TeX Live CDROM

[Petr Sojka]

> TeX Live - Unix TeX on a CDROM
>
> The TeX Users Group, the UK TeX Users Group and the French TeX Users
> Group (GUTenberg), in collaboration with members of other groups and
> helpful individuals, have produced a plug-and-play CD-ROM of Thomas
> Esser's teTeX distribution, based on Karl Berry's Web2c. Its support
> tree adheres to the TDS (TeX Directory Structure) tree structure
>
> The CD-ROM will be officially launched on May 29th in Nanterre
> (Paris), where GUTenberg organizes a seminar on TeX distributions,
> with Thomas Esser as keynote speaker.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>   1. Supported Unix systems
>   2. The contents of the CD
>   3. How to buy the CD
>   4. Known bugs and problems
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The contents of the CD
>
> The support tree includes the complete LaTeX December 1995, patch
> level 2 release, all tools and most of the contributed packages on
> CTAN; format files are provided with the appropriate hyphenation
> patterns for around 20 languages; other formats include alatex,
> amstex, blue, eplain, lollipop, physsx, psizzl, and text1. Other sets
> of miscellaneous macros are also included. Font families include CM,
> DC 1.2, TC, AMS, Euler, Concrete, and the complete set of PostScript
> metrics from CTAN.
>
> Source material for all packages, fonts and programs is on the CD.
>
> Documentation is available in at least one (and often all) of dvi,
> HTML and PDF.
>
> It may help potential purchasers to see the top level structure of the
> CD:
>
>    * GUT The GUTenberg distributions for DOS, Windows and Macintosh;
>      these consist of compressed archives which must be unpacked and
>      installed on a hard disk. Please see the detailed instructtions
>      (in French)
>    * TeXview The source of, and notes on, the NeXTStep TeXView
>      application, patched for use with Kpathsea;
>    * bin The Unix TeX programs, arranged in 23 separate platform
>      directories ;
>    * emacs Some GNU Emacs support files (primarily AUCTeX); these need
>      a local running GNU Emacs, and local installation for proper use;
>    * info Documentation in GNU `info' format for teTeX;
>    * man Documentation in Unix man pages for teTeX;
>    * src The source of support programs which are not part of teTeX;
>    * teTeX-distrib The original teTeX distribution, in compressed
>      archives: this is needed to build executables for new platforms;
>    * texmf The main support tree of macros, fonts and documentation.
>
> Systems
>
> Presently Unix executables for the following platform/operating system
> combinations are included:
>
>    * Linux on Intel and m68k platforms;
>    * Irix 5.2, 5.3 on MIPS (SGI Indy/Indigo)
>    * SunOS 4.1.3 on Sun
>    * Solaris 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 on SPARC
>    * HPUX 9.01, 10.01 for HP workstations
>    * Digital Unix (OSF/1) 2.0 and 3.2 for DEC Alpha machines
>    * FreeBSD and NetBSD on Intel platforms
>    * Ultrix 4.3, for DEC Decstation machines
>    * AIX 3.2, 4.1.1, for IBM RS6000 machines
>    * NeXTStep on Intel platforms
>
> As the CD-ROM uses the ISO 9660 standard, the platform-independent
> files can, in principle, be read on all operating systems which are
> compatible with that format. To preserve the complete Unix/POSIX file
> system information the file tree was recorded with the Rock Ridge
> extensions, so that long filenames are honored. Some operating
> systems, most notably MS-DOS, do not support these extensions, so that
> only the ISO 9660 filenames are used, but with this limitation, the
> files are readable on all systems.
>
> Buying the CD
>
> The CD can be purchased from the TeX Users Group, or the local user
> groups in the UK, France and the Netherlands. In all cases the cost
> includes postage and packing.
>
> Worldwide: TUG
>
> TUG can supply the CD in the USA for 20 dollars (members) or 40
> dollars (non-members). Orders outside the USA will cost extra for
> postage - contact us for details. Send orders to:
>
> Patricia Monohon, TUG
> 1850 Union St., Suite 1637
> San Francisco, CA 94123 USA
> Tel:    +1 415 982 8449
> Fax:    +1 415 982 8559
> tug at tug.org
>
> UK: UKTUG
>
> The price to members is 15 pounds and 25 pounds to non members in the
> UK. This price includes a voucher for 5 pounds redeemable against the
> next release of this, or other, TeX CDs sold by UKTUG. Members means
> UKTUG or other TUG related organisation. For Europe the prices are 2
> pounds higher. We hope soon to have a bank account where European
> currencies are accepted. Send orders to:
>
> Peter Abbott
> 1 Eymore Close, Selly Oak
> Birmingham B29 4LB, England
> Fax/Tel: +44 0121 476 2159
>
> Treasurer and Membership Secretary, UKTUG email Peter.Abbott at tex.ac.uk
> Phone 0121 476 2159 Fax 0121 476 2159
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>
> France: GUTenberg
>
> GUTenberg will sell the CD to members only for 100 francs. Send orders
> to:
>
> Association GUTenberg
> Groupe francophone des Utilisateurs de TeX
> BP 10
> F-93220 Gagny principal, France
> Tel:    +33 1 44 32 37 96
> Fax:    +33 1 44 32 20 80
> e-mail gut at irisa.fr
>
> Netherlands: NTG
>
> The NTG will sell the CD to their members for Hfl 35. and to
> non-members for Hfl 70. Money can be transferred to NTG, Postbank
> (giro) account number 1306238, Eindhoven. `Real money' (or cheque,
> VISA, Master/Eurocard info) should be sent to NTG, PO Box 394, 1740 AJ
> Schagen, The Netherlands.
>
> Known problems with the TeXLive CD
>
> The CD TeX Live was prepared over a period of 4 months, with as much
> care and testing as we could devise. Inevitably, however, we made some
> slip ups, for which we apologize profusely. We are aware at this time
> of three problems:
>
>   1. Using the system on operating systems which do not see Rock Ridge
>      extensions;
>   2. A bug in one of the installation scripts;
>   3. A bad executable for virtex in the DEC Ultrix setup.
>
> Solutions are described below. Please send details of any other
> problems that you have, or any fixes you find, so that this page can
> be updated.
>
> Using the CD on non-Rock Ridge systems
>
> The CD is in ISO 9660 (High Sierra) format, with Rock Ridge
> extensions. In order to take full advantage of the CD on a Unix
> system, your system needs to be able to use the Rock Ridge extensions.
> Please consult the documentation for your mount command to see if it
> is possible. If not, there are two alternatives:
>
>   1. If you have several different machines on a local network, see if
>      you can mount the CD on one which does support Rock Ridge, and
>      use it from the others;
>   2. We have written some new installation scripts for systems which
>      can only mount the CD as a pure ISO 9660 file system. These are
>      still being worked on, but the first versions are on CTAN in
>      info/texlive
>
> Linux, FreeBSD, Sun, SGI and DEC Alpha systems should be able to use
> the CD with no problems. We would appreciate receiving detailed advice
> from other system users who also succeed, for future versions of this
> documentation.
>
> A bug in the package install script
>
> Yes, we screwed this one up. Get a fresh copy of install-pkg.sh and
> run with the -cddir option.
>
> A bad copy of virtex
>
> The copy of virtex in bin/mips-ultrix4.4 is rubbish. You can extract a
> clean copy from teTeX-distrib/binaries/mips-ultrix4.4.tar.gz on the CD
> as teteX/bin/mips-ultrix4.4/virtex, or here
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Author: Sebastian Rahtz.
>
> Last modified: May 28th 1996.
>
> Please send comments by email to s.rahtz at elsevier.co.uk