[OS X TeX] Open Testing of MacTeX Distribution
Maarten Sneep
maarten.sneep at xs4all.nl
Mon Oct 10 10:50:49 EDT 2005
On 7 Oct 2005, at 1:47, Herbert Schulz and Karl Berry wrote:
> Thanks to Jonathan Kew, Dick Koch, Gerben Wierda, Herb Schulz, and
> many
> others, an enhanced TeX distribution for MacOSX is available for
> testing. If you're interested, please see http://tug.org/mactex.
[snip]
> So, testing in advance of burning several thousand copies is
> especially
> welcome. The download is about 350 megabytes.
Your wish is our command ;)
I've taken my iMac G4 (which I no longer use in day-to-day
operations), partitioned its drive into three pieces and installed
Jaguar, Panther, and Tiger. The machine is now officially known as
"The Zoo". Each released was updated to the latest patches and
security updates. I'm happy to have broadband without a monthly cap
on usage, my DSL modem is still recovering.
Given the continuous updates, I feel I should mention the version
number of the ISO I used, or at least its checksum:
b4a869f4c5e33e6c83bd35b82f7fa2a5 ../mactex2005-20051008.iso (the
version on the web on Sun Oct 9 11:28:18 UTC 2005).
I tested each install with a few of the XeTeX demo files, some simple
latex files and a context demo from the texshowcase that is on the
distribution as well. All tests were performed under an administrator
account. If I don't mention an update, the test went well. Since
Gerben was rather quick with an update, I was also able to check
whether i-Installer can actually update the install, on each of the
OS releases.
Here are my notes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Jaguar (10.2.8):
-- General remark: although installed by default, the BSD subsystem
is optional. I haven't tried installing without it, but the presence
should be checked in the install script. Is that done (Dick Koch
probably knows)?
-- Major issues found. NOT READY FOR RELEASE!
-- -- TeXShop version 1.35 is installed, it does not start at all. A
few bounces in the dock, and that is it. I manually installed TeXShop
1.40, and it works. It does not include the simpdftex latex --maxpfb
setting, users have to change this default manually. The originally
installed TeXShop gives the following in the Console: dyld: /
Applications/TeX/TeXShop.app/Contents/MacOS/TeXShop can't open
library: /usr/lib/libmx.A.dylib (No such file or directory, errno =
2). The crash log is available if you need it.
-- -- ConTeXt does not work, or rather texexec doesn't: "Can't locate
File/Temp.pm in @INC (INC= …)" (line 53 in texexec.pl). Seems to be a
perl issue.
-- -- XeTeX does not work at all: dyld: xetex undefined symbols:
xetex undefined reference to _nl_langinfo expected to be defined in /
usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib Trace/BPTtrap. Again, the crash log is
available if you need it.
-- Minor issues:
-- -- ghostscript and everything else in /usr/local/bin is not
available from the command line.
-- -- Installer _may_ alter permissions/ownership for /Applications,
preventing a user from installing applications with Drag & Drop.
Going back and checking the old permissions is a bit awkward, hence
the _may_.
-- -- The html files in the texshowcase folder cannot be opened
directly from the CD "no file exists at that location". After making
a copy to the hard drive, things are working again.
-- -- After installation, the default application for TeX files seems
to be Excalibur, not TeXShop.
-- -- Not all examples in the texshowcase directory will compile
correctly, perhaps we should add a warning to the readme?
-- -- The i-Installer packages are not installed, not even "thinned"
versions. Installing these would make it easier to update an
installation. After getting the TeX package, the update runs fine.
-- -- BibDesk seems OK. Preview isn't enabled by default, is it
supposed to be? The help button (preferrences -> cite key) is too
small, and brings up an empty help window. There are more help
buttons like this in the preferences window.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Panther (10.3.9):
-- General remark: although installed by default, the BSD subsystem
is optional. I haven't tried installing without it, but the presence
should be checked in the install script. Is that done (Dick Koch
probably knows)?
-- No major show-stoppers found.
-- minor issues
-- -- ghostscript and everything else in /usr/local/bin is not
available from the command line.
-- -- After installation, the default application for TeX files seems
to be Excalibur, not TeXShop.
-- -- Not all examples in the texshowcase directory will compile
correctly, perhaps we should add a warning to the readme?
-- -- The i-Installer packages are not installed, not even "thinned"
versions. Installing these would make it easier to update an
installation. After getting the TeX package, the update runs fine.
-- -- BibDesk seems OK. Preview isn't enabled by default, is it
supposed to be?
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Tiger (10.4.2):
-- General remark: The BSD subsystem is installed and is no longer
optional, so this issue has been resolved.
-- No major show-stoppers found.
-- minor issues: the same ones as under Panther.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Parting shots:
I'd like to thank all who contributed to this project for their
efforts. Installation is a breeze, and so it should be: TeX can be
hard enough as is, installation shouldn't be a stumbling block. The
install is easy now and works fine on 10.3 and 10.4, apart from the
path issue for /usr/local/bin on the command-line.
However, on 10.2 there is a lot to be done. Dick and Jonathan, if you
need to perform particular tests, let me know, "The Zoo" is still
open. I've created disk images for all systems in their "virgin"
state, so a fresh install can be tried later on hopefully without too
much trouble - installing and updating the OS took longer than MacTeX.
Cheers,
Maarten
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