Paul Johnson
Ben Kite
04-14-2015
Making sure MikTeX and LyX work well together on windows.
Problem: MikTeX defaults to a minimal install. LyX requires
many additional MikTeX packages.
When LyX asks for packages, they are installed in the individual
user's account, in the directory
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.9\tex\latex
>dir
When a user runs LyX for the first time, we can monitor that
directory to see what packages are installed. We did that on
2015-04-11, and these packages were installed in the account
of user "b087k169"
>dir
Directory of C:\Users\b087k169\AppData\Roaming\MiKTeX\2.9\tex\latex
04/14/2015 10:57 AM
.
04/14/2015 10:57 AM ..
04/14/2015 10:46 AM aastex
04/14/2015 10:46 AM achemso
04/14/2015 10:47 AM aguplus
04/14/2015 10:52 AM algorithms
04/14/2015 10:47 AM apa
04/14/2015 10:47 AM apacite
04/14/2015 10:52 AM arabi
04/14/2015 10:47 AM arabtex
04/14/2015 10:55 AM arydshln
04/14/2015 10:56 AM ascii
04/14/2015 10:53 AM base
04/14/2015 10:57 AM bbding
04/14/2015 10:47 AM beamer
04/14/2015 10:55 AM bera
04/14/2015 10:52 AM bezos
04/14/2015 10:52 AM bibtopic
04/14/2015 10:52 AM booktabs
04/14/2015 10:52 AM braille
04/14/2015 10:55 AM braket
04/14/2015 10:52 AM breakurl
04/14/2015 10:55 AM cancel
04/14/2015 10:46 AM caption
04/14/2015 10:55 AM ccfonts
04/14/2015 10:51 AM changepage
04/14/2015 10:51 AM cite
04/14/2015 10:52 AM cjk
04/14/2015 10:46 AM cleveref
04/14/2015 10:55 AM cmbright
04/14/2015 10:55 AM colortbl
04/14/2015 10:52 AM covington
04/14/2015 10:53 AM csquotes
04/14/2015 10:48 AM ctex
04/14/2015 10:53 AM cyrillic
04/14/2015 10:48 AM dinbrief
04/14/2015 10:48 AM dtk
04/14/2015 10:55 AM eco
04/14/2015 10:49 AM elsarticle
04/14/2015 10:49 AM elsevier
04/14/2015 10:47 AM endfloat
04/14/2015 10:47 AM endnotes
04/14/2015 10:50 AM enumitem
04/14/2015 10:48 AM epsf
04/14/2015 10:53 AM esint
04/14/2015 10:53 AM eso-pic
04/14/2015 10:49 AM europecv
04/14/2015 10:49 AM extsizes
04/14/2015 10:53 AM fancybox
04/14/2015 10:48 AM fancyhdr
04/14/2015 10:49 AM fancyvrb
04/14/2015 10:55 AM feyn
04/14/2015 10:48 AM filecontents
04/14/2015 10:51 AM footmisc
04/14/2015 10:56 AM fourier
04/14/2015 10:53 AM framed
04/14/2015 10:49 AM frletter
04/14/2015 10:49 AM g-brief
04/14/2015 10:53 AM greek-inputenc
04/14/2015 10:46 AM harvard
04/14/2015 10:53 AM hyphenat
04/14/2015 10:46 AM ieeetran
04/14/2015 10:51 AM ifmtarg
04/14/2015 10:57 AM ifsym
04/14/2015 10:53 AM jurabib
04/14/2015 10:49 AM kluwer
04/14/2015 10:51 AM koma-script
04/14/2015 10:45 AM l3kernel
04/14/2015 10:46 AM l3packages
04/14/2015 10:48 AM lastpage
04/14/2015 10:50 AM lettre
04/14/2015 10:53 AM lettrine
04/14/2015 10:47 AM lineno
04/14/2015 10:53 AM ltfonts
04/14/2015 10:56 AM luxi
04/14/2015 10:55 AM marginnote
04/14/2015 10:50 AM marvosym
04/14/2015 10:47 AM mciteplus
04/14/2015 10:50 AM memoir
04/14/2015 10:53 AM mhchem
04/14/2015 10:51 AM microtype
04/14/2015 10:50 AM moderncv
04/14/2015 10:54 AM mongolian-babel
04/14/2015 10:49 AM ms
04/14/2015 10:50 AM mwcls
04/14/2015 10:46 AM natbib
04/14/2015 10:54 AM nomencl
04/14/2015 10:50 AM paper
04/14/2015 10:51 AM paralist
04/14/2015 10:54 AM pdfpages
04/14/2015 10:48 AM pgf
04/14/2015 10:55 AM picinpar
04/14/2015 10:52 AM placeins
04/14/2015 10:54 AM polyglossia
04/14/2015 10:50 AM powerdot
04/14/2015 10:54 AM prettyref
04/14/2015 10:54 AM preview
04/14/2015 10:50 AM pst-grad
04/14/2015 10:48 AM pst-node
04/14/2015 10:54 AM refstyle
04/14/2015 10:51 AM revtex4
04/14/2015 10:49 AM rotating
04/14/2015 10:54 AM rotfloat
04/14/2015 10:51 AM sauerj
04/14/2015 10:48 AM savesym
04/14/2015 10:51 AM seminar
04/14/2015 10:55 AM sidecap
04/14/2015 10:51 AM simplecv
04/14/2015 10:48 AM skak
04/14/2015 10:54 AM soul
04/14/2015 10:51 AM spie
04/14/2015 10:54 AM splitindex
04/14/2015 10:47 AM sttools
04/14/2015 10:54 AM subfig
04/14/2015 10:52 AM textcase
04/14/2015 10:57 AM textgreek
04/14/2015 10:56 AM tipa
04/14/2015 10:52 AM titlesec
04/14/2015 10:51 AM tufte-latex
04/14/2015 10:50 AM tugboat
04/14/2015 10:54 AM turkmen
04/14/2015 10:47 AM txfonts
04/14/2015 10:51 AM type1cm
04/14/2015 10:49 AM ucs
04/14/2015 10:49 AM ulem
04/14/2015 10:54 AM undertilde
04/14/2015 10:54 AM units
04/14/2015 10:49 AM upquote
04/14/2015 10:57 AM wasysym
04/14/2015 10:54 AM wrapfig
04/14/2015 10:55 AM xargs
04/14/2015 10:48 AM xcolor
04/14/2015 10:52 AM xifthen
04/14/2015 10:56 AM zhmetrics
Problem: If 10 users run LyX, then there are 10 sets of MikTeX
packages scattered about in the computer.
