[texworks] Texworks, Ubuntu, TeXlive: Process crash

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi Robert,

On 29.03.2015 12:35, Robert Hueckstedt wrote:
> TeXworkers:
> I have recently set up Ubuntu 14.04 on a relatively new HP laptop. I
> have been using TexWorks with MikTex on Windows for years, happily. With
> TeXWorks on this HP I had TeXLive installed and TeXWorks Help. When I
> try to compile a file that has compiled quite easily in the
> Windows/MikTeX world, here in Ubuntu I get a process crash notice.

Is it TeXworks that crashes, or XeLaTeX?
Also, does running XeLaTeX work fine with your document when run from
the command line?
And where did you install TeX and TeXworks from? Both from the normal
package manager?

> It
> seemed to me to be unable to find the basic book class file, bk12.clo, I
> believe, I was using, so I made sure to put these folders in the path:
>
> /usr/share
> /usr/share/tex-common
> /usr/share/texlive
> /usr/share/texmf
> /usr/share/texworks-help

I assume you installed TeXLive from the package manager. Then I think
you need not add anything to your PATH environment variable. As the
programs (including XeLaTeX) are presumably installed in /usr/bin, they
should also be picked up by Tw automatically.
That said, finding packages is a rather different matter. It is done
internally by TeX using kpsewhich and related programs. AFAIK, they
don't look through the PATH, but rather have their own list of installed
files. But all that is happening outside of Tw.

> I suspect all that was unnecessary, but /usr/share seemed to be where
> TeXLive was looking for the ,clo file, and /usr/share was not in the
> list of folders in the path. I rebooted, but I still got the process
> crash note right near the beginning of typesetting. I am using XeLaTeX.

I agree, adding all those directories to PATH should not be necessary as
outlined above.

> One way or another, TeXWorks seems not to be communicating with TeXLive
> here in Ubuntu 14.04.

It has worked for me out of the box so far, so I'm a bit puzzled.
Anyway, there is really not that much to communicate between Tw and
TeXLive, other than starting XeLaTeX. All the rest should be done by
TeXLive. The good thing about this is that hopefully it will make the
issue fairly quick to look into :).

HTH
Stefan