** The Most Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) **
1.2 Operating system support. TeX Live contains binaries for many Unix-based platforms, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Cygwin. The included sources can be compiled on platforms for which we do not provide binaries. As to Windows: Windows 7 and later are supported. One of the founding Seven Sisters schools, Wellesley is considered one of the best liberal arts women's colleges in the nation.
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INDEX
[ click on the Q# to jump to the question & answer ]
MacTeX Q&A : getting or installing MacTeX | |
| QM.01: | Trouble completing the installation process. |
| QM.02: | No need to uninstall previous TeX distribution |
| QM.03: | When trying to typeset, my front end puts up a dialog claimingthat it cannot find tex (or pdfLaTeX, or XeTeX) |
| QM.04: | Fink and MacPort Questions |
| QM.05: | Where to put personal additions in the texmf tree |
| QM.06: | Why can't the latest MacTeX find my local BibTeX (.bst, .bib) files |
| QM.07: | Fonts in my TeX documents are wrong --- the Font Cache Bug. |
| QM.08: | Does MacTeX-2020 work on Mojave and Catalina? |
| QM.09: | Where can I obtain and download older versions of MacTeX? |
| TeXShop Questions | |
| QT.01: | Typesetting in TeXShop gives an error message related to (/usr/texbin) |
| QT.02: | TeXShop refuses to start, or behaves strangely |
| QT.03: | Damaged Macros Folder |
QM.01:I am having trouble completing the installation process. How can I get MacTeX installed?
AM.01:
One common problem is that users obtain a corrupted MacTeX.pkg after downloading the large file. There is an easy way tocheck that your download was successful. Run Apple's Terminal application in /Applications/Utilities. After the prompt, type the command
md5
and a space, and then drag and drop the file MacTeX.pkg to theTerminal window to complete the command. Push Return.The Mac will compute an 'md5 checksum'. This sum should bethe sum shown at the top of the downloading page here.
Some users downloading with Google Chrome and possibly other browsersreport defective downloads. We recommend downloadingwith Safari. Users with problems also report success after downloading via the torrent network.
Defective downloads are essentially never due to a bad file on theserver because we test after uploading new versions. But users withdownload problems sometimes succeed after trying an alternateCTAN site. To do this, check on one of the links in the mirror page.
If you are at an institution with a large body of TeX users, a support person could put MacTeX-2020 on the DVD and loan you the DVD.
A final solution, if all else fails, is to go to http://www.tug.org/mactex/morepackages.htmland download BasicTeX; this distribution is quite complete and serviceable and the smaller download may cause fewer problems. You will also need a front end like TeXShop or those included in MacTeXtras.
QM.02:Do I need to uninstall my previous TeX distribution before installing MacTeX?
AM.02: No. The TeX Live in MacTeX installs in a new location, /usr/local/texlive/2020, and does not overwrite the old distribution. Consult the documentation for your older distribution to uninstall it, if you want to save space.
QM.03:When trying to typeset, my front end puts up a dialog claimingthat it cannot find tex (or pdfLaTeX, or XeTeX)
AM.03: Some users have installed software which incorrectly set thepermissions on /usr/local. To see if you have this problem, open Terminalin /Applications/Utilities. Type
ls -l /usr
and push RETURN (note that '-l' is a small el, not a number). Terminalwill print a list of folders. Look at the entry named 'local'. The permissionsat the start of this line should be
drwxr-xr-x
If instead they are 'drwx------' then carefully type the followingline in Terminal:
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local
You will be asked to supply your Login password.
QM.04: Fink (or MacPorts) is installed on my computer. After installing MacTeX,
(a) pdfTeX and TeX crash with error messages referring to broken libraries in /sw/...or/opt/...
(b) the versions of pdftex and tex in Fink or MacPorts run instead of the versions in TeX Live.
(c) pdftex runs erratically.
AM.04abc:MacTeX installs a symbolic link to the TeX Live binaries named /Library/TeX/texbin. Calling /Library/TeX/texbin/pdftex will reach the pdftex in TeX Live. Once this version runs, it will not be confused by the presence of Fink or MacPorts and will use the correct libraries, style files, fonts, and utilities in TeX Live.
The GUI programs shipped with MacTeX understand this symbolic link and automatically call /Library/TeX/texbin//pdftex. But if you call pdftex from the Terminal or another application, you may encounter the problem. The solution is simple. Find your shell startup script. That script should contain a command modifying PATH so /sw (or /opt) comes first. After this command, add a line to the script prepending /Library/TeX/texbin to the beginning of your PATH.
