Angus Leeming wrote:
I'm reading, but I've nothing very useful to say. Instead, let me recap:
It seems that the problems lie only with the Installer rather than with LyX
itself and the only real problem in the Installer is that running the
configure script can fail.
I think that's correct, but there's an implicit assumption there that
LyX's initial inability to run LaTeX ("initial" meaning when the
installer starts LyX), and possibly Brian Linfoot's initial problems
with instant preview, are the result of the configuration script not
running.
Uwe's installer circumvents this problem by not running configure at all.
Instead he simply adds a preferences file to the system resource
directory. If we could get the configure script to run then my approach is
preferable because the system preferences file will never be found if a
user preference file exists already.
However, we can't always get the configure script to run, for reasons
unfathomable.
I'm at a loss. Sorry. I think that the only robust solution will be to
adopt Jean-Marc's suggestion to have a preferences in the system directory
and to have lyxrc.defaults and preferences in the user directory.
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.editors.lyx.devel/50158
Assuming this includes having the installer add the path prefix settings
to the default file before installing it, I think this would work (but
then one never knows until it is battle-tested).
I have no idea how your installer is compiled (actually, I could have
ended that sentence just before "how"), but is there some sort of source
code for it available that I could poke around with? The problem with
diagnosing the source of the current difficulties is that, as an
executable binary, I can't hack it to give me hints of what it's doing.
Or do you think there's no point in probing further (i.e., you don't
plan to maintain your installer)?
Cheers,
Paul
