Installing TEX Live 2015 on

PCLinuxOS via ISO Image

By kalwisti
Updated 3 Feb. 2016

Contents
1 Why Install TEX Live 2015 instead of TL 2011?

2 Overview of the Process

3 Pre-Installation
3.1 Mount the ISO Image on the Temporary Mount Point . . . . .

3
4

4 Installation Proper
4.1 Using the Installers Text Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4.2 Duration of Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4
5
6

5 Finishing the Installation

6 Post-Installation Configuration
6.1 Setting the PATH Variable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6.2 Font Configuration for XeTeX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6
6
7

7 Testing the Installation

8 Deleting the TL ISO Image

9 Additional Goodies to Install

9
A
9.1 LTEX Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
9.2 Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

10 Acknowledgments

10
Abstract

These are notes I made during my installation of TEX Live (hereafter abbreviated TL), using a TL .iso file downloaded from a CTAN
mirror on the Internet. I successfully installed TL 2015 on PCLinuxOSs
64-bit MATE Edition.
This method uses an ISO file which you download to your /home
folder, and will then install directlywithout the need for burning it
to a DVD. Installing from an ISO disk image is more environmentally
friendly than using a one-off optical disc.
The instructions are not 100% complete, so I recommend that, in
case of doubt, you read the TL documentation available on TUGs website in conjunction with this document.
Disclaimer: Although this procedure may contain a few errors or inaccuracies, it worked for me and I hope it will work for you, too. I do
not believe this installation method will break your system, as the TL
installer adopts a distro-neutral, plain vanilla approach. I have used
this approach for the past few years on my PCLinuxOS systems and
it has never caused any problems / conflicts.1 However, please understand that this how-to is presented as is with absolutely no guarantees.

Why Install TEX Live 2015 instead of TL 2011?

If you want a more current TEX installation than TL 2011,2 with a comprehensive collection of add-on packages, and have approximately 2.9 GB of
free hard disk space, it is worth the extra effort to install TL.

Overview of the Process

In a nutshell, what you will do is to run the built-in install script from the
TL ISO and then modify your PATH to make the TL binaries available to your
user account.
The general steps are as follows:
Download a TL .iso image. Verify its md5sum and sha256sum to ensure
that the download is not corrupted.
1

I am fully aware of the PCLinuxOS developers warning to not install software from
outside the official repositories. This is the sole instance in which I disobey that warning.
2
TL 2011 appears to be the version currently available in the PCLinuxOS repositories.

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

Note: The ISO is a very large file2.9 GB in sizeso be prepared that
the download will take a while if you have a non-broadband Internet
connection.
Save the file to an appropriate location in your /home directory. (In
my case, I created a folder named TeX Live 2015 and saved it there).
Remove TL 2011 packages, if you have them installed.
Follow the instructions as outlined below to install TL and then do
post-installation configuration and testing. The commands you need
to type are highlighted in magenta for greater visibility.3

Pre-Installation
First, you need to clean up any existing TEX installations. If you previously installed any TL 2011 packages, completely remove them with
the Synaptic Package Manager.
Create a temporary mount point for the TL ISO disk image.
Open up a Terminal / Konsole within your regular user account, issue
the command su - and type roots password to acquire root user
privileges.4
# mkdir /mnt/iso
N.B.: That pound sign5 (#) as the command prompt is your verification that you are logged in as the root user.
It helps to visualize the mount point as a clothes hanger, and the file
(our ISO file) as the clothesif you need to hang up your clothes, you
need a hanger.6
3

Thanks to the capabilities of LATEXs add-on color package.

N.B. thats a hyphen used as the command argument. If you want to become the root
user, and use its environment variables, you must type su As a comparison, if you just issue the command su (without a hyphen), you will become
root but your non-root ( /home) environment variables will remain in place.
5
Also known as the number sign, hash mark and octothorpe, depending on which
part of the world you live in.
6
Thanks to user HacK MiNDeD for this analogy. For more information, see his article
How to Mount ISOs on Linux Using Terminal. 6 Apr. 2011.
4

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

3.1

Mount the ISO Image on the Temporary Mount Point

Now you can follow these steps:

Navigate to the directory where your TL ISO file is located, for example:
# cd /home/david/"TeX Live 2015"
Note: You need to surround the directory name with quotation marks
in order to let the bash shell know that the interword spaces are part
of the directory name.
Point to the ISO image and tell Linux to mount it on our newly created
mount point:
# mount -o loop texlive2015-20150523.iso /mnt/iso
A gloss of this command is:
mount [option flag]7 [set up loop device]8 [source]9 [target
directory]10
loop: A loop device is a pseudo-device that makes a file accessible as a
block device. Loop devices are often used for CD ISO images. Mounting
a file containing a filesystem via such a loop mount makes the files within
that filesystem accessible. You will not be able to mount the ISO without the
loop function.
These preliminary steps will allow us to run the TL install script shortly.

