[tex-live] install-tl testing notes

[George N. White III]

I tried running install-tl under wine, which I find very helpful for
running MiKTeX.
(Apps that don't work with wine probably rely on undocumented or otherwise
suspect Win32 functions and registry entries and need to be fixed).

.\install-tl --gui --url
ftp://carroll.aset.psu.edu/pub/CTAN/systems/texlive/tlnet/tldev
under wine (ver .  v9126/9107). There was a problem with the registry
for rfc1766
(I think this comes with Internet Explorer -- not sure if 3rd party
browsers also
provide it).  I just  set

 my $lm = "en";

in TLWinGoo.pm.   The gui claimed the install directory was not
writable, but let me change
from C:\Program Files\texlive\2008 to C:\texlive\2008.  It accepted
the texmf dirs but
still had TEXDIR "(default not writable -- please change)".  I made
some changes to the
configuration and started the install.  It proceeded to download the
files,  About 6 hours
later I hit:

Installing: ziffer

Tk::Error: Can't use an undefined value as a HASH reference at
tlpkg/TeXLive/TLWinGoo.pm line 347.
 TeXLive::TLWinGoo::get_user_path at tlpkg/TeXLive/TLWinGoo.pm line 347
 TeXLive::TLWinGoo::add_texbindir_to_path at tlpkg/TeXLive/TLWinGoo.pm line 494
 main::do_installation at C:\install-tl\install-tl line 477
 main::__ANON__ at tlpkg/installer/install-menu-perltk.pl line 352
 Tk callback for .frame1.frame12.button
 Tk::__ANON__ at C:\install-tl\tlpkg\installer\perllib/Tk.pm line 247
 Tk::Button::butUp at
C:\install-tl\tlpkg\installer\perllib/Tk/Button.pm line 111
 <ButtonRelease-1>
 (command bound to event)

restarting with

.\install-tl --profile installation.profile --url
ftp://carroll.aset.psu.edu/pub/CTAN/systems/texlive/tlnet/tldev
Installing: 12many
Downloaded file present, size equal, but md5sum differs
redownloading ftp://carroll.aset.psu.edu/pub/CTAN/systems/texlive/tlnet/tldev//tlpkg/12many.tar.lzma!

The same occurred with every file, so either the mirror was updated
while I was running the install
or the md5sum calculation has a problem.  I'm running out of time, but
I did start install-tl under
linux so I could compare the files.  Restarting install-tl on either
platform always gives the
"Downloaded file present, size equal, but md5sum differs" message.

$ ls -l /opt/wine/tl2008/drive_c/texlive/2008/temp/12many.tar.lzma
/opt/tex/texlive/20080701/temp/12many.tar.lzma
-rw-r--r-- 1 gwhite bod 2034 2008-07-01 15:43
/opt/tex/texlive/20080701/temp/12many.tar.lzma
-rw-r--r-- 1 gwhite bod 2034 2008-07-01 19:27
/opt/wine/tl2008/drive_c/texlive/2008/temp/12many.tar.lzma
$ cmp /opt/wine/tl2008/drive_c/texlive/2008/temp/12many.tar.lzma
/opt/tex/texlive/20080701/temp/12many.tar.lzma
(files were the same).

It looks like the new download strategy will be a big improvement.

-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia