[OS X TeX] Can't find required tool

[Richard J Benish]

>  > On Aug 30, 2016, at 9:57 PM, Richard J Benish <rjbenish at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>>  Greetings,
>>
>>  On a G5 with Mac OS 10.4.11, I've been using TeXShop v 2.33 for 
>>years. Without consciously having changed anything to affect the 
>>program, suddenly, when I hit the typeset button I get the error 
>>message:
>>
>>
>>  "Can't find required tool.
>>
>>  "/usr/texbin/pdflatex does not exist. Perhaps TeXLive was not 
>>installed or was removed during a system upgrade. If so, go to the 
>>TeXShop web site and follow the instructions to (re)install 
>>TeXLive. Another possibility is that a tool path is incorrectly 
>>configured in TeXShop preferences. This can happen if you are using 
>>the fink teTeX distribution."
>>
>>
>>  I've tried restarting, correcting permissions, and reinstalling. 
>>After failing to find an old install version on the web, I tried 
>>installing from a locally saved copy of:
>>
>>  MacTeX-2011.mpkg
>>
>>  This resulted in a grayed out list of components which, when I 
>>clicked on INSTALL, resulted in an error saying "There is nothing 
>>to Install." Could that be because the non-functioning version 
>>needs to be uninstalled first? If so I hesitate to do so before 
>>getting confirmation.
>>
>>  I've haven't found anything on the web to get me back to a 
>>properly functioning application.
>>
>>  Any ideas?
>>
>>  Thanks.
>>
>>  Richard Benish
>
>Howdy,
>
>First... are you sure your not having Hard Disk problems?
>
>In Terminal please run the five commands
>
>which pdflatex
>
>ls -alF /
>
>ls -alF /usr
>
>ls -alF /usr/local
>
>ls -alF /usr/local/texlive
>
>and let us know the results.
>
>Good Luck,
>
>Herb Schulz
>(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)


Thanks Herb,

I've attached the Terminal session with the five questions and 
answers in the order that you gave them.

The last one says

"ls: /usr/local/texlive: No such file or directory"

If the file is supposed to be findable, I have no idea how it got lost.

I ran a MacOS hard drive diagnostic and passed. I've not had any 
problems with the drive. It is less than a year old.

It's been a few weeks since I used LaTeX, but at that time, 
everything worked fine--as it has for years. It would be nice to have 
all new(er) stuff. My motorized transport just turned 50. It's got a 
Slant-6. :) I really like my G5 and OS 10.4.11. And I'm broke.

Thank you very much for your help and your patience.

Rick Benish
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