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I want to install a package (specifically xlop). I'm using TeXLive on Ubuntu, and I don't really know my way around LaTeX.

Can apt-get install or something similar be used?

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As well as the question that Martin mentions, I'd like to point you to tex.stackexchange.com/q/13709/86 which might help you a bit. – Andrew Stacey Sep 15 '11 at 11:11
I actually use WINE to run MiKTeX (or rather, Texmaker on top of MiKTeX), because I love the auto-installation feature of MiKTeX so much... – DevSolar Sep 15 '11 at 14:27

2 Answers

up vote 17 down vote accepted

A lot of frequently used *TeX packages have been combined into Ubuntu packages. In this case a quick search in the Ubuntu Package Manager shows that xlop is part of the texlive-generic-extra package, which you can install using apt-get install or the GUI as preferred.

Having said that, it's not particularly difficult to install *TeX packages manually once you've identified the right tree to put them in (CTAN has pre-zipped versions of a lot of packages, which makes it even easier - you just have to unzip them at the right place and run texhash), and you then have the advantage of being sure you're up-to-date. At the moment I believe the Ubuntu versions are lagging quite a way behind TeX Live releases (let alone any subsequent package updates).

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Thanks much, I appreciate the quick and EZ solution. – Eric Wilson Sep 16 '11 at 1:29
I'm on Ubuntu 10.04 and just downloading the zip file, unzipping it, running make (in the case of the minted package) and running texhash was super easy. – krupan Nov 20 '12 at 18:21
up vote 27 down vote

Ubuntu and Debian ship with a totally outdated TeXLive 2009. The current version is 2011, released a couple of weeks ago. I highly recommend to install TeXLive using its own installer instead as described in How to install “vanilla” TeXLive on Debian or Ubuntu?. Then you can install packages using the normal tlmgr package manager:

tlgmr install <package name>

To update a package use:

tlgmr update <package name>

To update all packages (and tlmgr itself):

tlmgr update --self --all

This tool is not shipped in Ubuntu because they don't want any other tool installing files. Unfortunately software like the LaTeX editor Kile has TeXLive (the Ubuntu version) as its dependency, even if there is no binary one. They simplest way would be to keep the old TeXLive around and not to uninstall it. You might be able simply delete the files, though.

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tlmgr didn't work for me at all, it seems to be completely absent. How do I acquire it? I tried apt-get install tlmgr, but it didn't know anything about it. – Eric Wilson Sep 15 '11 at 12:41
@Eric: As I mentioned, it is not part of the TeXLive installation of Ubuntu. You need to install (the real) TeXLive manually as shown in the linked thread. – Martin Scharrer♦ Sep 15 '11 at 12:44
Sorry, read too quickly. OK, I'll fall back to this if the easier solution (by Ant) doesn't work. – Eric Wilson Sep 15 '11 at 12:53
@Eric: The additional benefit is that you get the current versions of all packages, not the two years old ones. – Martin Scharrer♦ Sep 15 '11 at 12:55
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I'm using LaTeX for the first time in four years. I think that 2009 will seem cutting edge to me. :) – Eric Wilson Sep 15 '11 at 12:57

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