XeLaTeX fails, claims LaTeX sources older than 5 years

Question

When compiling a LaTeX document with XeTeX, I get the following error: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! You are attempting to make a LaTeX format from a source file ! That is more than five years old. ! ! If you enter to scroll past this message then the format ! will be built, but please consider obtaining newer source files ! before continuing to build LaTeX. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

! LaTeX source files more than 5 years old!.
l.545 ...aTeX source files more than 5 years old!}
? 
! Emergency stop.
l.545 ...aTeX source files more than 5 years old!}
No pages of output.

I invoked the command with xelatex document.tex, what am I doing wrong? LaTeX and XeTeX was installed from repos of Fedora 15, how come those sources are too old?

Edit:

I was asked to provide an example where this error occurs:

\documentclass[pdftex, paper=a4, 11pt]{scrartcl}
\title{title}
\begin{document}
%\maketitle
\section*{test}
blah blah
\end{document}

I could further simplify, if that helps...

Answer 1

Nothing is wrong, except the old software. You should upgrade your TeX Live distribution.

Answer 2

I think this question has been asked by a user using Ubuntu.

The problem is that the TeXlive distributed by most Linux distributions (if not all) is still TeXLive 2007. If everything is from TL2007 it should be fine. But perhaps the maintainer updated some individual binaries, e.g., xetex, without updating everything.

I strongly suggest against using the texlive distribution by Fedora/Ubuntu or whatever. Instead, I suggest you install an up to date TeXlive distribution from the official site http://tug.org/texlive/. You can find everything you need to know about the installation from the same site.

Answer 3

Probably the easiest solution to this problem is to temporarily change the system date (of course, this applies only when actually generating formats, after which you can set the date back).

This , of course, only if for some reason you don't want to upgrade your TeX distro.

Answer 4

I have been using Miktex 2.6 version on Windows PC. This isn't my original answer, however it works. This message is meant to force people to use later versions. When I got the above error message That is more than five years old the solution is search for the file latex.ltx in your latex distribution. Make its duplicate on the desktop or elsewhere. Open it using Notepad. Within the file Search for the lines containing 65 as shown below.

\ifnum\count@>65
  \typeout{^^J%
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!^^J%
!  You are attempting to make a LaTeX format from a source file^^J%
!  That is more than five years old.^^J%
!^^J%
!  If you enter <return> to scroll past this message then the format^^J%
!  will be built, but please consider obtaining newer source files^^J%
!  before continuing to build LaTeX.^^J%
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!^^J%
}
   \errhelp{To avoid this error message, obtain new LaTeX sources.}
   \errmessage{LaTeX source files more than 5 years old!}
\fi

In the latex.ltx file, change 65 to 300 and save it. Then replace the original latex.ltx file in the distribution with the duplicate from the desktop. That should solve the problem.