[XeTeX] Linux setup question

[Ralf Stubner]

Peter Dyballa <Peter_Dyballa at Web.DE> writes:
> Am 20.12.2006 um 15:33 schrieb Dennis Drescher:
>
>> laptop:~/work/projects/XeTeX/Samples$ xetex FontSamples.tex
>> This is XeTeX, Version 3.141592-2.2-0.995 (Web2C 7.5.5)
>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt xetex.fmt
>> mktexfmt: no info for format `xetex'.
>> I can't find the format file `xetex.fmt'!
>>
>> The xetex.fmt file exists in /usr/local/share/texmf/web2c So I'm not
>> sure what the problem is.

BTW, how did the file get there? The recommended way to create format
files is fmtutil-sys, which writes to TEXMFSYSVAR/web2c =
/var/lib/texmf/web2c. 

> You may either have some environment variables *TEX* set in you  
> shell, or you have forgotten to run texhash or maketexlsr. Did you  
> try Felix' recommendation of
>
> 	kpsewhich xetex.fmt
>
> on the command line? If this command fails, then xetex'ing a file has  
> fail also. And the reason can be one of the two choices I offered.
>
> You can run xetex in a debug mode: xetex -kpathsea-debug=<some  
> number>. This number is explained in dvips' manual page. It might  
> help to find the reason why kpathsea fails to locate the FMT file.  
> Ahmm: kpsewhich also has the option -debug=NUM ...

ACK. I addition it might be interesting to look at the search path for
format files:

kpsewhich -show-path=fmt

cheerio
ralf