Bug#826131: closed by Norbert Preining <preining@logic.at> (Re: Bug#826131: texlive-base: tlmgr "cannot setup TLPDB" and doesn't open/update because of that)

[<c.buhtz@posteo.jp>]

Hi Norbert

On 2016-06-02 15:21 owner@bugs.debian.org (Debian Bug Tracking System)
wrote:
> #826131: texlive-base: tlmgr "cannot setup TLPDB" and doesn't
> open/update because of that

Of course I know the USER MODE and have read the part of the
documentation! That wasn't the case of the bugreport - but I think it
was quite unspecific. Sorry for that.

Please correct me if I am wrong:
The user mode is to handle secondary TexLive installations beside the
main one. So you can have multiple TeXLive installations on one system.
Correct?
But the user mode is not able to touch the main installation. Correct?

Having more than one TeXLive at the same machine sounds quite exotic
for me. :) Anyway.
Of course I just want to manage (update) the main installation -
nothing more.

Do you say that there is no way to manage the main installation with
tlmgr on a Debian system?
If it is so than the error message should be much more precise. kind
of: "Running on Debian. Switching to user mode. Keep in mind that tlmgr
can not manage the main installation. Use the Debian package system
(apt) to update your main TeXLive installation."

What do you think?

Or just kill the tlmgr (like Ubuntu does) to prevent such
missunderstandings.