MikTeX 2.9 install/uninstall problems

Atul

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Mar 27, 2011, 3:51:14 AM3/27/11

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Hello all,

I upgraded from Miktex 2.7 to 2.9 yesterday on my Vista system [I'm an
experienced LaTeX user currently working in industry. Needed to write
a technical paper and went back to LaTeX] and it's been a nightmare.
Your help is much appreciated.

Here's a chronicle of my issues:

1. After installing, I tried compiling a simple document [my own]. It
said something about not finding hyperref. So I tried updating MikTeX
using the update manager, it didn't work. When I ask it to install the
missing package via package manager, [which I'd set to install
missing packages on the fly], it gave an error like this:

"Windows API error 5: Access is denied."

Did a reboot but no luck in making it go away. A Google search showed
nothing directly relevant but some reports that Adobe is an issue so
uninstalled that [I had Adobe Reader X]. Still no luck.

2. I then thought it was an installation problem and tried to
uninstall and now it gives me the following error:

"The operation could not be completed for the following reason:
The IniTeXMF executable could not be found"

3. I then made sure my anti-virus system {Norton} was not blocking and
and that was fine. Tried a recompile of the basic tex file and here's
the message in TeXworks:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.11 (MiKTeX 2.9)
miktex-pdftex.exe: The memory dump file could not be found.
miktex-pdftex.exe: Data: pdflatex.fmt
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4. Tried to run update/package manager again and the former says "no
new updates" while the latter hangs ["Not responding" message].

From what I can tell, the installation is broken but I don't know how
to uninstall or fix it. Please help!!!

rsh

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Mar 27, 2011, 4:05:19 AM3/27/11

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Delete all traces of Miktex. Run the installation process once more as
a administrator, and doing a full install and only for "This user".
Install to a separate directory, not "Program Files". Always run the
update manager as administrator, and be sure that you have closed
every Miktex-programs when you update. I have had the same error
twice, because Miktex try to update a file I am using (texworks, Yap,
a documentation fiel, etc.)

Ulrike Fischer

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Mar 27, 2011, 4:35:16 AM3/27/11

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Am Sun, 27 Mar 2011 01:05:19 -0700 (PDT) schrieb rsh:

> Delete all traces of Miktex. Run the installation process once more as
> a administrator, and doing a full install and only for "This user".
> Install to a separate directory, not "Program Files". Always run the
> update manager as administrator,

There is absolutly no need to install as administrator or with admin
rights.

If you want a single user installation (which is in general a good
idea as it make managing miktex easier) do it in the user account
with the rights of this user in a folder where the user has writing
rights.

It only asks for trouble to give the user rights during installation
that he will not have later when running the application.

> and be sure that you have closed every Miktex-programs when you update.

That's in general a good idea.

--
Ulrike Fischer

Atul

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Mar 27, 2011, 4:51:30 AM3/27/11

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Thanks for the responses. I had installed as a user with admin rights
and for that user only.

Is it ok to delete the Miktex folder in C:\Program Files [and the the
sub-folders, etc.] directly? I know uninstall is the best and as that
isn't working, this is probably the only option. However, will this
break the registry or something similar? Do let me know.

Thanks,
Atul

rsh

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Mar 27, 2011, 10:05:27 AM3/27/11

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Running update as administrator was the only solution to upgrade
miktex-vc100-bin on my system. I don’t know why. My user account has
administrator rights, but the UAC is enable (and I am not allowed to
disable it). Maybe this combination makes some dirty tricks. I use
Win7 Pro. I read some place that many problems was solved if you run
the programs once with administrator rights. It very easy for me,
because I just right click on the program and choose "Run as
Administrator".

As far as I remember, "Access denied C:", was the error message when a
file in use could not been updated (texworks and yap) and when vc-100
bin could not been updated.

I have installed miktex in a separate directory structure (c:\ep
\miktex) and just renamed "miktex" to "miktex.old" and reinstalled
Miktex under "c:\ep\miktex". When everything works, I just delete
"miktex.old"

It has worked the last four re-installations. May be not correct, but
it works. And I am so fed up with Windowz$ bugs, that if it works, it
doesn’t matter if it is correct or not.

rsh

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Mar 27, 2011, 10:07:41 AM3/27/11

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What I have done, is to rename the miktex forlder, and installed
miktex to a new folder with the same name. thereafter I have deleted
the old installation.

