CTAN latex packages -- many missing

Support
1

Hi,
I’ve moved from Ubuntu to Almalinux some months ago. I’ve had troubles installing latex packages (eg mathabx right now). Is there a quick workarond (eg using Fedora etc repositories)?
Thanks

1 Like
2

Dear all,

I have the same issue. I was writing my thesis on Ubuntu and have a lot of packages my thesis depends on.
I switched to AlmaLinux9 and am struggling for days to compile my own written thesis back. Because texlive-cool, texlive-textgreek, and even widely used texlive-biblatex are not in the default package manager.

Was there any serious justification to intentionally exclude those packages for the greater good?
Installing mock and building Fedora packages from source and praying they work out of the box is not something I want to do to produce a basic manuscript.

This post is quite old, but I want to encourage further communication on that matter.
I am surprised that this post was unanswered and counting now more than 300 views.

Best regards,
Bohdan

3

I’d say ignore the crippled system version and just install the latest texlive.

1 Like
4

I too find it disappointing that texlive-biblatex is not available as a package. Surely the answer to every missing package can’t be that one just has to install it by hand. Is the problem that there aren’t enough people willing to do the packaging?

5

I discovered tlmgr, which Ihad not been aware of, but looked like it was what I needed. However, when trying it out I got the following:

# tlmgr install biblatex
*** WARNING ***: Performing this action will likely destroy the Fedora TeXLive install on your system.
*** WARNING ***: This is almost NEVER what you want to do.
*** WARNING ***: Try using dnf install/update instead.
*** WARNING ***: If performing this action is really what you want to do, pass the "ignore-warning" option.
*** WARNING ***: But please do not file any bugs with the OS Vendor.

I suspect the threat of destruction is somewhat overstated, but I don’t understand the suggestion. If I could have used dnf I would have and it is only because I can’t that I am using tlmgr. I guess the expectation is that the whole of texlive is installed outside the package manager, so I guess @stevemowbray is right.

6

I resolved this issue. Only a custom build could resolve it for now.

  1. If you have already installed texlive and emacs-auctex through yum remove them.

  2. Download the texlive iso from - CTAN: /tex-archive/systems/texlive/Images

  3. Mount the ISO file. cd to the mount directory.

  4. Run the command from terminal sudo ./install-tl --profile=/texlive/full.profile

  5. It will install the TeXlive to the /usr/local/texlive/2025 (considering this 2025 release)

  6. Inform the bash about the TeXlive installation location -
    echo ‘export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2025/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH’ >> ~/.bashrc
    echo ‘export MANPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/doc/man:$MANPATH’ >> ~/.bashrc
    echo ‘export INFOPATH=/usr/local/texlive/2025/texmf-dist/doc/info:$INFOPATH’ >> ~/.bashrc
    source ~/.bashrc

  7. Download the Emacs Auctex tar ball from the repo say from the gnu.org Like - wget https://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/auctex/auctex-13.3.tar.gz

  8. Extract this tar ball in the same folder as the texlive folder i.e. /usr/local/texlive/2025

  9. From the Auctex folder (auctex-13.3) run ./configure --with-texmf-dir=/usr/local/texlive/2025/texmf-dist in the terminal.

  10. Once it configures successfully

  11. Run in the same terminal: make and sudo make install

  12. Inform Auctex where to source the pdflatex and Texlive by entering the following lines in the .emacs file in $HOME
    ;; Auctex - custom TeXlive installation directive
    (setenv “PATH” (concat “/usr/local/texlive/2025/bin/x86_64-linux:” (getenv “PATH”)))
    (setq exec-path (append '(“/usr/local/texlive/2025/bin/x86_64-linux”) exec-path))

IMPORTANT: Prior to following these instructions, make sure that all the dependencies are installed in the AlmaLinux

7

AlmaLinux 9 repos have 373 packages like texlive*. EPEL has additional 78 packages.
How many does CTAN have?

AlmaLinux has what RHEL has. The 373 are what they are, unless someone convinces Red Hat to change that.
To get more means basically to inspire EPEL maintainers to build more.

When I have to make a “source install”, I preferably give configure a prefix to path where I can write to as regular account.
If it has to be /usr/local, then I could at least give my account (temporary) write access to /usr/local (or something below it). That way the root does not have to run the “make install”, “install-tl”, etc.

8

CTAN has close to 4400 packages. The EPEL repos limit technical writing, especially with engineering applications. The Beamer presentation can also have limitations.

The EPEL repos further restrict use of custom templates. AlmaLinux must have all the CTAN packages in its repos. I can help in creating them.

sudo make install or make install depends on where the installation is targeted

9

How would additional packages in AlmaLinux repo benefit other Enterprise Linux (EL) distros (like RHEL, Rocky Linux, etc)?

The reputable third-party repos (e.g. EPEL, ELRepo, Remi, RPM Fusion) do provide packages for every EL. They are much more logical place for extra packages.

A Special Interest Group (SIG) could apparently have a repo of their own.

10

Long ago, I started with Fedora, then I moved on to Scientific Linux and then to Ubuntu.
Lately I have shifted back to AlmaLinux. All the while I noted that the EPEL repos for texlive are limited. I don’t know the reasons behind it. The current EPEL repos show that they are 2020 version and the tlmgr update ignoring warnings provide that the updates are not available and that we have to wait for next release. It even prompts to become a developer to generate the packages.

I don’t understand this warning (possibly an issue with CTAN). But, CTAN itself has new revisions and I could now use the full package of 2025 revision.

I doubt if someone is seriously working on EPEL repos for CTAN.

11

AlmaLinux 9 has texlive 20200406-26.el9_2 because RHEL 9 has texlive 20200406-26.el9_2.

EPEL 9 has (some) additional packages for texlive 20200406 because RHEL 9 has texlive 20200406. EPEL does not replace packages that RHEL has. That is EPEL policy.

CentOS Stream 10 has currently texlive 20240311 and therefore that is the most that we can expect to see in RHEL 10 and AlmaLinux 10.

I’d guess that tlmgr for 2020 looks for CTAN packages for 2020 and that CTAN no longer offers those, or at least does not have any 2020 updates for 2020.

12

That is something good to note. However, the tlmgr will generate the warning of causing harm to existing installation and using --ignore-warning options to proceed on own risk.
Instead, EPEL repos for complete CTAN packages is something that should be worked on. Ubuntu has all of them through apt.