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LyXOnUbuntu

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

FAQ

LyX 1.5.3 from Ubuntu/hardy doesn't work here. What now?

In most cases you've just installed Qt 4.4 packages from hardy-backports which are incompatible with LyX prior to the 1.5.5 release. You should read https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lyx/+bug/228067 and then decide if you want to read on here to install LyX 1.5.5 or stay with the packaged 1.5.3 version and Qt 4.3.

Installation

The version of LyX in Ubuntu 7.04 (and probably on other versions as well) is too old (1.4.x); we would suggest that you'll download manually the newest appropriate package from Download.

Also, it is strongly recommended to install the package texlive, and not the package tetex, which is not maintained any more.

For Hebrew issues, see Hebrew On Linux.

Tip: Find extra packages to install using Synaptic

Daniel wrote the following:

After I copied Daniel's advice to this page, I (Christian) followed his advice by doing the following steps:

• Start Synaptic
• Search for LyX
• Select the LyX package and 'right-click' the entry Mark recommended for installation. You will find a bunch of useful packages here.
  The pop-up menu also has an entry Mark suggested for installation where you'll find more useful packages.

Here's a few command lines that installs a few packages:

sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-recommended texlive-fonts-recommended 
sudo apt-get install preview-latex-style dvipng imagemagick 
sudo apt-get install psutils latex-xft-fonts gv 
sudo apt-get install chktex dvipost texlive-latex-extra 

In addition, I installed a font (?) package that texlive recommended:

sudo apt-get install lmodern

Hope this helps, Christian

A few more remarks:

1. You should not add blindly all of the "recommended" packages, as some of them obviously dupicate each other (e.g. xpdf and evince);

2. Here are some more packages NOT listed as "recommended" or "suggested" that you might want to add:

• qt4-qtconfig (allows customizing menu font/size and other parameters in LyX GUI)
• texlive (meta-package including the most common texlive packages),
• texlive-extra-utils,
• texlive-fonts-extra,
• texlive-formats-extra,
• texlive-generic-extra,
• texlive-latex-extra (here is the wrapfig latex package),
• texlive-math-extra (D. Knuth's beautiful Concrete font is here),
• texlive-science (if you use algoritm(ic) packages)

Hope this helps, Daniel

Linux, packages

Locally installed LaTeX files

texlive

• If you place your additional LaTeX class and style files in
  ~/texmf/tex/latex
  LyX (and LaTeX) should be able to find them automatically.

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

Linux, packages

Categories

Linux