[tex-live] fmtutil-sys --byfmt pdflatex >> No formats found

[niels seidel]

Hello,

after purging and reinstalling texlive I am not able to process simple 
.tex files.


$ pdflatex doc
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.16 (TeX Live 2015/Debian) 
(preloaded format=pdflatex)
  restricted \write18 enabled.

kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt
mktexfmt [WARNING]: resetting $HOME value (was /home/abb) to root's 
actual home (/root).
mktexfmt: mktexfmt is using the following fmtutil.cnf files (in 
precedence order):
mktexfmt:   /etc/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
mktexfmt:   /usr/share/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
mktexfmt:   /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
mktexfmt: mktexfmt is using the following fmtutil.cnf file for writing 
changes:
mktexfmt:   /root/.texmf-config/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
mktexfmt [INFO]: writing formats under /root/.texmf-var/web2c
mktexfmt [INFO]: did not find entry for byfmt=pdflatex, skipped
mktexfmt [INFO]: Total formats: 0
mktexfmt [INFO]: exiting with status 0
I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!


---------------
Obviously there is a format file missing. I tried to re-create it, but 
without success:

$ sudo fmtutil-sys --byfmt pdflatex
fmtutil [WARNING]: resetting $HOME value (was /home/abb) to root's 
actual home (/root).
fmtutil: fmtutil is using the following fmtutil.cnf files (in precedence 
order):
fmtutil:   /etc/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
fmtutil:   /usr/share/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
fmtutil:   /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
fmtutil: fmtutil is using the following fmtutil.cnf file for writing 
changes:
fmtutil:   /etc/texmf/web2c/fmtutil.cnf
fmtutil [INFO]: writing formats under /var/lib/texmf/web2c
fmtutil [INFO]: did not find entry for byfmt=pdflatex, skipped
fmtutil [INFO]: Total formats: 0
fmtutil [INFO]: exiting with status 0

----------------
$texlivehome is correctly pointing to ~/texmf
----------------

Any idea how to solve this?

Thank you!