TeX Live and MacTeX ⇒ Problem Installing TeX Live 2018

[ck2018]

I'm trying to install Tex Live 2018 from the DVD. I downloaded the ISO, installed Perl/Tk in the Software Center, mounted the ISO with Disc Image Mounter and ran install.tl in the terminal, choosing <I>. The instructions

http://www.tug.org/texlive/quickinstall.html

say to "add the directory of TeX Live binaries to your PATH", but I don't what "my" PATH is supposed to mean. I tried reinstalling the GUIs Texmaker and TeXworks, but at least one of them seems to have come with a version of TeX Live. (I had tried to remove previous versions before installing 2018. I don't know how to install these GUIs without installing the version of TeX that comes with them...)

When I run

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tex --version

the result is

This is XeTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-0.99998 (TeX Live 2017/Debian) (preloaded format=xelatex)
restricted \write18 enabled.

.

When I type the code from the instructions

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PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2018/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH

the result is the 2018 version, so I suppose that I'm lucky and that the file-path to my install of Tex Live is the default one. But when I shut down the terminal and restart it, it the 2017 version is returned once again, so this path appears not to have been saved permanently. I've been googling what to do for hours, but none of the results makes sense to someone like me who is new to GNU+Linux and has never done this before (and does not understand why the installer can't take care of this).

What I want to achieve is this:

• Have Texmaker and TeXworks use the latest version.
• Remove old versions of TeX Live, at least one of which is apparently installed somewhere: I've no idea where.
• Have "tex -- version" return the 2018 version.

Any help would be appreciated!

Linux Mint Tara 64-bit

[mas]

Installing texmaker has pulled in the texlive packages from the debian repository, which in your case seems to be 2017 version.

On my debian system, the texlive* packages are marked as recommended, not as a dependency. So, you can remove all texlive* packages installed.

After that, you can tell texmaker to use the 2018 repository.

[ck2018]

But how do I remove the 2017 stuff without removing the 2018 repository? And I still don't understand how to set the path.

[mas]

Removing TL2017 that was installed via your system's package manager will not remove TL2018 installed independently. Go ahead and remove the packages using the software manager / package manager.

I suggest you first go through Mint intro docs to familiarise yourself with the system.

[ck2018]

I've removed Texworks and Tekmaker using the Software Center; I couldn't remove Tex Live 2017 through the Software Center, because it said that it hadn't been installed, probably because it was bundled with one of the GUIs rather than a separate download. I've read the intro docs that I can find but can't see anything about setting a PATH, so they don't help me.

[mas]

Open a terminal and type this :

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dpkg -l | awk '{print $2}' | grep texlive

See if any texlive packages are installed. If the output does not return anything, then TL2017 is not installed.

[ck2018]

Yeah, thanks. The commands that I found to uninstall Tex Live via the terminal removed both versions. At some point, I'm going to reinstall TL 2018 and try to find a way to set the path. Then I'll see if I can find a GUI that doesn't include a version of TL as part of the package.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

I think TL comes with an excellent GUI, TeXworks, that's what I'm using. Either install it with TL or get it from http://www.tug.org/texworks/.

Stefan

[ck2018]

I think TL comes with an excellent GUI, TeXworks, that's what I'm using. Either install it with TL or get it from http://www.tug.org/texworks/.

It didn't realize that TL came with it. TeXworks is one of the GUIs that I mentioned earlier in the thread. Maybe it was Texmaker that came bundled (at least on Mint) with a version of TL and TeXworks can be downloaded on its own. Thanks for your help.

[ck2018]

Running the executable in the terminal works without having to set the path.

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'/usr/local/texlive/2018/bin/x86_64-linux/xelatex' -output-directory='/path_to_directory/' '/path_to_file/filename.tex'

I'm happy with this as a workaround.

EDIT: I added the output path by changing /etc/environment from

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PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"

to

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PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/usr/local/texlive/2018/bin/x86_64-linux"

and everything works as expected. You can do this in the terminal with nano.

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nano /etc/environment

You can edit the manpath as follows.

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nano /etc/manpath.config