Why does Lualatex crash after a recent update?

Question

After updating packages of MiKTEX 2.9 lualatex stopped working.

I execute this code:

\documentclass[12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[] at (0,0) {A};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

and I get this error:

"Process started: lualatex.exe -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode "test".tex Error: Command crashed: lualatex.exe -synctex=1
-interaction=nonstopmode "test".tex Process exited with error(s)"

Why does the command crash? What should be done to continue my work?

PDFLatex and XeLatex work fine, but I need lualatex, cause my thesis is with lualatex.

I think this is a duplicate of http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/234628/miktex-update-and-luatex. There is a very recent bug in the latest build — percusse, Mar 25 '15 at 14:07
Recreate the lualatex format (in doubt as user not with miktex settings (admin)). — Ulrike Fischer, Mar 25 '15 at 14:11
Open miktex settings, go to the tab format, select lualatex and click on build. — Ulrike Fischer, Mar 25 '15 at 14:19
Please edit the question title to be more specific/informative. — Paul Gessler, Mar 25 '15 at 15:39
@UlrikeFischer Thank you. I never knew how to get MikTeX to compile using lualatex until you provided your comment. — Steven B. Segletes, Mar 27 '15 at 10:48
Note that there are other official MikTeX support forums; see here. This might warrant a bug report. — Martin Schröder, Mar 27 '15 at 11:51

score 13 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

13

According to Ulrike Fischer comment (see above) "Open Miktex settings, go to the tab Formats, select lualatex and click on Build" First do it in admin mode, then in user mode.

Now everything is working!

enter image description here

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:35

Community

1

answered Mar 25 '15 at 14:27

saldenisov

2,485

2

You opened miktex settings (admin). As it worked this is fine. But if a user format exists then one should use the "non-admin" miktex settings to overwrite it. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 25 '15 at 14:37
Doing that fixed lualatex on my workstation, but I can't seem to be able to fix an install on Windows 2003 server. Logged in as the user which lualatex runs under, built the format, but still the same problem. And pdflatex no longer works there either. This is a catastrophe. – ajeh Mar 26 '15 at 17:54
@UlrikeFischer After the todays update, the update program itself crashes before fetching the available updates. How are you proposing to install further updates? – ajeh Mar 26 '15 at 18:18
1

@ajeh: You can always get packages from CTAN and move them to a local repository and install from there (if mpm is still working). But I would at first try to run the manager from the command line. Btw: That pdflatex isn't working could mean that you have quite a different problem. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 26 '15 at 18:23
@UlrikeFischer After running settings repeatedly under the service user and logging on and off, I finally got pdflatex working. But lualatex works only under my own account (which is a domain admin) and not under the service account. What could that be? Do I need to blow away some files from the service account's home directory? – ajeh Mar 26 '15 at 18:35
@ajeh: I have no idea what's going on on your machine. There is not enough informations. But you could try to remove lualatex.exe and lualatex.fmt (you can find it with kpsewhich --all --engine=luatex lualatex.fmt) and then to recreate both by updating the format. And don't panic: there is always the alternative texlive. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 26 '15 at 18:44
@UlrikeFischer Was too optimistic, nothing works now. Can I go back to a 1 year ago MikTex, as this is a total show stopper and production is down??? – ajeh Mar 26 '15 at 18:45
@ajeh: If you have a backup -- certainly. But not with miktex tools. I don't think that you should continue to discuss this in comments to this question. lualatex works fine here, you have some special problem on your system. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 26 '15 at 18:51
@UlrikeFischer Is it possible to include more detailed diagnostic messages in the MikTex programs? If lualatex is missing something, it should print an error message, not just quit silently. – ajeh Mar 26 '15 at 19:04
@ajeh: I'm not the miktex maintainer. If you have bug report or a feature request: https://sourceforge.net/projects/miktex/. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 26 '15 at 19:09
I cannot do this in Miktex settings as an administrator (the list in formats is empty). When I do it as normal used and click "Build" an "error reading Lualatex.ini" happens.) – alfC Apr 02 '15 at 08:57

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 26 '15 at 20:52

1

The following steps worked for me after building format files was not sufficient (pdflatex kept throwing errors re dump file not found and lualatex just quit silently):

Uninstall MikTex.
Blow away all instances of MikTex folders under all of the user's folders.
Reinstall MikTex (the most recent version).

In my special scenario there were additional steps required due to running lualatex from an ASP.NET web page under a service account using impersonation, but the first 3 at least allowed the regular users to compile.

answered Mar 26 '15 at 20:52

ajeh

2,572

2

The usual Windows voodo: Reinstall the software. :-( – Martin Schröder Mar 27 '15 at 11:45
2

After I spent almost entire day trying to restore business as usual after the accursed update killed everything, and the proposed solution worked only for the users who had the admin rights, the solution I posted worked for everyone. Think of that before you downvote and then think again before trying to justify downvoting. – ajeh Mar 27 '15 at 19:37

Why does Lualatex crash after a recent update?

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