pdflatex failed for some reason (but which? and how can this be repaired?)

Question

pdflatex is giving me problems since Friday 3rd, October 2015. Apparently babel and some font definitions are making it stall. From the pdflatex.log I copied the following message:

2015-10-05 22:24:37,344+0200 FATAL pdflatex - GUI framework cannot be initialized.
2015-10-05 22:24:37,344+0200 FATAL pdflatex - Info: 
2015-10-05 22:24:37,344+0200 FATAL pdflatex - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\UI\Qt\mikuiqt.cpp
2015-10-05 22:24:37,345+0200 FATAL pdflatex - Line: 50
The error message when trying to run pdflatex in the console is "This application failed to start because it could not find or load the Qt platform plugin  "windows".

Here is a MWE

\documentclass[final,authoryear,5p,twocolumn,times]{elsarticle}
\begin{document}
\begin{frontmatter}
    \title{Some title\tnoteref{t1}}
    \date{\today}
    \begin{abstract}
        \noindent abstract.
    \end{abstract}
\end{frontmatter}
\section{Introduction}\label{sec:intro}
Over the past two decades, there has been a marked shift.
\end{document}

It seems to be a problem with your editor. I have no problem with this code under MiKTeX 2.9 (updated to the last version). Which editor do you use? — Bernard, Oct 05 '15 at 20:43
@Bernard, I use winedt 8.1. But can an editor which worked before suddenly not work, especially as I did not update the editor in question. Additionally, if I comment the Babel line, the MWE compiles up till the font description at the end of the compilation. I also tried on my other machine which is on Win8.1 and with Winedt9.1 (64-bit) and got the same error message: pdflatex failed for some reason. — Xavier_B, Oct 07 '15 at 12:57

Xavier_B · Answer 1 · 2015-10-09T10:10:29.073

3

After much exploration and hair pulling, and thanks to moewe, the culprit was in fact the interaction between WinEdt as TeX editor, and the Package options manager of MiKTeX when a new package has to be installed. The update window is blocked somehow and pdflatex crashes, and so do the other compilers like LuaLaTex. The best solution is to have option "Installing missing packages on the fly" set to "Yes" instead of "Ask me first".

One last comment: pdflatex still hangs at the end of the compilation when started by winedt.

edited Oct 09 '15 at 10:10

answered Oct 09 '15 at 08:41

Xavier_B

449

You can find something about this on the WinEdt mailing list: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.editors.winedt/8946 and in Unable to install a missing package on-the-fly in MikTeX, 64 bit from WinEdt – moewe Oct 09 '15 at 10:15

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 06 '16 at 19:26

0

winedt>Tex>Miktex>Miktex Options>Install missing packages on the fly (SET TO YES)!!!!

edited Apr 06 '16 at 19:26

Mensch

65,388

answered Apr 06 '16 at 19:06

Rafael Bezerra Correia Lima

11

2

Are you sure that is the solution? Why? Please explain it! – Mensch Apr 06 '16 at 19:28

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 09 '20 at 19:54

0

In the MiKTeX Console I set the value of the -

Choose whether the missing packages are to be installed on the fly - Always install missing packages on the fly

and it worked

answered Feb 09 '20 at 19:54

guest

1

Are you sure this is a solution to the problem? Besides, how is it different than the answer of @RafaelBezerraCorreiaLima? Maybe you should add more details! – Vincent Feb 09 '20 at 20:32

pdflatex failed for some reason (but which? and how can this be repaired?)

3 Answers3

Linked