Error in MiKTeX package manager

[Dave Hewitt]

I was trying to install the "preview" package for instant preview (as
instructed by the help docs online; just turning it on in Preferences did
not work)... and I got this error. I am an Admin on the machine and have
the newest LyX version. LyX was closed when I was doing this. Not sure what
the cause would be.

MiKTeX Problem Report
Message: Permission denied: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6\miktex\config\5c9c2effd97adbeacc8bf220bf73149c.fndb
Data: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6\miktex\config\5c9c2effd97adbeacc8bf220bf73149c.fndb
Source: C:\work3\miktex-2.6\Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\win\winFile.cpp
Line: 712
MiKTeX: 2.6
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
SystemAdmin: yes
PowerUser: yes
SharedSetup: yes
BinDir: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.6\miktex\bin
Root0: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6
Root1: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Local Settings\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6
Root2: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6
Root3: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.6
Install: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.6
UserConfig: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6
UserData: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Local Settings\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6
CommonConfig: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6
CommonData: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6

[Paul A. Rubin]

Post by Dave Hewitt
I was trying to install the "preview" package for instant preview (as
instructed by the help docs online; just turning it on in Preferences
did not work)... and I got this error. I am an Admin on the machine and
have the newest LyX version. LyX was closed when I was doing this. Not
sure what the cause would be.
MiKTeX Problem Report
Message: Permission denied: C:\Documents and Settings\All
Users\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6\miktex\config\5c9c2effd97adbeacc8bf220bf73149c.fndb
Data: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6\miktex\config\5c9c2effd97adbeacc8bf220bf73149c.fndb
Source: C:\work3\miktex-2.6\Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\win\winFile.cpp
Line: 712
MiKTeX: 2.6
OS: Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
SystemAdmin: yes
PowerUser: yes
SharedSetup: yes
BinDir: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.6\miktex\bin
Root0: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6
Root1: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Local Settings\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6
Root2: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6
Root3: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.6
Install: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.6
UserConfig: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6
UserData: C:\Documents and Settings\dhewitt\Local Settings\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6
CommonConfig: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application
Data\MiKTeX\2.6
CommonData: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MiKTeX\2.6

Could be a transient error. See
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.text.tex/browse_thread/thread/f6c01b1b1df5cf3c
for one possible explanation.

If you run the MikTeX Settings application and click "Refresh FNDB",
does the same thing happen, or does it work ok?

Have you retried the package installation?

/Paul

[Dave Hewitt]

Paul et al.,

It was apparently a transient error, as you suggested. It worked the next
time around, with a caveat.

The caveat is that it gave me a "timeout was reached" error at one point
and quit. I noticed that when I installed one package before, a DOS window
came up near the end of the installation, did some work, and then
disappeared. This time I was installing about 10 new packages (document
classes, mostly). When the timeout was reached, the DOS window had not come
up, so it never did. What goes on in that window, and is it critical?

I ask because one of the packages (nrc) supposedly adds classes for
articles in the NRC journals, but I don't get any classes of such name as
options in LyX. So buried in here is a further question about adding
classes and making them available in LyX, which continues to baffle me (I'm
new to the whole LaTeX deal; started from square one a few days ago). Once
a package is installed in MiKTeX, what else does one need to do, besides
Reconfigure LyX?

Thanks a bunch for the ongoing help,
Dave

[Paul A. Rubin]

Post by Dave Hewitt
The caveat is that it gave me a "timeout was reached" error at one point
and quit. I noticed that when I installed one package before, a DOS
window came up near the end of the installation, did some work, and then
disappeared. This time I was installing about 10 new packages (document
classes, mostly). When the timeout was reached, the DOS window had not
come up, so it never did. What goes on in that window, and is it critical?

After the packages have been downloaded and unpacked, MikTeX has to
refresh its file name database (which is how it knows where to find all
those packages when you want to use them). Additionally, if the
packages install new fonts, it has to do some LaTeX magic to record the
font metrics or some such. As to whether it's critical that the
post-download installation stuff runs, only if you want to use the
packages. :-)

Try running MikTeX's Settings application, and in the general tab click
"Refresh FNDB" and, when that's done, "Update Formats" (may or may not
be necessary, but can't hurt). This is the stuff the package installer
does automatically at the end of an installation, but you can always do
it here (and will have to if you install a LaTeX package from a source
other than a MikTeX repository).

Post by Dave Hewitt
I ask because one of the packages (nrc) supposedly adds classes for
articles in the NRC journals, but I don't get any classes of such name
as options in LyX.

You wouldn't even if the installation went smoothly. In order to use a
document class in LyX, you need two things: the LaTeX package, properly
installed; and a layout file (which tells LyX what stuff goes in a
document of that class, and how to lay it out on-screen). Help ->
Customization chapter 5 goes into the sordid details, but the usual
approach is to copy a layout file from an existing class that's similar
to yours, paste it into your local layouts directory with a new name,
edit it a bit, reconfigure LyX (Tools -> Reconfigure), restart LyX and
hope for the best. (Sacrificing a small furry animal, such as a
wolverine, might help, though I wouldn't advertise that to PETA.)

The layouts that come with LyX are installed at
<lyxroot>/Resources/layouts. When in doubt, article.layout (for the
basic article class) is usually a good layout to start from. Customized
layouts can be stored in <home>/layouts, where <home> is your home
directory (helpfully listed under "user directory" in Help -> About LyX).

LyX expects the name of the layout file to match the name of the
document class file, so if you installed 'nrc.cls' then you'll want to
create 'nrc.layout'. In the second line of the layout file, you'll see

# \DeclareLaTeXClass{whatever}

-- change whatever is inside the braces to the language you want to see
in the drop-down list of classes (e.g., "article (NRC)"). That should
get you started. Further changes will be necessary to add some
specialized feature of the NRC class that you really need (such as a
special environment for cursing out reviewers) or to get rid of some
environment that doesn't exist in the NRC class (so that you don't
accidentally select it and have to sift through LaTeX error messages).

Post by Dave Hewitt
So buried in here is a further question about adding
classes and making them available in LyX, which continues to baffle me
(I'm new to the whole LaTeX deal; started from square one a few days
ago). Once a package is installed in MiKTeX, what else does one need to
do, besides Reconfigure LyX?
Thanks a bunch for the ongoing help,
Dave

/Paul