debian' document
explains all this.
> Third observation: This update-updmap stuff is probably a result of Debian
> TeX policy, but compared to the installation directly from the TL CD-ROM
> no improvement IMO.
It is a requirement for having different packages being able to install
and configure fonts for TeX without modifying configuration files.
> In the latter case, need only change updmap.cfg by
> hand (there are two of these in the texlive tree, I changed both since it
> wasn't clear which one was actually loaded).
Which file besides /var/lib/texmf/web2c/updmap.cfg did you find? BTW,
this file is a generated file and should not be edited directly.
> Next I ran "updmap-sys", but this failed due to not being able to find my
> lucida.map file. Hadn't texhash fixed that? From that point on, I flailed
> about: looked at the kpathsea info-pages to check for directory search
> strategies (to no avail); then changed my local directory to
> /usr/local/share/texmf-texlive (paralelling the directory structure in
> /usr/share/texmf-texlive)... didn't work either; tried just
> /usr/local/share/texlive ...nope; tried tex-common, no way; finally
> (remembering teTeX) tried /usr/local/share/texmf and (bingo!) "texhash"
> found it, and so did "updmap-sys".
See above.
> Fourth observation: it shouldn't be that hard to find the place to install
> system-wide local stuff. Why not include making the directory
> /usr/local/share/texmf in the installation scripts? Is there a similar
> local directory like ~/.texmf ?
Yes, its called TEXMFHOME and is set to $HOME/texmf.
> Fifth observation: what is the added value of the Debian packages over and
> beyond the install procedure on the TL CD-ROM?
Two examples: Integration with the rest of the system. Newer versions of
things like the lmodern fonts or beamer.
> I can think of the
> following: the deb-packages (being compressed) take less time to install,
> in my case a download of just under 300MB, instead of burning the 700MB
> TL iso; that Debian TeX policy, culling about 50MB worth stuff on the TL
> CD-ROM with less then pristine rights; backward compatibility with prior
> TeX installations (teTeX, tex4ht).
In what sense is 'tex4ht' a prior TeX installation?
> Sixth observation: that added value comes at a cost. There is now a
> confusing jumble of TeX-related directories in /usr/share: tex-common,
> texmf, tex4ht and texmf-texlive; similar in /usr/share/doc; and of course
> all that stuff in /etc/texmf and its subdirectories.
Unfortunately the Ubuntu packages do not contain the documentation for
these things. That's not Debian's fault.
> My conclusion: I prefer the simplicity of the TL CD-ROM install, putting
> everything in the /usr/local/texlive directory (next to some other stuff
> like lilypond).
>
> Cheers,
>
> Henk
>
> P.S. Over and out, as far as I'm concerned -- got some real work to do.
cheerio
ralf
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