[OS X TeX] Uninstall BasicTex

[Herbert Schulz]

On May 8, 2009, at 10:35 AM, Curiouslearn wrote:

> Hello,
>
> It seems somehow my latex installation has been corrupted. The latex  
> cannot
> find packages that I have installed in library/texmf/tex/latex/
> Also, the geometry package was not working yesterday, when I tried to
> compile a file. It did not stop the compilation, but the margins  
> were not
> what I had specified. I want to restart so that all the paths are  
> correct
> and all the packages are working fine.
>

Howdy,

I asssume that by library/texmf/tex/latex/ you did mean ~/Library/ 
texmf/tex/latex/ (where ~ is your HOME directory).

What does the System Preferences->TeX Distribution preference pane say  
about the distribution? Did anything happen to the /Library/TeX folder?

It would be nice to know these things even though you are interested  
in installing the full MacTeX.

> I had initially installed Basictex. I now want to install the full  
> Mactex.
> Can please someone tell me how I can cleanly uninstall Basictex. I  
> know I
> don't have to, but if possible I would like to. Once I have done  
> that, I
> will reinstall the full mactex.
>
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>


Assuming you have the HD space I'd install MacTeX along with BasicTeX  
to start. Once that's installed Go->Go to Folder (Shift-Cmd-G) command  
in Finder and go to the /usr/local/texlive folder. You can then delete  
the BasicTeX folder; you'll need to use an administrator password to  
do that. That should be it.

I'd also check the System Preferences->TeX Distribution preference  
pane to make sure it's ``pointing'' to TeXLive-2008.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)