Which/How TeXLive to install?

neocortex · #1 14th February 2012, 09:06 AM

Hello!
There are mixed signals as to which (how) TeXLive to install on Fedora 16. (I am using 64-bit!) On the one hand, core repositories have quite outdated TexLive. However, there is Fedora's TexLive project (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/TeXLive). On the other hand, some people are concerned with how Fedorians handle LaTeX (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpo...99&postcount=3). They incline to recommend installation from scratch, i.e., by downloading TeXLive from official TeX site (http://tug.org/texlive/).
Please, can anyone tell us, long-time users, but less experienced under Fedora, what would be the easiest and most robust/stable approach?! It is not a problem to go for Tug, but if LaTeX can be handled too via yum, that sounds even better.

Many thanks,
PM

Adunaic · #2 14th February 2012, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neocortex

Hello!
There are mixed signals as to which (how) TeXLive to install on Fedora 16. (I am using 64-bit!) On the one hand, core repositories have quite outdated TexLive. However, there is Fedora's TexLive project (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/TeXLive). On the other hand, some people are concerned with how Fedorians handle LaTeX (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showpo...99&postcount=3). They incline to recommend installation from scratch, i.e., by downloading TeXLive from official TeX site (http://tug.org/texlive/).
Please, can anyone tell us, long-time users, but less experienced under Fedora, what would be the easiest and most robust/stable approach?! It is not a problem to go for Tug, but if LaTeX can be handled too via yum, that sounds even better.

Many thanks,
PM

No Problem. I have used both the standard TeXLive (lets call this TL) and "Fedora's TexLive project" (and lets call this FTLP. I found both great. I did run into a little problem with FTLP on Fedora 15 where I always had to exclude a minor TeXLive file from the update as its dependencies were broken.

Now I am on Fedora 16 I have only had TL installed as I have not needed any of the newer features for a long time. Bare in mind that I create documents, posters and presentations in LaTeX, and have still not found the need for a newer version.

I would not recommend doing TeXLive from source. I would try TL first and if you want to use packages that are not in it, or want to test it and file bug reports to help, then install FTLP.

neocortex · #3 14th February 2012, 09:48 AM

Many thanks for the quick reply! But, let me clarify:
TL is the one in standard Fedora repositories, not the DVD-install downloaded from Tux (http://tug.org/texlive/)?
Hence, what you suggest is to get what is Fedora-core-approved, so to say!?

Thanks again,
PM

Adunaic · #4 14th February 2012, 11:21 AM

Yes, by TL I mean the one in the normal fedora repos.

nonamedotc · #5 14th February 2012, 04:04 PM

I am also using the texlive from fedora repositories and (thankfully) have not had any problems so far. So, unless you need the newest features, texlive from the repo should work well, I believe.

***Gareth Jones*** · #6 17th February 2012, 08:07 PM

I'm using the TeXLive 2011 Fedora repos that you linked to. It works for me, but there are occasional massive updates, and occasional dependency errors which seem to take several days to be noticed and fixed.

I'd say stick with the default F16 repos unless you want the newest features, otherwise it's a question of what you can be bothered with. I've no experience with installing TeXLive directly for comparison though.

Gareth