On 2019-11-11, at 01:25, John Hendy <jw.hendy@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 10, 2019 at 6:01 PM Nathan Neff <nathan.neff@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> After using org-mode for 10 years, I run for the doorway when
>> I even think about trying to convert an org-mode file to PDF.
>>
>> *** I quiver when I see errors such as:
>>
>> warning: kpathsea: configuration file texmf.cnf not found in these directories: /usr/bin:/usr/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf/web2c:/usr:/usr/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c:/://share/texmf-local/web2c://share/texmf-dist/web2c://share/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c://texmf-dist/web2c://texmf/web2c.
>> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (TeX Live 2019/Arch Linux) (preloaded format=pdflatex)
>>
>> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt
>> mktexfmt: No such file or directory
>> I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!
>
> These look like latex errors to me, nothing to do with Org. Guessing

These are not LaTeX errors, they are lower-level ones.

> you used the arch package? I'm on arch myself, but after getting
> bitten by package mismatches and things being hopelessly broken, I
> switched to just using texlive directly:
> - https://www.tug.org/texlive/
>
> It's not that bad. There's even a quick guide to walk you through the
> tl-install script. If you'd rather troubleshoot what you have going on
> now, here's some places to start:
> - you're missing files... figure out which package is supposed to
> provide them and install it

He misses LaTeX format file itself, and apparently mktexfmt (which
should create it) cannot be found.  This seems more serious than what
you write.

> - check your paths

Agreed, but this may be quite subtle...

Best,

--
Marcin Borkowski
http://mbork.pl