[OS X TeX] Warning. Mac Intel and 10.4.4 and up: TeX i-Package hanging

[Gary L. Gray]

On Mar 3, 2006, at 6:18 AM, Gerben Wierda wrote:

> It is a known problem that the TeX i-Package hangs on Mac Intel  
> somewhere during configuration. My only guess at this time is that  
> it is triggered in Mac OS X 10.4.4 and up (10.4.3 never had this  
> problem when I was using it) when there is a lot of subprocess output.
>
> Mac OS X on ppc is not affected because i-Installer PPC is linked  
> against Panther.
>
> A possible workaround is to install the Basic install only. I have  
> no guarantees that this works, but at the moment it is my only  
> guess. Later one could add other parts in Expert mode. Another  
> solution is to install on a ppc machine and copy /usr/local/teTeX  
> over to the intel machine.
>
> There is currently not much I can do about this. The problem occurs  
> in a place where I do not have access with debugging tools. If this  
> is an Apple problem or some fault in i-Installer is also not known  
> at this stage. I have sollicited Apple's help in tracking down this  
> problem, and Apple has just assigned me an engineer. Hence, for all  
> you lucky MacBook Pro and iMac 2006 owners, you need to sit this  
> one out because I cannot give an estimate of any solution.

To all,

I have been corresponding with Gerben about this issue (my MacBook  
Pro arrived on Wednesday and, of course, TeX was a priority). I was  
never able to get a successful install using the i-Installer and an  
"Expert" or "Full" install. What did work, based on a suggestion from  
Dick Koch, was to download the MacTeX package from CTAN, install  
that, remove unwanted components (for me, that meant CM-Super, CB  
Greek, MusixTeX, ConTeXt updated, and XeTeX -- this removed about  
100MB) using the i-Installer, and then use the i-Installer to just  
*configure* the TeX installation. This worked rather well.

I hope this helps those of you lucky enough to get one of these new  
screamers.

-- Gary
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