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This is my first time posting here so I'm not sure what the formatting is. I'll try to be as detailed as possible. I've been recently trying to get into LaTeX, so I installed MikTex and Texmaker a while ago. I've been having horrible issues for ages now.

When I try to write absolutely anything I face annoying error issues by the application when trying to generate a PDF such as "Error, view log file" "Fatal error - could not generate PDF" and lastly, the simple, "File not found".

This is infuriating to an unprecedented extent. Not only are there no solutions online because this problem occurs only to very few, and people solve it by random ways, in the sense that one person might do something that will get the program to work whilst others trying it won't get any result.

This leads me to ask, are the developers absolute idiots? They know how many people use the program yet they can't fix this error the application has been having since 2015 or earlier? What on earth is this shit troubleshooting?

ChaosForever
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  • Welcome to TeX.SE, thank you for your question. Could you post what the .log file says, if you have one? And maybe a snippet of what you're trying to compile? It's easier for people to help you if they have access to as much relevant info as possible :-) –  Feb 10 '24 at 01:33
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    It could also be helpful if you posted the specific solutions you looked at that weren't helpful. Best! –  Feb 10 '24 at 01:39
  • This is a well known issue in the little piece between the keyboard and the chair. Apparently it cannot be solved despite the best efforts of developers from any existing software. Unfortunately, it appears to affect more people than you seem to presume. – gusbrs Feb 10 '24 at 02:14
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    With regard to the file not found error, you could try running the document from the terminal so you could specify the path. And, I would suggest using nicer language as not everyone here has the emotional endurance (mental bandwidth) to take an insult - the developers participate here. A general rule of thumb is to treat people how you want to be treated. Just trying to help :) (Btw, I don't mind if you treat me like that because I'm strong) –  Feb 10 '24 at 02:45
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    You wrote, "I'll try to be as detailed as possible." Actually, you've posted nothing that could be considered to be a detail about the document you've created and are trying to compile. – Mico Feb 10 '24 at 03:42

1 Answers1

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Some general advice:

(1) Be sure that your TeX installation works. Here is a test document:

\documentclass{article}
% \usepackage{fontspec}
\begin{document}
Hello, World\par
\end{document}

Compile that using pdflatex. If it fails, then your TeX setup is bad. Then un-comment the line \usepackage{fontspec} and re-compile using lualatex. If that fails, then you do not have luatex support (but you may not need it for your own work).

So far, so good? Then try adding things, a little at a time. The following code is very helpful for debugging:

\typeout{WHEEEEE 1} % change the number each time you use it

You may put that in preamble, and in main text.

Then compile, and look at the log file. You code is good up to the point where you see the last WHEEEEE, and fails between there and where you expected to see the next WHEEEEE.

rallg
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