[tex-k] texhash under Suse Linux

[Andrew Komornicki]

I am reluctant to ask, but I at this point I am quite frustrated. 

I am not new to TeX, and not new to Unix.  However, I recently installed Suse 10 on my new laptop.  As most of you know it comes with a Tex installation.   

I happen to have a number of style files that I have written over the years. 
I placed them in a directory called   ../local  which I placed under 
latex, in the tree..     /usr/share/texmf/tex/latex 

I then ran texhash, in the hope that my files in this new tree would be found, and inserted into the ls-R database.  I have done this many times over the years, and it has always worked.  I have looked at the texmf.cnf file, and all looks well.  Maybe I am missing something ?? 
For example, I have a local set of macros in a file called poly.sty. 

    kpsewhich  poly.sty     ......could not find the file 
 
  running latex  test.tex  where I state  \usepackage{poly} 
  also does not work.  (not surprising, given what kspeshich returned ) 

  what am I doing wrong ??   this is not rocket science.  
  any and all help is much appreciated. 

regards, 
andrew