Installing TeX Live 2013 on Linux

Question

I have installed TeX Live 2013 full install on a Linux Mint installation (so it is Ubuntu, basically).

Now, I cannot use beamer or most packages, because all my editors like Gummi seek the 2012 path.

On Windows I use TeX Live 2013 with Texworks without issue.

What is the correct way step by step to get a working TeX Live 2013 installation on Linux?

What I have done (perhaps it is wrong, yes?):

1. Insert DVD

2. Open DVD folder in terminal

3. sudo ./install-tl

4. Enter password

5. I

6. Enter

[it installs]

But I cannot use most packages and cannot install Gedit LaTeX plugin because it says I have broken packages. Synaptic package manager says I have TeX Live 2012 installed, which is wrong.

EDIT: after trying various things, I am not sure how to proceed. Did I need to set different install directories (different from default) when installing? If so, I do not know how to change my TeX editor to look for everything in those directories. (I am not a master in Linux Mint.)

What worked for people here, if they have TeXLive2013 on linux?

If there is an easier way to with certainty get TexLive2013 working with correct install method with Gummi or gedit TeX plugin as editor, how can I unfully install my current TeXlive2013 so I can reinstall it correctly?

Answer 1

In your home directory, look in the (hidden) files .bashrc and .bash_profile for lines that include your texlive 2012 path and remove the path. Then add these lines to your .bashrc:

export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH
export MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf/doc/man:$MANPATH
export INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf/doc/info:$INFOPATH

(If you installed texlive somewhere else, or aren't using x86_64, change the paths to point to the correct install directory)

EDIT: I seem to have misunderstood the original question. The above will make sure you're pointing to the correct version of TeXLive (sounds like you might have some 2012 packages installed via your package manager as well). If you want to use a TL installation from a DVD, but packages from your package manager (I don't recommend it, but that sounds like it's what you want to do), you can try creating a dummy TL package so that your package manager will think TL Is installed from it and the dependency chain can be resolved.

Something like the following (from the Tug package on Debian) should do the trick:

1. Install vanilla TeX Live as root, system-wide.
2. Ensure that the only Debian TeX Live packages installed are tex-common, texinfo, and perhaps lmodern
3. Add TeX Live's bin directory to ENV_PATH in /etc/login.defs. [basically what I said above, except that I assume that you might want a different version of TeXLive for different people, hence the use of bashrc).

4. Tell APT about your TeX Live installation by building a dummy package using equivs:

   • $ aptitude install equivs # as root
   • mkdir /tmp/tl-equivs && cd /tmp/tl-equivs
   • equivs-control texlive-local

   • edit texlive-local (see below)

   • $ equivs-build texlive-local
   • $ sudo dpkg -i texlive-local_2011-1_all.deb

At the step "edit texlive-local", edit the Maintainer field and the list of the packages provided by your local TeX Live installation as appropriate. If you installed scheme-full except collection-texinfo as recommended, the file should look like this example.

For more information, see this question.

Answer 2

You have to set up equivs such that dpkg knows that the relevant packages are installed. Try running apt-get install texlive-full (don't actually go through with the install, obviously) and see what apt-get says is needed.

Then you need to manually edit your system $PATH and $MANPATH. I'd do that by editing /etc/environment and rebooting.