latex/pdflatex problems with 13.1

On two different machines running 13.1 I cannot use latex. Error message is


113> pdflatex VP_report2014
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.5-1.40.14 (TeX Live 2013/TeX Live for SUSE Linux)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
---! /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex/pdflatex.fmt doesn't match pdftex.pool
(Fatal format file error; I'm stymied)

No idea what ths means. Both machines have been updated from earlier OpenSuSE systems, and are regularly updated

File date


harvey:~ # ls -l /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex/pdflatex.fmt 
-rw-r--r-- 1 root mktex 3819039 Feb  1 19:35 /var/lib/texmf/web2c/pdftex/pdflatex.fmt

==John ff
Not running kde or gnome; fvwm on X; no “desktop”

There is a response on http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/124343/pdflatex-error-latex-fmt-doesnt-match-pdftex-pool which suggests that you may have inadvertently got two different versions of LaTeX running suggesting that the updating process went wrong at some point. NB I updated to 13.1 and have not had the problem.

On 2014-07-20 22:36, jpff wrote:

> No idea what ths means. Both machines have been updated from earlier
> OpenSuSE systems,

How exactly?


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Updated from a DVD and selecting update, certainly for this machine; the other had a more complex history fron in-place update, unbootable machine, lots of fiddling and eventally running system

I find it hard to believe it was always bust in 13.1 as I use latex as a basic tool of life. When was 13.1 released?

On 2014-07-20 23:56, jpff wrote:
>
> Updated from a DVD and selecting update, certainly for this machine; the
> other had a more complex history fron in-place update, unbootable
> machine, lots of fiddling and eventally running system

The typical problem is that the DVD can not upgrade what is not included
in the DVD itself. The cure is to run, after the offline upgrade, a
modified online upgrade:


zypper patch
zypper up
zypper dup

Yes, the three of them, and in that order, I think.
It has to be done before any additional repos are added, which would
complicate matters greatly.

An exception could be nvidia/ati repo, if it was used previously.

After you do the above, and reboot, you can add packman and do the
multimedia things.

Another possible problem are stale config files. Run “rcrpmconfigcheck”.
You should get a list of *.rpmnew files and *.rpmsave files.

When a package is upgraded, rpm can do one of two things with the config
files: 1) leave the old one in place, and add the propossed new one
renamed .rpmnew. 2) Rename the old one as .rpmsave and install a brand
new one.

I suggest making a backup of both the active config file, and the .rpm
file, then open both with:


meld /path/configfile /path/configfile.rpmsave

or

meld /path/configfile /path/configfile.rpmnew

“meld” is a KDE based editor that compares both files and highlights
differences. You can copy sections from one side to the other, save or
abort and retry.

Once done, delete the rpmsave or rpmnew file.

Repeat for the entire list that “rcrpmconfigcheck” produces, till it
comes back empty.

(this procedure should be done anytime you do any update; however, it is
crucial after a system wide upgrade)

Some more info:

Online upgrade
method

Offline upgrade
method


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

Thank you for the responses. I tried fmtutil --all and it seems to have fixed it.

Aso many thanks for this

as I have to install a new system this week.