Which LaTeX is installed here?

We use MiKTeX 2.7 for Windows and teTeX 3.0 on our unix computers.

I get errors when trying to generate documents. What do I do?

Depending on the error, the problem may be in your document source code. Be sure to check the source for syntax errors (typically enumerated in the output of the various TeX programs and/or in log files where the source files are located). If you're sure it's not a syntax error, read on.

I'd like to use a different TeX package that isn't installed

You can always install your own packages in your home directory and direct TeX programs to those files. Typically TeX programs will look in ~/texmf for any additional TeX packages. You can alter the TEXMF environment variable in your shell to direct TeX programs to find additional/alternative packages.

If you think the package you want to use is of general interest to multiple people in the department, open a ticket to have the package installed/updated.

pdflatex fails with some pdflatex.fmt error

This is a bug with the pdflatex program installed on our unix computers. To clear up this bug, run the following:

chmod 755 ~/.texmf-var
rm ~/.texmf-var/ls-R
mktexlsr ~/.texmf-var
chmod 644 ~/.texmf-var/ls-R

Then rerun pdflatex again.

-- JohnPerkins - 18 Feb 2010