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I have installed Tex Live 2016 following the instructions from the tex live quick install instruction for linux, running the install-tl installer. I am on Linux Mint 17.3.

Trying to use tlmgr, I got the "Unknown directive..." error and followed what is said here: https://www.tug.org/texlive/tlmgr.html. But executing update-tlmgr-latest.sh gives the following error message: 

Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing TeX Live Manager Updater............................................................................................................................................................................
./runme.sh: Cannot find TeX Live root using kpsewhich --var-value=SELFAUTOPARENT.
./runme.sh: Please set your PATH as needed, otherwise it's hopeless.

I am pretty sure my PATH variables are ok. I edited the ~/.profile file and made sure to log out and back in. I added 

export PATH="$PATH:/home/myusername/texlive/2016" (the tex live directory)

I also tried to add

export PATH="$PATH:/usr/bin" (tlmgr directory)
export PATH="$PATH:/home/myusername/texlive/2016/bin/x86_64-linux"

When I run tlmgr --version in the command line, I get: (running on Debian, switching to user mode!)

tlmgr revision 32912 (2014-02-08 00:49:53 +0100)
tlmgr using installation: /usr/share/texlive
TeX Live (http://tug.org/texlive) version 2013

Consequently, I have also tried to put /usr/share/texlive in the path. Also, I don't understand why it says "version 2013" when I just installed the 2016 one, but maybe that's a print mistake...?

I really don't know what else to try. I saw this related thread Why getting this error tlmgr Unknown directive? but the tex live version I installed is the upstream one not the one from the ubuntu software center.

I am a Linux beginner, please help!!

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seita
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  • My guess is that you have two latex installations. How did you add TUG Tex live 2016 to your PATH? – daleif Jun 29 '16 at 06:08
  • you are using a texlive 2013 tlmgr, you added texlive 2016 at the wrong end of the path so picking up the old one. – David Carlisle Jun 29 '16 at 06:35
  • Thanks! It appeared I had many problems: the wrong directory, an old 2013 installation that was hiding somewhere, and the order of the paths in $PATH. I found the files from the old 2013 tex live installation and deleted them. Now type tex, or type tlmgr gives me the correct directory (ie 2016)! I also figured that to change permanently the $PATH, better was to modify the .bashrc file as opposed to .profile. This helped me solved the order of the paths in $PATH. And I changed the path to /home/user/texlive/2016/bin/x86_64-linux. Everything seems to be working now! Thanks everyone! – seita Jun 29 '16 at 21:31
  • Also, I had to change the ownership of /home/user/texlive because i needed writing permissions to update tlmgr and texlive created the directory with root as owner apparently. – seita Jun 29 '16 at 21:32

1 Answers1

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I added export PATH="$PATH:/home/myusername/texlive/2016"

That appears to be the wrong directory, at the wrong end of the path.

If you already have tex in your PATH (and you appear to have texlive 2013) then any invocation of tex or latex will use the first one in your path, which will be the old one.

then you need to put the directory with the executables in your path, not the top level texlive directory so for me that is

/usr/local/texlive/2016/bin/x86_64-cygwin

but the last part depends on your operating system, so it should be something like

export PATH=/usr/local/texlive/2016/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH

You can check which tex is being used with which or type or similar commands:

$ type tex
tex is /usr/local/texlive/2016/bin/x86_64-cygwin/tex
David Carlisle
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