Solution 1: As the administrator, make sure those same packages are
installed in
C:\Program Files\MiKTeK 2.9\tex\latex
It is possible that simply running LyX as an administrator will
cause those packages to be downloaded and installed there. We believe
we have observed it happen that way on some occasions, but not always.
Solution 2: manually copy the package directories from the user's
AppData/Roaming folder and drop them into the MikTeX location under
"Program Files".
It is vital next to update the MikTeX database (equivalent of running
texhash or mktexslr in Unix). This is done by going to the start menu,
Choosing MikTeX, then Settings (Admin). On the top right there is a
button called "Refresh FNDB". FNDB = File Name Data Base. Run that,
all should be well.
While you are on the Settings (Admin) pane, please check for the
default paper size. It may be set for the European standard A4 and we
wish it would be letter size in the USA.
After that, when a user runs LyX for the first time, his/her user
account will not fill up with fresh package downloads.
Users who have used LyX in the past will find their sessions do not
"know" about the system-wide packages that have been installed. They
have to tell LyX to go look for them. That is done by starting LyX and
running Tools | Reconfigure.
Problem: Every time any user runs LyX and a package is required, we
notice either of 2 difficulties. Sometimes packages accumulate in the
individual accounts of the users. If some user is ambitious, there may
be as much as 2GB of package data accumulated. Ideally, we wish that
would migrate into the system package collection, but this appears to
be labor intensive for system administrators. Sometimes users are refused the
right to install new packages and a system administrator's
intervention is required. We have not yet deduced the pattern for
this latter problem.
Here is the important part I am trying to get fixed before our
workshop on Saturday, April 18, 2015.
Problem: The KU LaTeX Thesis template prepared by CRMDA includes some
components that need to be installed system-wide, or else users are
bothered by a lot of noise. There are 2 things that need
installation. One is a LyX layout file, the other is a LaTeX class file.
If you can log in as an administrator, this is the solution.
Download the "KU-thesis-20130520.zip" folder from
http://pj.freefaculty.org/guides/Computing-HOWTO/, unzip the folder.
A. Install the layout.
Go to KU-thesis-20130520\stylefiles, find the kuthesis.layout file. A
copy of that file needs to be placed in
"Program Files\LyX\Resources\layouts".
(Find wherever LyX is installed, possibly in "Program Files (x86)" or whatnot).
B. Install the LaTeX class file.
Next find the kuthesis.cls file in the KU-thesis-20130520 folder.
Place the .cls file in Program Files\MiKTeK 2.9\tex\latex\local (if
the local folder does not exist, create it)
C. Update FNDB.
Now MiKTeX needs to be updated. Click the start button, all programs,
and find MiKTeX 2.9. Select "Maintenance (Admin)", then select
"Settings (Admin)". Click on "Refresh FNDB", then ensure that the
paper format is set to "Letter", click "Apply" then "OK".
The administrative work is done, however, we have this problem:
People who have run LyX before will not know about the new files
installed. Hence it would be wise to
D. Warn the users that they need to reconfigure LyX.
To monitor this, a user can proceed as follows. Open Lyx, select
"View" on the toolbar, then select "View Messages". This will allow
one to see what LyX is doing while it reconfigures. Click on "Tools"
on the toolbar, then select "Reconfigure". Once LyX is done
reconfiguring you should get a message telling you that the system has
been reconfigured and you need to restart LyX. Click "OK", close LyX.
Now check to see if it worked. Go to the KU-thesis-20130520 folder
and open the "thesis-ku.lyx" file. If you get any error message upon
opening, something is wrong. Click on the eyeballs towards the top
left of the window, then see if the document compiles to a pdf. If it
does without error, then you were successful.