Paul A. Rubin wrote:
Sorry, my wording was fuzzy. I don't have a working Linux box handy
these days, but I assume that LyX runs with the permissions of whatever
user is logged in. So if you can run latex directly, presumably when
you run the LyX configure script it has the same permissions.
Actually the other way round: RPMs *have* to be installed as root, and
the configure script is built into the RPM, so it automatically executes
*as root* immediately after unpacking LyX...the user doesn't enter into
this at all.
If you're motivated, you could hack the configure script to add a couple
I don't have access to configure scripts embedded in RPMs unless I go
get the Source RPM, and life's too short to dig into those.
of echo commands that might tell you at least where things are going
south. If I'm reading the configure script correctly, the quest for a
working copy of LaTeX is done in two parts. First, every directory on
the path is scanned for either 'latex' or 'latex2e'. (More precisely,
the path is scanned for 'latex', then if necessary for 'latex2e'.) If a
This is madness. All it has to do is a `which kpsewhich` to find out if
a local installation of TeX exists or not. *Then* it can test the
version of LaTeX identified, and see if it works, and only go hunting
for latex binaries as a last resort.
file with the correct name is found, LyX then tries to run it against a
test .ltx file to determine if it's a working version of LaTeX. So it
might be helpful to echo each directory being searched.
By the way, IIRC there have been misadventures in the past caused by
people having a both functional and dysfunctional LaTeX installations,
with the dysfunctional one first on the path.
Absolutely. Some people have truly the weirdest stuff on their systems.
But it's a better plan to search for a working version first, and only
go looking for a better one if the first one turns out to be a lemon.
If I'm reading the script
correctly (and that's a big "if", since I'm not a Linux user), once it
finds a 'latex' file, it stops searching for other 'latex' files even if
the one it finds doesn't pass the functionality test. Might be worth
checking.
Searching for "latex" is a poor route to take, and should be used only
as a last resort. kpsewhich is the key to identifying a working TeX
installation.
Thanks for all your help...it's working, and all I wanted to do was
screenshot it and document the installation process for my readers,
which I'm now able to do :-) Now all I have left to do is find a willing
vict^H^H^H^Hsucke^H^H^H^H^Hvolunteer to do the same for Windows and Mac.
///Peter
