[XeTeX] Can't find xetex.xfmt...

[Jonathan Kew]

On 26 Jan 2005, at 1:57 pm, cormullion wrote:

> I’ve been following the instructions for installing Xetex on the web 
> site. I’ve downloaded Core TEX, XeTex, and TexShop. This is my first 
> error message when I click the Typeset button in TexShop. I’d be very 
> grateful if someone could suggest a few diagnostic tactics...
>
>> This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159-2.1-0.88 (Web2C 7.5.2)
>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt xetex.xfmt
>> fmtutil: no info for format `xetex'.
>> I can't find the format file `xetex.xfmt'!
>
> thanks
>

I'd recommend installing TeX via Gerben's i-Installer, before adding 
XeTeX to the setup; that's probably the most widely-used approach. The 
"core TeX files" package on the XeTeX site is extremely limited 
(doesn't include things like LaTeX), and hasn't been looked at in a 
long time; I should probably just remove it, and *require* people to 
have a full TeX installation as a starting point.

Having said that, the error you're seeing means that the format file 
didn't get built and installed during the installation process, as it 
should. The Log window in the installer might give some indication what 
is going wrong. But I'd recommend reinstalling TeX first, from Gerben's 
package.

Hope this helps,

JK