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How to correctly install LyX on Ubuntu. (Debian users should check LyXOnDebian.)

Table of contents (hide)

1. Installation
1. 1.1 Ubuntu official repos
2. 1.2 Ubuntu PPA
3. 1.3 Debian binaries
4. 1.4 Manual compilation
2. FAQ
1. 2.1 Tip: Use MPM with Ubuntu
2. 2.2 Tip: Where are the examples files?
3. 2.3 Creating documents in other languages
4. 2.4 Categories

1. Installation

1.1 Ubuntu official repos

The version of LyX provided by the official repositories is often out of date, but unless you need features or bug fixes from more recent versions, that may be fine.

To install LyX with all dependencies, run:

sudo apt install lyx

This will install TeXLive from Ubuntu's repositories (if it wasn't already installed).

If you want to use a different source for your TeX distribution, use:

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends lyx

If LyX doesn't recognize your TeX distribution (go to Tool->TeX information, and see if anything appears), you need to add it's path to the .profile file. For example (adjust as needed), add the following line:

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/texlive/2026/bin/x86_64-linux

Then log out and back in, and restart LyX. You might also need to use the Tools->Reconfigure option. See also here.

1.2 Ubuntu PPA

Note: this option is obsolete.

The stable PPA, set up by Liviu Andronic, used to be the easiest option, but the repository has not been updated since 2021 and is obsolete now. If you still want to use it, use the following instructions. If you want to get an up-to-date version, your best options are to get the Debian package or to compile from source, as described below.

Installing

If you already have a repository version of LyX installed, you should remove it:

sudo apt-get remove lyx (remove your repository version)
sudo apt-get autoremove (remove repository dependencies)

If you don't do this, the fourth step that follows may fail.

Do the following:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lyx-devel/release
sudo apt-get update (update so that apt is aware of the new PPA)
sudo apt-get install lyx (install from the PPA)
lyx (run LyX)

You will probably have to press "Enter" after step 1 (adding the PPA).

Uninstallation

To uninstall the package, do as you would for any package with apt-get.

You may want to stop using a PPA for various reasons. One way to "pause" the PPA is to do the following:

Open Ubuntu Software Center and go to Edit > Software Sources > Other Software and uncheck the two entries corresponding to the PPA of interest.

1.3 Debian binaries

This method will allow you to get the most recent release as a binary, without compiling from source.

Go to https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-backports/lyx, find the chip architecture that matches your release, and get a URL for the .deb file from a mirror. For example, http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/lyx/lyx_2.4.1-2~bpo12+1_i386.deb(approve sites).
Download the file:

# wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/l/lyx/lyx_2.4.1-2~bpo12+1_i386.deb(approve sites)

Go to https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-backports/lyx-common and repeat the steps to download the lyx-common deb file.
Install lyx-common, then lyx, using the following command (replace NAME-OF-DEB-FILE with the file you downloaded):
sudo dpkg -i NAME-OF-DEB-FILE

If you encounter errors, make sure you have an up-to-date version of TexLive.

1.4 Manual compilation

To compile LyX from source, do the following:

Get the sources either as a tarball (see http://www.lyx.org/Download) or fresh from the SVN.
Use this amazing facility to get all the right dependencies for development: Build dependencies do not change that quickly, so you will meet most (or all) of them with sudo apt-get build-dep lyx
Follow instructions in the folder you downloaded (i.e. "./configure" then "make" then "sudo make install")

compiling

2. FAQ

2.1 Tip: Use MPM with Ubuntu

MPM is the MiKTeX Package Manager (MiKTeX being the most popular LaTeX distribution for the Windows platform). It has been ported to Unix and descendants, albeit command-line only (so far). One nice feature of MiKTeX is that LaTeX packages are provided for download individually, rather than in large bundles.

A blog entry by Stefan Kottwitz gives concise instructions on how to install MPM in Ubuntu Hardy. Once it's installed, you can easily download and install individual LaTeX packages. For instance, I installed xypic.sty using the line

sudo mpm --install=xypic

/Paul

2.2 Tip: Where are the examples files?

The examples files are in /usr/share/lyx/examples/, however, they cannot be accessed by LyX as a user, since they are read only. So you must use terminal to go to /usr/share/lyx/ and then do cp -r examples ~/Documents/lyx/examples. This will create a directory with read/write permissions in your home directory.

2.3 Creating documents in other languages

Hebrew

To set up Hebrew, see Hebrew On Linux.

Hindi

Please follow guide at http://wiki.lyx.org/UbuntuLinux/Hindi

2.4 Categories

Linux, packages, installation