QM.05:Where do I put my personal additions to the texmf tree?
AM.05: They go in
~/Library/texmf
and various subdirectories structured according to the standard TeX conventions. Here ~/Library is the Library folder in your home directory. You may have to create the texmf folder, and any subfolders of it mentioned below. For instance, TeX will find any file in
~/Library/texmf/texor a subfolder of this folder, and LaTeX will find any file in
~/Library/texmf/tex/latex
or a subfolder of this folder. It is not necessary to run texhash when adding files to this local tree.
On Lion and above, the ~/Library folder is hidden. To open it, use the Finder's Go menu and hold down the Option key to revealan extra item in the menu.
QM.06:Why can't the latest MacTeX find my local BibTeX files? Earlier versions of MacTeX worked correctly.
AM.06: TeX Live is slightly pickier about placement of these files. '.bib' files go in
~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bib
or subfolders of this directory, and '.bst' files go in
~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bst
or subfolders of this directory.
QM.07:I installed MacTeX and now all of the fonts in my TeX documents are wrong. I checked this in Preview, TeXShop, LaTeXiT, TeXniscope, and other programs. They all display bad fonts, so I must have messed up the installation. Maybe it is because I used custom install and installed the Latin Modern and TeX Gyre fonts.
AM.07: The problem (known as the 'font cache bug' in Mac OS X) was fixed in MacTeX-2009 and all later distributions are fine.
QM.08:Does MacTeX-2020work on Mojave and Catalina?
AM.08:
Yes, it has been extensively tested and used on both systems. This question will come up again when Apple releases their next version ofmacOS, probably in fall of 2020. But the developers of MacTeX-2020 will have downloaded the beta of that system on the first day of WWDC,the developer conference, and worked on it extensively during the summer. If problems exist after the system release, they will be prominently mentioned on theseweb pages.
QM.09:Where can I obtain and download older versions of MacTeX?
AM.09:
To Obtain Older Versions of MacTeX If You Are Running Mac OS 10.3 through 10.11, click here
QT.01:Typesetting in TeXShop gives an error message:
'Can't find required tool. /usr/local/texlive/bin/x86_64-darwin does not exist. Perhaps TeX Live was not installed or was removed ...'
AT.01: This error means that TeXShop could not find a TeX distribution. Usually users who see it downloaded TeXShop, but forgot to download TeX itself. The solution is to install TeXLive-2020. If you installed with MacTeX, you will not see this error.
QT.02:TeXShop refuses to start, or behaves strangely.Or, for example, you get the message:
AT.02: There may be a damaged TeXShop preferences file. Quit TeXShop, and reboot your machine. Then before starting TeXShop again, move the file
~/Library/Preferences/TeXShop.plist
Pdflatex For Mac Os 10.10
to your desktop. Then start TeXShop. If this fixes the problem, reset your preferences as desired. If not, put the old plist file back to restore your old preferences.
Make sure you are using the latest version of TeXShop
QT.03:TeXShop complains of a damaged Macros file when it starts.
AT.03: There may be a damaged Macros folder in TeXShop's configuration files. Quit TeXShop, move the Macros folder
~/Library/TeXShop/Macros
to the desktop, and restart TeXShop. It will create a new Macros folder with a working Macros file.
For more information about other frequently asked questions please
- search the Archives of the Mac OS X TeX mailing list
If you still have problems with the MacTeX Installer, you may contact us via themactex-support webpage.
Prepare to set aside at least an hour of your time to install LaTeX. You should also be on campus or using a high-speed internet connection, since you will have to download a large file. If you have any difficulty while installing the software, bring your laptop to the Help Desk in Clapp Library or email helpdesk@wellesley.edu with a description of the problem.
To install LaTeX applications on your Mac:
- Visit http://tug.org/mactex/ and click on the MacTex Download link, the on the MacTeX.pkg link to download the installer (if prompted, click Keep). The file is quite large (~4 GB), so be prepared to wait a bit while it downloads.
Pdf Latex Mac Os
- Once the file has downloaded, double-click on MacTeX.pkg to begin the installation.
- Read and accept the conditions, then follow the on-screen instructions to install the program.
The installation may take over half an hour. - After the installation is complete, you can delete the downloaded MacTeX.pkg file.
- You will find the installed programs under Applications | TeX. TeXShop is the editor that you will use to create and edit LaTeX documents.
When you are ready to begin using LaTeX, you may find this website helpful:
www.reed.edu/cis/help/latex/intro.html