Error message after Installation with current lyx-webinstaller (windows)

[Peter Jahn-2]

Hi lyx user group,

I just installed lyx on a windows xp system (sp2). After the installation
(which included MikTeX, ghostscript, imagemagick) and after opening files
(i. e. from the docs) error messages appear telling me that layout-files are
missing (scrbook.layout). Is this a known bug? Was it my mistake?

I also tried the installation on windows vista. The same effect occurs here
too.

Thanks for any help.

--
Best regards;
Peter Jahn

[Paul A. Rubin]

Peter Jahn wrote:

> Hi lyx user group,
>
> I just installed lyx on a windows xp system (sp2). After the installation
> (which included MikTeX, ghostscript, imagemagick) and after opening files
> (i. e. from the docs) error messages appear telling me that layout-files are
> missing (scrbook.layout). Is this a known bug? Was it my mistake?
>
> I also tried the installation on windows vista. The same effect occurs here
> too.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>

If you start a new document and go to Document -> Settings... ->
Document Class -> Document class, are *all* the classes listed as
unavailable, or just some (including scrbook)?  If they are all
unavailable, LyX had a problem configuring itself.  In that case, you
can try the following:

1.  Make sure that the MiKTeX bin directory is on your system command path.

2.  Tools -> Reconfigure, then restart LyX and see if things are better.
  If not ...

3.  At a DOS prompt, run 'kpsewhich article.cls'.  If MiKTeX doesn't
find article.cls, your MiKTeX installation is somehow screwed up.  If
the OS doesn't find the kpsewhich command, either you didn't get the bin
directory on the command path or your MiKTeX installation is severely
messed up.  Assuming MiKTeX is ok ...

4.  Check Help -> About LyX to find where LyX is putting your "home
directory".  A tilde there usually means C:\Documents and Settings\<your
id here>\ in XP (I forget where it ends up in Vista, where everything
has been moved around), but just to be safe run 'set H' at a DOS prompt
and concatenate HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH to find the replacement for the
tilde.  Open a DOS prompt in the parent of the home directory (e.g.,
C:\Documents and Settings\me\), delete the lyx15 directory entirely,
then run '<path to LyX>\python\python.exe <path to
LyX>\Resources\configure.py' and cross your fingers (toes too if you
can).  Watch the output and see if the script indicates that (a) it
found a working latex.exe and (b) it found at least some document
classes.  If that works, try starting LyX again.

If most of the classes are there but scrbook is not, you just need to
use the MiKTeX package manager to install the komascript classes.

/Paul

[Uwe Stöhr]

Peter Jahn schrieb:

> I just installed lyx on a windows xp system (sp2). After the installation
> (which included MikTeX, ghostscript, imagemagick) and after opening files
> (i. e. from the docs) error messages appear telling me that layout-files are
> missing (scrbook.layout). Is this a known bug? Was it my mistake?

This is not your mistake. To be able to process all docs, the LaTeX-package koma-script needs to be
installed.

When you install LyX using this installer:
http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyXWinInstaller

all LaTeX-packages needed by LyX are automatically installed. All you need to do, is to have an open
internet connection before you start to install LyX.

regards Uwe

[Joost Verburg-2]

Uwe Stöhr wrote:
> When you install LyX using this installer:
> http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyXWinInstaller
>
> all LaTeX-packages needed by LyX are automatically installed. All you
> need to do, is to have an open internet connection before you start to
> install LyX.

The standard installer does the same thing. Try Tools > Reconfigure and
MiKTeX should try to download it again.

Joost

[grapeshot]

I appear to be having the same problem as the originator of this thread.

First I thought that maybe my packages needed updating.  So, using the advice in THIS thread.

I tried updating all my packages.  It turns our that four, out of about 50 or so (I didn't really count all of them) that needed updating, simply wouldn't install at all.  (I can forward you the error log files if it would help.  I also noted the error messages that the MiKTeX updater gave me for each failed update.  I was unable to resolve the problem with these four on my own.)


Afterwards, I was still getting the same error messages when trying to open the Tutorial and other help documents -- so clearly updating my packages wasn't the solution.

Then I found this thread.

>If you start a new document and go to Document -> Settings... ->
>Document Class -> Document class, are *all* the classes listed as
>unavailable, or just some (including scrbook)?  

Checking my document classes as per the instructions indicates that most, but not all classes are unavailable, including scrbook.

Not being very sure what to do next, I forged on with the advice posted here.

>If they are all
>unavailable, LyX had a problem configuring itself.  In that case, you
>can try the following:
>
>1.  Make sure that the MiKTeX bin directory is on your system command path.

THIS advice has me very puzzled.  WHAT does this mean??  Where do I check this?
I checked the paths under "Tools" and "Settings".
Here's an image of what it shows for my paths.


I noticed that my Documents Templates path seemes hosed up.  It reads:
C:\Program Files\LyX15\Resources\.\templates\

But when I check the actual path, it's more like
C:\Program Files\LyX15\Resources\templates\  (That's WITHOUT the extra ".")

However, I'm not smart enough to know if this is right or wrong.  Also, I've tried changing it, and it has had no effect on anything as far as I can tell, PLUS it keeps changing back every time I re-open LyX.

I also note that in this window, my PATH settings seem to be:
C:\Program Files\LyX15\bin;C:\Program Files\LyX15\python;C:\Program Files\LyX15\ghostscript\bin;C:\Program Files\LyX15\imagemagick

If THIS is the path that I'm supposed to be checking, it clearly says nothing whatsoever about MiKTeX.   Am I supposed to type in something different here?  If so, what?

>2.  Tools -> Reconfigure, then restart LyX and see if things are better.

 I've tried various times to Reconfigure LyX, but that hasn't resolved my problem.

>  If not ...
>
>3.  At a DOS prompt, run 'kpsewhich article.cls'.  If MiKTeX doesn't
>find article.cls, your MiKTeX installation is somehow screwed up.  If
>the OS doesn't find the kpsewhich command, either you didn't get the bin
>directory on the command path or your MiKTeX installation is severely
>messed up.  Assuming MiKTeX is ok ...

I tried the kpsewhich command at a dos prompt.  (at C:\ that is) and I get a message back that says "The system cannot execute the specified program."  I'm not sure what exactly this message means, but it can't be good.  

At this point I have to confess that I'm WAY beyond my computer knowledge and have absolutely no idea of what to do.  For all these hours of puzzling over this, I seem to be no further towards figuring out how to make LyX properly open the help documents.  And if those won't open, how can I be confident that anything else I may want to do in LyX would work properly?

Can you help me out??

ER...for reference, I am running Windows XP SP3, and used the installer LyX-1.5.6-Installer.exe to install.  Based on the comments in this thread, that appears to have been the wrong one to use.  Should I uninstall everything and start all over?  If so, what all do I need to uninstall?