Hello John, a major suggestion,
The problem with installing LyX may be a conflicting old *TeX.
I actually wrote this as a solution if you have R For Windows
installed which I think comes with RWinEdt. I'm speculating, so
if you don't, no need to read this. It is also somewhat of a summary.
I think that slighty older versions of R-Windows came with fpTeX.
And I noticed an R Folder under RWinEdt, and since you wrote:
"I have checked and could not find any rogue Latex.exe files
and I have hunted down and exterminated the localtexmf and
texmf and the only texmf which was in my R folder. I simply
removed R for the moment. :)" [So I'm taking a chance for a fix.]
OTOH, if this post does not apply, I have not seen this topic
reported upon in this forum and a possible fix, so it may have
value by its addition to the mailing archives. Sent only to Lyx-users.
SH: This result came from Miktex Options, Update
Refresh ran okay
Update bombed
Cannot create the pdf latex format file
Cannot create the plain TeX format file
Cannot create the latex2e format file
Cannot create the plain pdf format file.
SH: My working version of Miktex/Lyx has
the following non-excluded TeX Formats
pdfLaTeX
plain TeX
LaTeX2e (latex)
pdfTeX
SH: In the olden day I think they used c:\> initexmf --dump[=program]
For example: initexmf --dump=tex
latex This creates the dump file latex.fmt which is used by latex.exe.
tex This creates the dump file plain.fmt which is used by tex.exe.
pdflatex This creates the dump file pdflatex.fmt which is used by
pdflatex.exe.
pdftex This creates the dump file pdftex.fmt which is used by pdftex.exe.
This suggests the following explanation applies:
http://www.murdoch-sutherland.com/Rtools/miktex.html
"e-TeX compatibility mode
To force MiKTeX to use e-TeX in compatibility mode, follow these steps:
1. Run the MiKTeX options program, choose the TeX formats page, and
then for each program that you want in compatibility mode (e.g. latex,
pdflatex, etc.) do the following:
2. Click on the Edit button,
3. Choose "e-TeX compatibility mode" as the compiler,
4. Click Apply,
5. Click Build"
SH: I notice that a contributed package for R-Windows is RWinEdt.
I can run LyX, another TeX front-end and WinEdt, with MikTeX 2.4
(fpTex has bin-pdftex-1.20b-win32-static.zip 2005-01-16 9468 Kbyte
and RWinEdt also contains a file RW-LaTeX.png and latex directory.)
fpTex comes with the pdfTeX module. Another troubleshooter stated:
"I'm bothered by the fact that the output from your format
refresh seems to be running pdfetex rather than etex, but I
don't know if I should be."
SH: I'm a bit dubious that LyX is modular enough to fill in for
RWinEdt? But could RWinEdt still work with RWindows and
LyX serve for other publishing tasks? Is solution #4 needed?
"For one or two versions, MiKTeX has been ignoring the
TEXINPUTS environment variable that most other TeX
distributions use to indicate additions to the search path.
The R make process uses TEXINPUTS to add
$RHOME/share/texmf to the search path, so that
the Rd.sty style file will be found.
Instead of using TEXINPUTS, MiKTeX uses the command line option
"-include-directory=foo", to prepend foo to the search path.
There are four workarounds to this.
Workaround 4: Install the R style files into MikTeX. Remember to
re-install updates when you upgrade R! Instructions for this were
written by Gabor Grothendieck [a name of categorical Universe fame]:
1. Create a new tex subfolder of your \localtexmf folder:
md \localtexmf\tex
2. Copy your R .sty and .fd files into it:
cd \Program Files\R\rw2001\share\texmf
copy *.* \localtexmf\tex
3. Go into
Start | Programs | MiKTeX | MiKTeX Options | General
and press Update Now and Refresh Now. (I am not certain that this step
needs to be done but it can't hurt.)
4. You can check whether it is finding Rd.sty in the right place with
the command:
findtexmf Rd.sty
#2 - #4 need to be repeated each time one installs a new version of R
if the *.sty or *.fd files have changed but if they have not changed
then nothing at all needs to be done. It has the advantage that it
leaves all MiKTeX options at their defaults and does not need a custom
miktex.ini file.
[Added in February, 2005]:
The most recent version of pdftex no longer supports TEXINPUTS,
even with the old *pdftex* engine, so Workaround 1 no longer works."
SH: I included this #4 step so you wouldn't have to look it up and
I'm going to send a copy. Should e-compatibility mode be used and
also Step #4? Can Lyx serve as a front-end for RWindows; can both
RWinEdt and Lyx be used at the same time if LyX can't do RWindows?
I think they probably can. pdfTeX seems to be a player in the drama.
I think it is a good idea to run both Miktex Options, Refresh & Update
after running etex compatibility mode first, and also after running step 4.
To leave no stone unturned run LyX --> Reconfigure also at the very end.
I think maybe that CreateRegistryPath patch for RWinEdt won't interfere.
Best regards,
Stephen
