[OS X TeX] Fatal format file error - pdflatex.fmt doesn't match pdfetex.pool

[Gerben Wierda]

On Nov 1, 2005, at 21:44, Hemant Bhargava wrote:

> Hi -
>
> I just installed tetex (the "TeX" package from Gerben's site) - and I 
> get the following error on running it :
>
> This is pdfeTeX, Version 3.141592-1.20a-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.3)
> ---! /Users/hemantb/Library/texmf/web2c/pdflatex.fmt doesn't match 
> pdfetex.pool
> (Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)
>
> I reinstalled TeX a couple of times. Then I tried rebuilding the 
> formats using fmutil -- all . I also had to fix directory permissions 
> for ls-R files. But even after all that I still get the same error.
>
> I can't quite figure out what's going on. The only difference with 
> other occasions where I installed tetex is : this time when I set up 
> the new machine, I had it "get information" about my accounts from the 
> previous machine through a firewire connection. Perhaps something is 
> set differently?
>
> At any rate, can someone suggest how to fix it? I hate to have to 
> reinstall everything from scratch.

/Users/hemantb/Library/texmf/web2c is a possible left-over from the 
experimental i-Package of last month which supported per-user 
configuration. Unless you are a TeXpert ad you have stuff in 
/Users/hemantb/Library/texmf/web2c, you can safely remove that 
subdirectory, or at least all the .fmt files in there.

G

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