Symptom:
When using latexila or texmaker no dvi/ps/pdf is generated. No outright error is report though
When trying to generate the pdf in the terminal using latex e.g.
me@beryllium:~$ latex nature_draft.tex
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (TeX Live 2009/Debian)
kpathsea: Running mktexfmt latex.fmt
tcfmgr: config file `tcfmgr.map' (usually in $TEXMFMAIN/texconfig) not found.
I can't find the format file `latex.fmt'!
kpsewhich -expand-var='$TEXMFMAIN'
gives
/usr/share/texmf/
which is the correct file structure as defined by texmf.cnf
kpsewhich texmf.cnf
/usr/share/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf
So what the heck is going on? I've written articles, reviews and book in latex and never had a problem until now. Also, it only happens on one computer.
Solution:
I ended up just fooling around. What solved it was doing
sudo texconfig rehash
mktexlsr: Updating /var/lib/texmf/ls-R-TEXMFMAIN...
mktexlsr: Updating /var/lib/texmf/ls-R-TEXLIVE...
mktexlsr: Updating /var/lib/texmf/ls-R...
mktexlsr: Done.
That's all. