Provide install instructions about babel

[josephwright]

TeX Live is updated more-or-less every day: you mean rather that the Ubuntu version is rather slower. Most of the time, the advice if you want to use a more up-to-date system is to us 'vanilla' TeX Live from TUG rather than your system managed one (i.e. more or less the same was Windows and macOS users have anyway). See e.g. https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1092/how-to-install-vanilla-texlive-on-debian-or-ubuntu on this

That said: babel is no different to any other (La)TeX package for 'local' installation, so e.g. https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1137/where-do-i-place-my-own-sty-or-cls-files-to-make-them-available-to-all-my-te covers things.

[jbezos]

@elyahw There are minimal instructions here. Follow its advice and install TeXLive 🙂.

[elyahw]

I also use archlinux and it is exactly the same situation, the packages are called texlive-basic and texlive-latex and they are rarely updated..

I will try what you suggested. Thanks for the links.

[FrankMittelbach]

@elyahw I wonder if these packages are real TL packages or largely crippled (beside not being updated more than once a year). If they are real, you probably have tlmgr from TeX Live on your machine through which you can update your system yourself.

[davidcarlisle]

@FrankMittelbach no typically you can't use tlmgr (or only in limited ways) with a linux system texlive, as that is set up to pull from a texlive repo but these have been re-packged to take part in a standard linux package management via apt or yum or whatever the distro uses which means that other linux applications with a depenency on tex can be tracked but relies on the system texlive packages being updated which is typically less frequent than the daily upstream tl updates.

[elyahw]

I know this might be a separate issue but this is what happened:

I removed all texlive/latex installations on my system, and I installed texlive manually using the installation script, by following instructions here:
https://tug.org/texlive/quickinstall.html

Now I have the folder /usr/local/texlive/2023/ on my system.

I appended export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2023/bin/x86_64-linux:/usr/local/texlive/2023/bin:$PATH to ~/.bashrc

I try to compile a minimalist tex file in Texstudio. I add the path /usr/local/texlive/2023/bin/x86_64-linux:/usr/local/texlive/2023/bin to the $PATH field (Settings -> Build). But I get the error:

Process started: lualatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode "basic sample".tex

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.
kpathsea: Running mktexfmt lualatex.fmt
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.
/usr/local/texlive/2023/bin/x86_64-linux/mktexfmt: kpsewhich -var-value=TEXMFROOT failed, aborting early. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/texlive/2023/bin/x86_64-linux/mktexfmt line 25.
Process exited with error(s)

Process started: makeindex "basic sample".idx

Input index file basic sample.idx not found. Usage: makeindex [-ilqrcgLT] [-s sty] [-o ind] [-t log] [-p num] [idx0 idx1 ...]
Process exited with error(s)

Process started: lualatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode "basic sample".tex

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.
kpathsea: Running mktexfmt lualatex.fmt
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. /usr/local/texlive/2023/bin/x86_64-linux/mktexfmt: kpsewhich -var-value=TEXMFROOT failed, aborting early. BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/local/texlive/2023/bin/x86_64-linux/mktexfmt line 25.
Process exited with error(s)

Is this something anyone can help me with please?

And do I need to run the script /usr/local/texlive/2023/install-tl at all?

[u-fischer]

I know this might be a separate issue but this is what happened:

It is a separate issue and doesn't belong here. Ask on the texlive mailing list https://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/tex-live or on some general support site like tex.stackexchange for help.