Creating missing pdflatex.fmt

[Adrian Meyer]

Hello everybody,
I'm trying to install teTeX on an old notebook (Pentium I 166 MHz, 64 MB
RAM, OS: Damn Small Linux).
Most of the distribution's parts work fine, however pdflatex doesn't
because the file pdflatex.fmt is missing.
Having searched the web for this problem, I tried the following suggestion:
bash>fmtutil --missing
bash>fmtutil --all
Neither of the two commands created the missing pdflatex.fmt file.
I also copyied this file from the TeX Live distribution into the right
directory, but it didn't work either, because pdflatex did not accept
this file.
Could anyone help me to find a way of creating the missing pdflatex.fmt
file?

[Robin Fairbairns]

Post by Adrian Meyer
I'm trying to install teTeX on an old notebook (Pentium I 166 MHz, 64 MB
RAM, OS: Damn Small Linux).

i presume you understand you'll get a very old version this way? it
may be important to know what version of tetex you've actually got.
i've got a runnable tetex 3.0 hanging around (and sources of 1.0 and
2.0 hanging around).

Post by Adrian Meyer
Most of the distribution's parts work fine, however pdflatex doesn't
because the file pdflatex.fmt is missing.
bash>fmtutil --missing
bash>fmtutil --all

both require that your fmtutil.cnf file is in good shape. if neither
command works, the chances are the file isn't, or there's something
else missing...

for tetex 3.0, the fmtutil.cnf file has

pdflatex pdftex language.dat pdflatex.ini
pdfelatex pdfetex language.dat *pdfelatex.ini

pdflatex.ini and pdfelatex.ini both contain

\pdfoutput=1
\scrollmode
\input latex.ltx
\endinput

are all those right?

[Adrian Meyer]

Thanks a lot for your hint. Indeed, the files pdflatex.ini and
pdfelatex.ini are missing:
bash>find /usr/share/texmf -name pdflatex.ini
bash>find /usr/share/texmf -name pdfelatex.ini
return no results.
This seems to be a bug in the debian package (from the version woody)
I've installed (see
http://lists.debian.org/debian-tetex-maint/2003/07/msg00252.html for
explanation).
Now, the question is where I could get pdflatex.ini and pdfelatex.ini
and where I have to place them within my /usr/share/texmf tree.

[Adrian Meyer]

Finally, I could fix the problem. For everyone being faced to a similar
issue:
1. Get the files pdflatex.ini and pdftexconfig.tex (e. g. from the TeX
Live or another distribution)
2. Place the file pdflatex.ini in
path_to_your_texmf_tree/texmf/pdftex/latex/config/
3. Place the file pdftexconfig.tex in
path_to_your_texmf_tree/texmf/tex/generic/config/
4. Run texhash as superuser/root
5. Run fmtutil --missing as superuser/root
I hope this helps other people just like your help in this newsgroup
gave me the crucial hint.