On Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 6:41 PM Marcin Borkowski <mb...@mbork.pl> wrote: > > > On 2019-11-11, at 01:25, John Hendy <jw.he...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 6:01 PM Nathan Neff <nathan.n...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >> After using org-mode for 10 years, I run for the doorway when > >> I even think about trying to convert an org-mode file to PDF. > >> > >> *** I quiver when I see errors such as: > >> > >> warning: kpathsea: configuration file texmf.cnf not found in these > >> directories: > >> /usr/bin:/usr/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf/web2c:/usr:/usr/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c:/://share/texmf-local/web2c://share/texmf-dist/web2c://share/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c://texmf-dist/web2c://texmf/web2c. > >> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (TeX Live 2019/Arch Linux) > >> (preloaded format=pdflatex) > >> > >> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt > >> mktexfmt: No such file or directory > >> I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'! > > > > These look like latex errors to me, nothing to do with Org. Guessing > > These are not LaTeX errors, they are lower-level ones.
By "LaTeX" I mean "that which is necessary to have a functioning latex system." If by lower-level you mean the ecosystem itself vs. compiling errors, completely agree. Clearly some core components are missing. For example, the texmf.cnf file is provided by the arch package texlive-core (assuming a package was used), so that's potentially not even installed. - https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/texlive-core/ > > you used the arch package? I'm on arch myself, but after getting > > bitten by package mismatches and things being hopelessly broken, I > > switched to just using texlive directly: > > - https://www.tug.org/texlive/ > > > > It's not that bad. There's even a quick guide to walk you through the > > tl-install script. If you'd rather troubleshoot what you have going on > > now, here's some places to start: > > - you're missing files... figure out which package is supposed to > > provide them and install it > > He misses LaTeX format file itself, and apparently mktexfmt (which > should create it) cannot be found. This seems more serious than what > you write. I would divide "serious" into "major but simple" and "complicated." In easily 90% of cases with error output like this, it's going to be a missing package, not some intricate system glitch that requires troubleshooting. Indeed, my guess is exactly that: there are "serious" errors because nothing resembling a functioning latex system exists. The root cause is probably very simple. > > - check your paths > > Agreed, but this may be quite subtle... Again, I suspect much simpler. When using texlive directly, for example, one has to set paths correctly. This If it's looking in system paths vs. a user path (e.g. I install to ~/.texlive, not /usr) and this was not set via .bashrc, that's what I mean one should check. This presumes the expected packages are installed at all. I would start with simply: $ pacman -Q |grep tex and $ which pdflatex John > > Best, > > -- > Marcin Borkowski > http://mbork.pl
