Very Computer

I've got a fresh installation of FreeBSD 3.3.  Attempting to*files
that work elsewhere gives

latex sample2e.tex
This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (Web2C 7.3.1)
(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

That's it, no hints, no clues.  All the packages that I can think of
checking are indeed installed.  So what did I do wrong?

Thanks for any advice,
Babak

Somewhere in your system are files like latex.fmt, tex.fmt, etc.
These are created for the following reason.  When you type, for example,
latex, the tex program has to read latex.tex.  This takes quite a while,
so what is done is that one time latex.tex is processed, and the internal
status of the program is stored away in latex.fmt.  When you type latex,
the tex program loads in latex.fmt, and away you go.

I have got an error like yours when the program that created latex.fmt is
different than the program trying to use it.  Usually it means that I
loaded more than one version of tex on my system.

Probably you loaded teTeX (a distribution that contains ALL the tex you
will probably need), and also latex, which loads tex as a dependency.
(You may have loaded teTeX as a dependency for lyx.)  These are two
different incompatible packages.  Probably one is loading the .fmt
file created by the other.

If I were you, I would deinstall EVERY thing related to tex (the pkg_delete
program will do this - find out what you have using pkg_info -Ia), perhaps
for good measure remove /usr/local/share/texmf and all its subdirectories
and files, and then load only teTeX.

--

University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO 65211
USA

Phone (573) 882 4540
Fax   (573) 882 1869

http://www.veryComputer.com/~stephen

Thanks!  Now I can continue my move to FreeBSD.

Babak