Installation Proper

In general, we will use the Quick Install instructions from TUGs website as
a guideline:
https://www.tug.org/texlive/quickinstall.html
TEX Live Quick Install.
The full-length guide (for TEX Live 2015) can be read here:
https://www.tug.org/texlive/doc/texlive-en/texlive-en.html
Berry, Karl, ed. The TEX Live Guide 2015. May 2015.
7

-o
loop
9
Your TL .iso file.
10
The temporary mount point we just created.
8

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

All commands below were issued by / (root) rather than a normal user.
Follow these steps:
Navigate to your newly created directory / mount point:
# cd /mnt/iso
Issue the ls (list) command to show you the directorys contents:
root@darkstar:~# ls
autorun.inf
install-tl.bat
README.usergroups
tlpkg
bin
LICENSE.CTAN release-texlive.txt tl-portable
doc.html
LICENSE.TL
rr_moved
tl-portable.bat
index.html
README
source
install-tl
readme-html.dir texmf
install-tl-advanced.bat readme-txt.dir
texmf-dist

4.1

Using the Installers Text Mode

We will use the Installers text mode to install TL 2015.

Now you are ready to run the installer script (install-tl). Type
./install-tl
(Do not forget the initial period (.) before the forward slash).
From the text menu, select the o command to change the default paper
size, if desired. I changed the paper size from A4 to Letter. (Letter size
is used in the US, Canada and Mexico. A4 is commonly used in Europe
and in most locations outside North America). I accepted all the other
defaults offered by the TL installer.
If you wish to bypass the need for manually changing the PATH, as discussed in Section 6.1, you have the option here of selecting Create
symlinks in system directories. I have never tried this option
myself, but two members of the LATEX Community Forum noted that
it works and that it will auto-configure your PATH.11
Type the letter i (for i(nstall)) to begin the installation.
11

I would like to thank members frabjous and sommerfee for clarifying this.

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

4.2

Duration of Installation

Installation time was approximately 67 minutes on my desktop PC.12

The script will install 3056 packages in alphabetical order, beginning
with 12many and 2up, and ending with zxjafont and zxjatype.

Finishing the Installation

After the install script finishes, you should now unmount the ISO file:
# cd
# umount /mnt/iso
The first cd command exits the directory where you have been working.
N.B.: The command is umount (unmount without the first letter n).
Next, remove the directory you created at the beginning of the installation process.
# rmdir /mnt/iso
Be careful to not delete the /mnt directory, as it is one of Linuxs standard
subdirectories.

Post-Installation Configuration

6.1

Setting the PATH Variable

When installation is complete, you must add the TEX Live binary directory to
your PATH, if you did not select the option to Create symlinks in system
directories when you began the installation process. (See Subsection 4.1
for details).
From within your regular user account, use your favorite text editor
(e.g., Geany, nano, vi, Emacs) and open your .bash profile file.
Paste these three lines into it, and save the file:
PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2015/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH; export PATH
MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/doc/man:$MANPATH; export MANPATH
INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/doc/info:$INFOPATH; export INFOPATH
12

AMD Athlon II X2 240 (Regor), 2.8 GHz, with 4 GB RAM.

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

N.B.: Place this stanza above .bash profile s final two lines (beginning export PATH ) . . .
Note: For 32-bit systems, you should paste the following three lines:
PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2015/bin/i386-linux:$PATH; export PATH
MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/doc/man:$MANPATH; export MANPATH
INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/doc/info:$INFOPATH; export INFOPATH
A change in the PATH variable does not take effect immediately, so log
out of your account, completely reboot your system and log back in.
Finally, issue the texhash command by including its full path name:
# usr/local/texlive/2015/bin/x86 64-linux/texhash
david[~]$ su
Password:
root@darkstar:~# usr/local/texlive/2015/bin/x86_64-linux/texhash
texhash: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2015/../texmf-local/ls-R...
texhash: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf/ls-R...
texhash: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-config/ls-R...
texhash: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/ls-R...
texhash: Updating /usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-var/ls-R...
texhash: Done.
Note: For 32-bit systems, you should use the following command:
# /usr/local/texlive/2015/bin/i386-linux/texhash
Check your PATH to verify that it now includes the TL binaries:
[david@localhost ~]$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/texlive/2015/bin/x86_64-linux:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:
/usr/games:/usr/lib64/qt4/bin:/home/david/bin

6.2

Font Configuration for XeTeX

When tested according to the TL Web documentation, I got an error message

saying Invalid fontname Latin Modern Roman/ICU ... So I
needed to configure my system so that XeTeX could find the fonts shipped
with TEX Live.
7

