I can't find the format file `xelatex.fmt'!

[Pascal de Bruijn]

Hi,

I've compiled and installed the debian package on Ubuntu Edgy Eft. I
fixed the postinst bug by changing the shell to /bin/bash instead
of /bin/sh. After that it worked fine.

However XaLaTeX still gives me this, and fails to produce output:
I can't find the format file `xelatex.fmt'!

fmtutil --all gives:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
fmtutil: Error! Not all formats have been built successfully.
Visit the log files in directory
/home/pmjdebruijn/.texmf-var/web2c
for details.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Another passage of text in fmtutil --all:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Latin Hyphenation Patterns `lahyph' Version 3.0b <2001/11/21>)
(/usr/share/texmf-tetex/tex/generic/hyphen/huhyphn.tex
Huhyphn - hungarian hyphenation patterns v20031107
! Nonletter.
l.33 .ad౱
s
?
! Emergency stop.
l.33 .ad౱
s
No pages of output.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Does this mean Hungarian hyphenation is breaking my XeTeX installation?
Is there a way to circumvent this issue?

Regards,
Pascal de Bruijn

[Bruno Voisin]

Post by Pascal de Bruijn
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Latin Hyphenation Patterns `lahyph' Version 3.0b <2001/11/21>)
(/usr/share/texmf-tetex/tex/generic/hyphen/huhyphn.tex
Huhyphn - hungarian hyphenation patterns v20031107
! Nonletter.
l.33 .ad౱
s
?
! Emergency stop.
l.33 .ad౱
s
No pages of output.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Does this mean Hungarian hyphenation is breaking my XeTeX
installation?
Is there a way to circumvent this issue?

The problem seems to be caused by an incompatibility between XeTeX
and the Hungarian hyphenation pattern.

This is probably caused in turn by a TeX distribution that is too
old: you're apparently using teTeX, which is now deprecated and no
longer developed. Not all the elements necessary for running XeTeX
with no fuss are included in it.

By contrast, the TeXLive 2007 distribution includes everything
necessary for XeTeX, and in fact XeTeX is already included in it. In
particular, the XeTeX-related formats are built by using wrappers, in
texmf-dist/tex/generic/xu-hyphen/, which make legacy hyphenation
patterns such as huhyphn.tex compatible with XeTeX.

See for example:

<http://tug.org/pipermail/xetex/2007-April/thread.html#6333>

Unfortunately I can't be more specific regarding how to install
TeXLive on Ubuntu, as I'm on the Mac.

Hope this helps though,

Bruno Voisin

[Bruno Voisin]

Post by Bruno Voisin

Post by Pascal de Bruijn
Does this mean Hungarian hyphenation is breaking my XeTeX
installation?
Is there a way to circumvent this issue?

The problem seems to be caused by an incompatibility between XeTeX
and the Hungarian hyphenation pattern.
[...]

After re-reading my message I'm realizing I answered a post from
several months ago. Sorry for wasting bandwidth. I was confused by
receiving this morning a new message reviving this long-dead thread,
and didn't notice the original message was from so long ago.

Post by Bruno Voisin
[...] At any rate, the command
fmtutil --enablefmt xelatex
gives the output
fmtutil: initial config file is `/usr/share/texmf/web2c/
fmtutil.cnf'
fmtutil: configuration file unchanged.
and still no xelatex.fmt file.
What am I doing wrong? Is there another way to create this elusive
xelatex/xelatex.fmt file?

Have you tried running in sequence:

fmtutil --disablefmt xelatex
fmtutil --enablefmt xelatex

The error message about an unchanged config file is probably caused
by fmtutil.cnf containing a line for xelatex already, but for some
reason the file xelatex.fmt doesn't exist. Alas, when you run
fmtutil, it notices fmtutil.cnf contains already reference to
xelatex, thinks the format already exists, and refuses to proceed
further.

The first command above comments out the line about xelatex in
fmtutil.cnf. Then the second command uncomments it and then builds
xelatex.fmt.

The same problem often occurs with updmap and updmap.cnf.

I can't test this myself, as I'm on the Mac, not Ubuntu. Hope this
works though.

Bruno Voisin

[maxwell-+]

Post by Bruno Voisin

Post by Bruno Voisin
What am I doing wrong? Is there another way to create this elusive
xelatex/xelatex.fmt file?

fmtutil --disablefmt xelatex
fmtutil --enablefmt xelatex

Tried that just now, and verified that after these two commands, there is
a line for xelatex, which looks like:
xelatex xetex language.dat -etex xelatex.ini
Then I ran fmtutil using that cnffile, in several ways: with --missing,
--refresh, etc. There is still no directory for xelatex (but there is one
for xetex). In fact I see no indication that it's even *trying* to create
the xelatex stuff.

OK, I looked at fmtutil --help again, and ran 'fmtutil --listcfg'. xetex
is listed, but not xelatex. So I presume there must be something wrong
with the installation of xelatex. The executable is there (appears to be
identical to the xetex executable, but I believe that's normal). The
fmtutil help msg says the listcfg command "list (enabled and disabled)
configurations, filtered to available formats". If I'm understanding that
correctly, xelatex is not an "available format." I have no idea why not.

And that's as far as I've gotten this morning. Thanks for trying!

Mike Maxwell
CASL/ U MD