Ubuntu 12.04 still includes the outdated and obsolete 2009 version of TeX Live. Other than installing manually from the TeX Live website, is there any alternative to install the latest 2012 version on Ubuntu Precise 12.04?
3 Answers
TeX Live 2012 is available for 12.04 in an official "backports" PPA
TeX Live 2012 is scheduled for inclusion in the next Ubuntu release (Quantal 12.10). Meanwhile, Ubuntu's TeX Live maintainer, Jeremy Bicha, has created an official "backports" PPA to allow 12.04 users to easily install/upgrade to the new version.
To install/upgrade to TeX Live 2012:
- Open a terminal with Ctrl+Alt+T
Add the texlive-backports PPA by typing the below (enter your password when prompted):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:texlive-backports/ppa
Then type:
sudo apt-get update
Installation:
If you are installing TeX Live for the first time, type:
sudo apt-get install texlive
If you already have TeX Live installed and are upgrading, type:
sudo apt-get upgrade
Warning: this will also upgrade all other packages on your Ubuntu system for which upgrades are available. If you do not wish to do this, please use the previous
sudo apt-get install texlive
instead.
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2@izx Does this PPA installation still allow to use tlmgr to update TeX packages as I described in a related question?– JJDSep 29, 2012 at 12:06
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1I had already had texlive 2009 on Ubuntu 12.04. Using the
sudo apt-get upgrade
command didn't result in(TeX Live 2012/Debian)
after runningtex --version
. Runningsudo apt-get install texlive
did the trick though.– SiccoDec 18, 2012 at 14:06 -
1This is because the package names are not complete overlaps. If you installed the complete texlive from the Canonical repos as
sudo apt-get install texlive-full
, then doing an upgrade will not touch it, because that is not how it is called in the texlive backports PPA. Jan 18, 2013 at 1:29 -
1I also need to run
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-extra
to get all the packages I wanted Apr 16, 2013 at 11:26
The directory listing linked on the page you linked does not show the available backports for 12.04 (precise).
In order to get the "2012 (quantal)" version of texlive, you will need to add the backport PPA.
Before adding a PPA you should be aware of some of the risks involved:
Always remember that PPAs are provided by the community, you should be aware of the possible risks before just adding a PPA.
From Synaptic Package Manager:
Select Settings --> Repositories --> Other Software --> Add and enter:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/texlive-backports/ppa/ubuntu precise main
- Select Add source. Next, select the Reload button on the menu to re-index your package list
- Finally, in the Quickfilter field, enter "texlive" and you will see the 2012 versions of the packages available for installation.
- Mark the packages that you are interested in, and click the Apply button.
From the command line (Ctrl+Alt+T), enter the following commands:
sudo apt-add-repository http://ppa.launchpad.net/texlive-backports/ppa/ubuntu
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install texlive-base
This will also install the following dependencies:
lmodern luatex texlive-binaries texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-luatex
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1
I don't think I have the reputation points to comment, so I am answering in response to Alexander Schleifer above: On Ubuntu 12.04 in order for the upgrade to work, I had to use:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:texlive-backports/ppa
Not "apt-add" as the answer suggested. It didn't give me an error with "apt-add" but didn't work until I tried "add-apt."
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1
> ls /usr/bin/apt-add-repository -l
outputslrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 sept. 28 2012 /usr/bin/apt-add-repository -> add-apt-repository
– Mmmh mmhAug 25, 2013 at 22:40
install-tl
script. You can find my brief how-to of the manual install here.