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

This is accomplished by configuring the texlive-fontconfig.conf file.
In TL 2015, this file resides within the directory:
/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-var/fonts/conf/
As root user, you will be copying this file to the /etc/fonts/conf.d/
directory and simultaneously renaming the file 15-texlive.conf.
root@darkstar: # cd /usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-var/fonts/conf/
root@darkstar: # ls
conf texlive-fontconfig.conf
root@darkstar: # cp texlive-fontconfig.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/15-texlive.conf
Next, you must run the fc-cache -fv command:
root@darkstar: # fc-cache -fv
After a few minutes (please wait patiently), it returns the following results:

/usr/share/fonts: caching, 0 fonts, 6 dirs

/usr/share/fonts/bitmap-fonts: caching, 31 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/bitstream-vera: caching, 10 fonts, 0 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/default: caching, 0 fonts, 2 dirs
/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1: caching, 35 fonts, 0 dirs
[... output truncated ...]
/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/wadalab/mrj: caching, 34 fonts, 0 dirs
/var/cache/fontconfig: cleaning cache directory
/root/.fontconfig: not cleaning unwritable cache directory
fc-cache: succeeded
If we test the XeTeX font configuration now (from our regular user account), it should pass and produce a PDF file:
[david@localhost ~]$ xetex opentype-info.tex
This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.99992 (TeX Live 2015)
(preloaded format=xetex)
restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(/usr/local/texlive/2015/texmf-dist/tex/xetex/xetexfontinfo/opentype-info.tex
[1] [2] )
Output written on opentype-info.pdf (2 pages).
Transcript written on opentype-info.log.

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

Testing the Installation

All the tests suggested in the TL online guide passed. Some sample tests are:
$
$
$
$
$
$
$

tex --version
latex sample2e.tex
xdvi sample2e.dvi
pdflatex sample2e.tex
evince sample2e.pdf (or),
okular sample2e.pdf (or),
atril sample2e.pdf

Note: TL 2015 installs the xdvi viewer as part of its default routine.13
Apparently, Evince and Atril require a plug-in to display DVI files. I received
an error message when I tried opening a DVI with Evince.14

Deleting the TL ISO Image

Once you have verified that the base TL system is working properly, to save
disk space you will probably want to delete the ISO file:
$ rm -Rf "TeX Live 2015"

Additional Goodies to Install

You might consider installing these programs / packages to have a more

pleasant experience using TEX and its friends.

9.1

LATEX Editors

Texmaker, Kile and TeXstudio pull in unwanted dependencies from the TL

2011 packages which are in the PCLinuxOS repositories. This somewhat
limits our choice of editors; however, there are still two worthy candidates:
TeXworks A TEX editor with a user-friendly GUI, modeled on Dick Kochs
TeXShop for Mac OS X.
13

The xdvi binary is located in /usr/local/texlive/2015/bin/x86 64-linux/.

Unable to open document. File type TeX DVI document (application/x-dvi) is not supported.
14

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

Geany Although it lacks some of the bells and whistles of Texmaker, it is
quite capable and has a LATEX plugin available (by installing the package geany-plugins).15

9.2

Fonts

Fonts are a subjective area, but Ive found that installing some different fonts
can spice up your typographic life.
fonts-ttf-Gentium An attractive, open-source serif typeface designed by Victor Gaultney. Works well with documents in XeTeX (or LibreOffice).
fonts-ttf-libertine Another nice open-source serif typeface, designed by Philipp
Poll as an alternative to Times Roman.
SIL fonts SIL International has three nice fonts which, although they are
not in the PCLinuxOS repositories, are freely downloadable: Charis
SIL (similar to Bitstream Charter),16 Doulos SIL (very similar to Times / Times
New Roman)17 and Andika (a sans serif font designed especially for
literacy use).18
fonts-otf-inconsolata Inconsolata is a monospaced, sans serif font designed
by Raph Levien. It is especially good for displaying computer code listings.
Manually installing the SIL fonts is simple using the font manager of
PCLinuxOS Control Center:
PCLOS Control Center > System > Manage, add and remove fonts

10

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Texstar (aka Bill Reynolds) for crafting a safe, secure
distribution and making it available to desktop Linux users. His commitment
and hard work are admirable; PCLinuxOS recently celebrated its twelfth
anniversary (in October 2015). Kudos also to the other members of PCLOSs
development and packaging team.
15

You must also install xterm to get Geanys preview feature working correctly.
software.sil.org/charis/download
17
software.sil.org/doulos/download
18
software.sil.org/andika/download
16

10

Installing TEX Live 2015 on PCLinuxOS

I hope this compilation will be helpful for anyone considering installing
TL 2015 on their system.
Good Luck and Happy TEXing!

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