Bug#375245: [Pkg-lyx-devel] Bug#375245: lyx-qt: Can't do dvi preview of FAQ [SOLVED]

[Ross Boylan]

On Sun, Jun 25, 2006 at 08:48:02PM +0200, Per Olofsson wrote:
> Ross Boylan:
> > On Sun, Jun 25, 2006 at 11:53:24AM +0200, Per Olofsson wrote:
> > > Anyway, making a DVI out of the FAQ works for me too. Maybe you have a
> > > problem with your TeX installation?
> > > 
> > How can I track it down?
> 
> You could try exporting the LyX document to LaTeX, and the run latex
> manually on it. But maybe it will give the same result.

That was enough to diagnose and solve the problem, because the log
that resulted was more verbose.  The key error was
----------------------------------------------------------
kpathsea: Running mktextfm ecbx0900
mktextfm: Running mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecbx0900
This is METAFONT, Version 2.71828 (Web2C 7.5.4)

kpathsea: Running mktexmf ecbx0900
/usr/bin/mktexmf: line 92: mf19722.tmp: Permission denied
chmod: cannot access `mf19722.tmp': No such file or directory
mv: cannot stat `mf19722.tmp': No such file or directory
mktexmf: /var/cache/fonts/source/jknappen/ec/ecbx0900.mf: successfully generated.
/usr/share/texmf/web2c/mktexupd: /var/cache/fonts/source/jknappen/ec/ecbx0900.mf not a file.
warning: kpathsea: mktexpk output `/var/cache/fonts/source/jknappen/ec/ecbx0900.mf' instead of a filename.
! I can't find file `ecbx0900'.
<*> ...ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecbx0900
                                                  
Please type another input file name
-------------------------------------------------------

This in turn was the result of changes in tetex's font handling as
explained in /usr/share/doc/tex-common/README.Debian in a note dated
Mar 15, 2006.  There were corresponding warnings on upgrade, which I
had forgotten.  The problems were not with the lyx package itself, but
with the setup of some of the tools it uses.

I took the recommended route of making "users" the owning group for
the fonts, and hadn't put myself (or anyone else) in the group.  I
guess it had been a problem because all the fonts I needed were
already there at the appropriate size until today.

Even once I dimly remembered the upgrade warnings I had a hard time
finding out what was going on.  It doesn't appear to be documented in
tetex-base or tetex-bin, which is where I looked.  I finally found it
grepping in my install logs, which in turn pointed to tex-common is
the controlling package.

So, I'm not sure if there's any lesson here other than that I should
remember when I get a warning that a change will break things :(.

I'd regard any of the following as fine ways to deal with this:

* close it
* leave it for others who have the same problem
* add a small note in lyx's README.Debian like
"If you have problems with fonts, it might be because of the issues
documented in /usr/share/doc/tex-common/README.Debian."
* kick it over to the TeX team.  But the current settings are the
result of a considered decision, so are probably the right thing.  And
they already warn fairly clearly about this.  They might put a few
more pointers to the issue in their documents.

Sorry for the trouble.  Thank you for helping me get to the bottom of
it.

P.S. for those who follow: adding a user to a group appears not to
help your current sessions.  You need to log in again for the new
group settings to take effect.