[tex-live] tlmgr cannot install packages

[George N. White III]

On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 6:21 PM, Erwan Le Pennec
<lepennec at cmapx.polytechnique.fr> wrote:
>   Hello,
>
> George N. White III wrote:
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 8, 2008 at 1:23 AM, Spyros Koutsoumpos
>> <spyros.koutsoumpos at googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I installed the minimal edition of TeXLive 2008 from the net in Ubuntu
>>> 8.10.
>>> In order to complete the installation, I edited (gedit ~/.profile) and
>>> sourced (source ~/.profile) the .profile file by appending the lines
>>>
>>
>> Did run the installer as "root" or as an ordinary user?
>> Do you have Unbuntu's TeX distribution installed?
>>
>>
>>>
>>> PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-linux
>>> export PATH
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I also appended the lines
>>>
>>> export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/texlive/2008/bin/i386-linux/
>>> export TEXMFCNF=/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf/web2c/
>>>
>>> in the .bashrc file and sourced.
>>>
>>> Then, latex -v gives the expected info.
>>>
>>> I then tried to install new packages with tlmgr, after I had had
>>> installed a
>>> python package and updated tlmgr itself. The command
>>>
>>> tlmgr install mathdesign
>>>
>>> will connect to the installation location, install:mathdesign and then
>>> quit
>>> because it "can't mkdir '/usr/local/texlive/2008/temp/' permission
>>> denied".
>>>
>>> sudo tlmgr install mathdesign, or sudo -H install mathdesign,
>>>
>>> will prompt for password only to inform that tlmgr:command not found.
>>>
>>> The package manager of MikTeX in Windows Vista similarly requires
>>> elevation
>>> (administrative privileges) to start. If the same is required by tlmgr,
>>> why
>>> is it not recognized by sudo? Why would tlmgr want to download the
>>> package
>>> at a created temp directory where it has no access (me either?).
>>> I hope you could hint at a solution on this problem, as I only installed
>>> Ubuntu two days ago and my experience with it is still limited.
>>> Many thanks in advance,
>>> S.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>  Did you try to lauch the command as root
> su -
> tlmgr install mathdesign
>
>      I had a similar issue with sudo. tlmgr halts with a messsage starting
> with "Can't locate TeXLive/TLPOBJ.pm in @INC" whereas it works perfectly as
> root. My guess is that there is a path issue...

Sudo adjusts paths, so depending on your setup will probably not get the
TL bin directory.   I consider that a good thing, as TL really isn't something
that should be run by "root".  Use sudo to change ownership to a TL admin
user.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia