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4. Post-installation configuration details.

The first thing you'll want to do is look at Thomas Esser's README file. It contains a lot of hints on how to configure teTeX for your output device (i.e., printer). The README file is located in the directory

/usr/lib/teTeX/texmf/doc/tetex
Read the file over with the command (the path in the following examples is that of the Slackware distribution):
less /usr/lib/teTeX/texmf/doc/tetex/README
or, print it out with the command
cat /usr/lib/teTeX/texmf/doc/tetex/README >/dev/lp0
assuming that your printer is connected to /dev/lp0. Substitute the device driver file that your printer is connected to, as appropriate.

Or, better still, print it using the lpr(1) command:

lpr /usr/lib/teTeX/texmf/doc/tetex/README
You should have installed the printer daemon that is included with your distribution of Linux. If not, do that now, per the instructions that come with the package. If you don't have one of the packages, or want to install a printer daemon yourself, see section The lpd(8) daemon

Print out the teTeX-FAQ. Keep the FAQ handy because it contains useful hints for configuring teTeX's output drivers for your printer. We'll get to that in a moment. In more recent releases of teTeX, the teTeX-FAQ is viewable via the texconfig utility.

Next, you want to define a directory to store your own TeX format files. teTeX searches the directories listed by the $TEXINPUTS environment variable for local TeX input files. On Chanel3, I added the line

export TEXINPUTS=".:~/texinputs:"
to the system-wide /etc/profile file. Individual users can set their own local $TEXINPUTS directory, by adding the line in their ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile if bash(1) is the default shell. The $TEXINPUTS environment variable tells teTeX to look for users' individual TeX style files in the ~/texinputs directories under each user's home directory. It is critical that a colon appear before and after this directory. teTeX is going to append its own directory searches to your own. You want to have teTeX search the local format files first, so it uses the local versions of any of the standard files you have edited.

Add the /usr/lib/teTeX/bin directory to the system-wide path if you're installing teTeX as root. Again, if you're installing a personal copy of teTeX, add the directory where the teTeX binaries are located to the front your $PATH with the following line in your ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile:

export PATH="~/tetex/bin:"$PATH
Now, log in as root and run texconfig per the instructions in the teTeX-FAQ and choose the printer that is attached to your system. Make sure that you configure teTeX for both the correct printer and printer resolution.

Finally, run the texhash program. This ensures that teTeX's internal database is up to date. The database is actually a ls-lR file. You must run texhash every time you change the system configuration, or teTeX will not be able to locate your changes.

4.1 What if my printer isn't included?

The teTeX distribution comes with only a limited selection of DVI output drivers: dvips(1), drivers for Hewlett Packard LaserJets, and nothing else. You have two options if you have a printer which isn't LaserJet-compatible: You can use dvips(1) and Ghostscript, which I would recommend anyway, for reasons already mentioned, or you can investigate other dviware sources.

A limited number of DVI drivers have been ported to Linux and are available as pre-built binaries. They are located in the Linux archives at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/apps/tex/dvi/.

The master dviware libraries are maintained at the University of Utah archives. If you can't find a DVI driver there that supports your printer, chances are that it doesn't exist. You can also write your own DVI driver using the templates available there. The library's URL is ftp://ftp.math.utah.edu/pub/tex/dvi/.


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