Missing fonts when compiling latex documents

Missing fonts when compiling latex documents

[Alexandros Theodotou]

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Hi Guix,

I spent a few hours trying to get texi2pdf working on a simple tex
file:
```
\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=3cm]{geometry}
\title{\bfseries\Huge My Name}
\author{me@me.com}
\date{}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\end{document}
```

I tried installing a bunch of tex packages to get this to compile, but
I kept getting errors about fonts not being found:
```
texlive-generic-pdftex texlive-bin texlive-latex-xkeyval texlive-fonts-
latex texlive-fonts-ec texlive-latex-mflogo texlive-latex-type1cm 
texinfo texlive-ae texlive-txfonts texlive-cm-super texlive-fontinst
texlive-graphics-def texlive-kpathsea texlive-latex-psnfss texlive-
latexconfig texlive-metafont-base texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-pdfx 
texlive-latex-pgf texlive-latex-geometry texlive-latex-graphics
```

I tried this for example:
```
guix environment -C --ad-hoc texlive-fonts-ec texlive-tex-texinfo
texlive-generic-epsf texinfo coreutils sed texlive-bin grep texlive-
latex-base tar texlive-latex-graphics texlive-latex-geometry
texi2pdf my_tex_file.tex
```

It was not until I installed the "texlive" package that I manged to
compile the .tex file.

I found that the following are the minimum packages required to compile
a simple latex file into pdf:
```
guix environment -C --ad-hoc texinfo coreutils sed grep tar texlive
diffutils
```

Maybe this would be straight forward to some users but it took me some
time to figure out which packages are needed since I don't know much
about latex. I found a lot of information about how to install the
fonts on other distros when I searched online, but for guix I had to
experiment on my own, so maybe this information should be mentioned
somewhere, maybe a blog post? Or maybe someone will stumble on this
post.

Anyway, just posting my findings :-)

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Re: Missing fonts when compiling latex documents

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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Hi Alex,

Sorry for the troubles, indeed only the big "texlive" package is fully
functional with Guix at the moment.  There are plans to fix the
individual packages, hopefully someone (possibly me :p) will find time
to get down to it in the near future :)

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

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Re: Missing fonts when compiling latex documents

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hello!

Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> skribis:

> Sorry for the troubles, indeed only the big "texlive" package is fully
> functional with Guix at the moment.

Hmm, is this accurate?  I mean, all the packages uses ‘texlive-union’
internally, and with the texlive profile hook, we should now be able to
make do with individual texlive packages, no?

Thanks,
Ludo’.

Re: Missing fonts when compiling latex documents

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> writes:

> Sorry for the troubles, indeed only the big "texlive" package is fully
> functional with Guix at the moment.

This statement could be misunderstood.  The individual texlive packages
work pretty well for many use cases.  I myself have been using them
since they have become available and I have no problems formatting
letters with g-brief, for example.

Some package combinations might not work, but that’s not because only
the big “texlive” package is fully functional, but because there are
minor bugs in the configuration when using split packages that are
exposed when certain packages are used.  We should treat these bug
reports on a case by case basis.

There are no known big issues that need fixing with the individual
packages.  What should be done, though, is to provide a meta-package
that installs most (if not all) of the individual packages for an
experience similiar to that of having installed the big “texlive”
package — only modular.

@Alexandros: could you please show us the error message you get?  The
messages usually include the names of LaTeX packages that have not been
found.

--
Ricardo