Atul

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Mar 28, 2011, 12:34:03 AM3/28/11

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Did as you suggested: renamed the MikTeX folder under Program Files to
"OldMikTeX". Then reinstalled on a different drive [I think anything
outside Program Files may work but I didn't test that]. Was able to
update, install missing packages, etc. Got working on the paper even!!

Thanks a lot for your help!!

rsh

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Mar 28, 2011, 2:59:22 AM3/28/11

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My pleasure!

Daghanem7

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Apr 25, 2012, 7:28:16 PM4/25/12

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I am having the exact same problem, please let me know if you were able to solve it!

--
http://compgroups.net/comp.text.tex/miktex-2.9-install-uninstall-problems/273171

Manuel Collado

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Apr 26, 2012, 7:12:02 AM4/26/12

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Don't know if this is the same problem, but the only bad MikTeX
experiences I've had in the past were due to a combination of:

1.- Installing MikTeX from an administrator account, and then
2.- trying to use the automatic update feature from a user limited account.

To avoid problems, installation and usage of MikTex should be done from
the same account.

--
Manuel Collado - http://lml.ls.fi.upm.es/~mcollado

Bob Tennent

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Apr 26, 2012, 9:21:38 AM4/26/12

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On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:51:14 -0700 (PDT), Atul wrote:

> I upgraded from Miktex 2.7 to 2.9 yesterday on my Vista system [I'm an
> experienced LaTeX user currently working in industry. Needed to write
> a technical paper and went back to LaTeX] and it's been a nightmare.

The best places to get advice about installation problems with MiKTeX
are their Help Forum and Mailing List:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/miktex/forums/forum/33790
http://miktex.org/list

Bob T.

allie...@yahoo.co.uk

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Apr 21, 2013, 8:43:37 AM4/21/13

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Hello, I've been having the same problem - am just about to redownload MiKTeX 2.9 again now (to a different dir than C:\Program Files)..but once correctly reinstalled again and the old version deleted, should I be able to move it over to the C:\Program Files dir and will it work from there?

Mr. Fixit

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Apr 21, 2013, 9:36:06 AM4/21/13

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On Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:43:37 -0700 (PDT), allie...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

> On Sunday, March 27, 2011 8:51:14 AM UTC+1, Atul wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I upgraded from Miktex 2.7 to 2.9 yesterday on my Vista system [I'm an
>> experienced LaTeX user currently working in industry. Needed to write
>> a technical paper and went back to LaTeX] and it's been a nightmare.
>> Your help is much appreciated.
>>
>> Here's a chronicle of my issues:
>>
>> 1. After installing, I tried compiling a simple document [my own]. It
>> said something about not finding hyperref. So I tried updating MikTeX
>> using the update manager, it didn't work. When I ask it to install the
>> missing package via package manager, [which I'd set to install
>> missing packages on the fly], it gave an error like this:
>>
>> "Windows API error 5: Access is denied."

...

> Hello, I've been having the same problem

Try installing the packages while logged in as administrator.

Bob Tennent

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Apr 21, 2013, 9:53:07 AM4/21/13

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On Sun, 27 Mar 2011 00:51:14 -0700 (PDT), Atul wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I upgraded from Miktex 2.7 to 2.9 yesterday on my Vista system [I'm an
> experienced LaTeX user currently working in industry. Needed to write
> a technical paper and went back to LaTeX] and it's been a nightmare.
>

> From what I can tell, the installation is broken but I don't know how
> to uninstall or fix it. Please help!!!

I'd try re-installing; that might fix a broken installation. If you
get it working again, use the update wizard before doing anything.
You may have to do that more than once until there are no more
updates available.

If that doesn't work, you'd better advice from MiKTeX support.

Bob T.

Axel Berger

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Apr 21, 2013, 10:19:45 AM4/21/13

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allie...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
> move it over to the C:\Program Files dir

I shouldn't do that. TeX is no pointee-clickee abomination, thank G"d,
and using command line tools, spaces in file and path names invite
trouble. Yes, I'm aware you can play around with quotes, but I have
found the strict use of decent names (seven bit and no spaces) far more
reliable.

Axel