[XeTeX] I can't find the format file `xelatex.fmt'!

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 09.08.2007 um 20:17 schrieb maxwell:

> BTW, I installed the xetex package from the TeX Live 2007 pseudo- 
> CD, using
> setuptl/tlpm-x86_64-linux.pl, with the target dir of /usr/share.   
> There
> was already an older distro of TeX on the machine (RedHat Linux, I
> believe), in /usr/share/texmf.  Could that have interfered?  Some  
> of the
> directories under /usr/share/texmf/ seem to be a result of that  
> TeXLive
> installation (that is, they have a date of Aug 8), while the rest  
> of the
> TeXLive installation seems to have gone into /usr/share/texmf-dist/,
> /usr/share/texmf-doc/, and /usr/share/texmf-var/.  (The actual  
> xetex and
> xelatex executables are under /usr/share/bin/x86-64-linux.)

"BTW" is a joke, or isn't it? When you have two different TeX  
distributions installed (as I have also) you need to make a  
difference. It starts with the PATH setting. Create shell functions,  
RH and TL, that switch the path setting to either this or that  
(MANPATH, too, should be redirected). And obviously you need these  
means for root's and your own account. From what I cited from your  
message it looks as if you are trying to use the Red Hat binaries,  
and I presume the FMT files are in /usr/share/texmf-var/web2c – can't  
you use locate to find them? Clearly, you can't use TeX distribution  
A's programmes with TeX distribution B. The programmes from A read  
configuration from A and work in A, and accordingly B stays with and  
in B.

Now it's up to you to find out which TeX distribution fails to create/ 
provide the XeLaTeX format file. Is it *a* system wide version or *a*  
personal one? The system wide FMT files are together in one directory  
in case of a teTeX like distribution or in a set of directories  
(aleph, omega, pdftex, tex, xetex) in /usr/local/texlive/<year>/texmf- 
var/web2c when using the TeX Live setup, which no-one needs to use  
since TeX learns where to find its particles from configuration  
files, texmf.cnf. In /usr/local/texlive/<year>/texmf-doc/doc/english/ 
texlive-en you can find documentation about TeX Live, in similiar  
place you should be able to find a documentation about the Red Hat  
TeX installation.

So please do your home work and set up correctly your and root's  
working environments. This is essential. It must be each either Red  
Hat TeX or TeX Live TeX based. Then decide whether and what of any  
personal (yours and root's) extensions to the system's TeX  
installations are needed. Renaming a close to top level directory in  
these personal areas makes them not existing for any TeX. And if you  
haven't installed or enabled a locate version or package, do it now!  
It makes computer life easy. And leaving away personal extensions  
(private FMT and MAP files particularly) can make it fun. Do you  
remember the Kinks' song about a dandy, particularly the refrain?

--
Greetings

   Pete

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.