Installing TEX Live in Ubuntu
by Kevin Godby
The TEX Live packages provided with Ubuntu (and Debian) are woefully out of date. I typically recommend installing TEX Live using the upstream packages. Here is the procedure I use to install TEX Live in Ubuntu:
- First, remove any Ubuntu TEX Live packages, if you have them installed.
$ sudo apt-get remove texlive-* - Download the TEX Live 2012 install script.
- Unpack the tarball:
$ tar xvf install-tl-unx.tar.gz - Change to the newly-unpacked directory:
$ cd install-tl-* - Run the script:
$ sudo ./install-tl - Select where you’d like to install everything, and any other options you prefer. Be sure to enable creation of the symlinks, otherwise Ubuntu won’t be able to locate the LaTEX programs:
- From the main TEX Live installation menu select Options (O).
- From the Options menu, select “create symlinks in standard directories†(L).
- The default directories are usually okay.
- Press R to return the main menu.
- Press I to start downloading and installing files.
- Install this Ubuntu .deb package. This package will convince Ubuntu that you’ve installed the texlive-* packages and will allow you you install LaTEX IDEs and other programs from the Ubuntu repositories using your new TEX Live installation.
If you have any questions about this procedure, or encounter any problems, feel free to leave a comment or email me.
Comments
Thanks Kevin! This is very helpful for me.
Thanks Kevin!
Thanks Kevin!
How can I use the KOMA scripts for my work in combination with your install procedure?
xyz@T510:~$ sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-recommended
Paketlisten werden gelesen… Fertig
Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut
Status-Informationen einlesen… Fertig
Die folgenden zusätzlichen Pakete werden installiert:
lacheck latex-beamer latex-xcolor lmodern luatex pgf prosper ps2eps tex-common texlive-base texlive-binaries texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-extra-utils texlive-font-utils texlive-generic-recommended texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc
texlive-latex-recommended-doc texlive-luatex texlive-pstricks texlive-pstricks-doc
Vorgeschlagene Pakete:
auctex perl-tk dvidvi
Die folgenden Pakete werden ENTFERNT:
texlive-local
Die folgenden NEUEN Pakete werden installiert:
lacheck latex-beamer latex-xcolor lmodern luatex pgf prosper ps2eps tex-common texlive-base texlive-binaries texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-extra-utils texlive-font-utils texlive-generic-recommended texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-base-doc
texlive-latex-recommended texlive-latex-recommended-doc texlive-luatex texlive-pstricks texlive-pstricks-doc
0 aktualisiert, 23 neu installiert, 1 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.
Es müssen 207 MB an Archiven heruntergeladen werden.
Nach dieser Operation werden 358 MB Plattenplatz zusätzlich benutzt.
Möchten Sie fortfahren [J/n]? n
And how can I uninstall all of this?
Regards from Germany!
The KOMA-script classes should be provided if you do a full TEX Live installation per my instructions. If you didn’t do a full installation, you can install the KOMA-script bundle manually:
$ sudo tlmgr install koma-scriptBy installing TEX Live using my method, you shouldn’t need any of the Ubuntu texlive packages (and therefore shouldn’t type apt-get install texlive-whatever. If a particular LaTEX package or document class is missing, you can install it using the tlmgr program.
Hi Kevin,
After point 6d should I select ‘I’ to install?
Also, I’ve downloaded the ‘Ubuntu .deb package’ but am not sure where or how to install that!
Thanks and best regards,
June.
Hello, June.
Yes, press ‘I’ after step 6d to start installing the files. I’m not sure how I missed this step, but I’ll edit the post to add that in. Thanks!
To install the .deb file, you can just double-click on it in the file browser and it will open the Software Center. You can click on the Install button there. Alternatively, you can install it from the terminal using ‘sudo dpkg -i texlive-local_2011-1~1_all.deb’.
An important note: That .deb file is for Ubuntu 12.04. The Ubuntu TEX Live packages are a bit different in Ubuntu 12.10. I will try to post an updated .deb file and append the post.
Thanks!
I’ve updated the .deb file and instructions for TEX Live 2012.