Hi Manny, All the three bugs boil down to the same:
tlmgr is NOT supported if you install it via Debian. Only VERY REDUCED functionality is provided, as you found. For example, tlmgr info does not work because we don't have a tlpdb at hand. > $ tlmgr --usermode info acro > TLPDB: Cannot determine type of tlpdb from /home/blee/.local/share/texmf! > tlmgr: user mode not initialized, please read the documentation! > $ tlmgr --usermode info acro > /usr/bin/tlmgr: TLPDB::from_file could not initialize from: > https://mirror.ctan.org/systems/texlive/tlnet/tlpkg/texlive.tlpdb > /usr/bin/tlmgr: Maybe the repository setting should be changed. > /usr/bin/tlmgr: More info: https://tug.org/texlive/acquire.html > “(running on Debian, switching to user mode!)” > > I took that to mean tlmgr detected a Debian system for some reason > beyond me, and that it also switched to user mode for some other > reason beyond me. It would be more clear if it said: > “(running on Debian THUS switching to user mode!)” Yes, that is the meaning. I think this is obvious enough., > Users will still be astonished about why Debian implies that we can > only run as a user, but it would at least be clear that user mode is > an intentional consequence of being on Debian. See above. > $ torsocks tlmgr --usermode list > > tlmgr: Local TeX Live (2022) is older than remote repository (2024). > Cross release updates are only supported with > update-tlmgr-latest(.sh/.exe) --update > See https://tug.org/texlive/upgrade.html for details. You need to point it to the last available 2022 repository, see historic TL releases. > This seems to imply that users cannot list packages unless their > texlive installation is the same version as that of the remote > repository. That’s a bit drastic to simply get a list of packages and Yes. > many Debian users would not want to update the whole texlive > installation outside of the apt manager. Ideally, apt would have Don't use tlmgr on Debian if you are not happy with the insufficiences. > So the sensible approach appears to be to find a mirror that matches > the locally installed version. The PDF guide mentions this location: Yes, see above, historic https://www.tug.org/historic/ So for 2022 you can for example https://pi.kwarc.info/historic/systems/texlive/2022/tlnet-final/ > https://ctan.org/mirrors/mirmon CTAN only carries the most recent release. > That list of mirrors does not mention which texlive version is > available. It seems having a version-aligned repo is critical to using The most recent. > planned: to gracefully downgrade the acro package and pin that older > version. That doc suggests using apt, which is generally sensible but No IT CANNOT. the files are installed by root and apt. tlmgr can do this when you run upstream TeX LIve, but NOT Debian TeX Live. You cannot downgrade but downgrade to older versions of Debian / TeX Live. There is nothing to do about this, tlmgr is the configuration management system for TeX Live as it is provided by upstream. It conflicts with apt/dpkg. Trying to do a few things by setting it to user mode does not fix all the other problems. Best regards Norbert (author of tlmgr, and author of the TeX Live packaging in Debian) -- PREINING Norbert https://www.preining.info arXiv / Cornell University + IFMGA Guide + TU Wien + TeX Live GPG: 0x860CDC13 fp: F7D8 A928 26E3 16A1 9FA0 ACF0 6CAC A448 860C DC13
