LaTeX broken in lucid lynx?

**bodhidharma** · May 6th, 2010

Does anyone know what has happened with LaTeX in Lucid Lynx? I use LaTeX all the time, and just having upgraded my /usr/bin/latex is now a symbolic link to pdftex, and I get the error

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (TeX Live 2009/Debian)
restricted \write18 enabled.
---! /home/mylogin/.texmf-var/web2c/pdftex/latex.fmt doesn't match pdftex.pool
(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

**lechien73** · May 6th, 2010

The problem is that your the latex.fmt file in ~/.texmf-var/web2c/pdftex/ is from your previous version, and so is overriding the global format that would have been created by the new installation.

From your home directory try:

Code:

mv .texmf-var/ .texmf-backup

**Demogorge** · May 7th, 2010

You can also run

Code:

sudo fmtutil --all

To rebuild the ~/.texmf-var directory. This fixed it for me.

In addition you may need to run:

Code:

sudo updmap-sys
update-updmap
updmap

if you have trouble with finding fonts.

**eckubu** · May 8th, 2010

Excellent hint given by demogorge/ Within less than one minute LaTeX worked again!
Thanks.

**bodhidharma** · May 8th, 2010

Yes ... thanks for the help! I was already completely removing and reinstalling everything, *and* I did what you suggested... so I'm not sure which one it was which helped. Anyway, thanks!

**Demogorge** · May 18th, 2010

Glad I could help!

**quackeroni_pizza** · June 11th, 2010

I'm seeing a slightly different error with Latex after the upgrade...

The style file ifpdf.sty conflicts with \ifpdf variable definitions in texinfo.. This breaks \includegraphics auto-extensions.

Extrememely annoying!!