tlmgr in Ubuntu 20.04: "Local TeX Live (2019) is older than remote repository (2020)" (and subsequent issues)

Question

I have a fresh installation of Ubuntu 20.04 with LaTeX (via packages texlive, texlive-latex-extra and texlive-lang-english), but cannot make work tlmgr. What I have done:

$ tlmgr install dirtree
(running on Debian, switching to user mode!)
/usr/bin/tlmgr: unexpected return value from verify_checksum: -5

For this I found in other thread that their key has expired recently: tlmgr: unexpected return value from verify_checksum: -5 for main repository. Hence next:

$ tlmgr install dirtree --verify-repo=none
(running on Debian, switching to user mode!)
tlmgr: Local TeX Live (2019) is older than remote repository (2020).
Cross release updates are only supported with
  update-tlmgr-latest(.sh/.exe) --update
See https://tug.org/texlive/upgrade.html for details.

OK. Downloaded and run the update-tlmgr-latest.sh script from http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/update-tlmgr-latest.sh and got (btw the --update option is not recognized):

$ sh update-tlmgr-latest.sh
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing TeX Live Manager Updater  100%  
./runme.sh: Cannot find TeX Live root using kpsewhich --var-value=SELFAUTOPARENT.
./runme.sh: (no tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb and/or tlpkg/tlpobj/.)
./runme.sh: Please set your PATH as needed, otherwise it's hopeless.

I am also hopeless. What is "as needed" supposed to mean?

Answer 1

I had the same issue and solved it by reinstalling TexLive.

Firstly, you should uninstall all existing TexLive installations:

sudo apt-get remove texlive*
rm -rf /usr/local/texlive/20*
rm -rf ~/.texlive20*

Next, you must create a place for your new TexLive distribution to live, and give your user ownership of this directory

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/texlive/$(date +%Y)
sudo chown -R "$USER" /usr/local/texlive

Download and manually install TexLive

mkdir /tmp/texlive
cd /tmp/texlive
wget http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/install-tl.zip
unzip ./install-tl.zip -d install-tl
cd install-tl/install-tl-$(date +%Y%m%d)
perl ./install-tl

When you are in perl console then press "i" to install

Enter command: i

Post-Installation: you need to add to the path environment (change the year accordingly to your installation)

export MANPATH="$MANPATH:/usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/doc/man"
export INFOPATH="$INFOPATH:/usr/local/texlive/2022/texmf-dist/doc/info"
export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2022/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH

Test your installation

latex small2e

If everything is correct, do not forget to remove the installation directory.

rm -rf /tmp/texlive

Answer 2

the short solution is: this error is because your TexLive 2019 is trying to use a TexLive 2020 ftp repository. You should change to the right (correct) repository. Type this commands in a Terminal:

tlmgr repository add ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/historic/systems/texlive/2019/tlnet-final
tlmgr repository list
tlmgr repository remove http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet
tlmgr option repository ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/historic/systems/texlive/2019/tlnet-final

After that you can install the package with this command:

tlmgr --verify-repo=none install dirtree

I added the --verify-repo parameter to avoid get this error: tlmgr: unexpected return value from verify_checksum: -5 for main repository

This 2nd error is previously explained here: tlmgr: unexpected return value from verify_checksum: -5 for main repository

Answer 3

I recently have the same problem, you need to edit the path correctly by going to your .bashrc running:

gedit /home/<username>/.bashrc

and setting in the .bashrc file:

export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2020/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH
export MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/doc/man:$MANPATH
export INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/doc/info:$INFOPATH

(Maybe you need to check your installation folder for this, if it is default then you can use these code). Initially i have only this (Only for check, don´t use this):

export PATH=:$PATH/usr/local/texlive/2020/bin/x86_64-linux
export MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/doc/man
export INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2020/texmf-dist/doc/info

When you have corrected the PATH re-run the sh and you can get this:

sh update-tlmgr-latest.sh -- --upgrade
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing TeX Live Manager Updater  100%  
./runme.sh: updating in /usr/local/texlive/2020...
./runme.sh: tlmgr version says this is TeX Live 2020,
./runme.sh: and this updater script created: Wed Jun  3 00:11:12 CEST 2020.
./runme.sh: have TL 2020, new version also 2020;
./runme.sh: using --upgrade doesn't make sense; terminating.
(./runme.sh: makeself creation date = Wed Jun  3 00:11:12 CEST 2020.)

And finally update your tlmgr.

EDIT These steps don't solve the problem for install packages (at least for me). I want to give more steps for finally can install or use your tlmgr, ehwn I try to use tlmgr updated I got:

    You don't have permission to change the installation in any way,
specifically, the directory /usr/local/texlive/2020/tlpkg/ is not writable.
Please run this program as administrator, or contact your local admin.
tlmgr: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.

For solve this you need to install programs following:

sudo env PATH="$PATH" tlmgr install <package> --dry-run

Reference: Last comment in Permission problem when installing package from tlmgr

And if you need, update tlmgr using:

sudo env PATH="$PATH" tlmgr update --self

Or if you want to update all your instalation try:

sudo env PATH="$PATH" tlmgr update --self --all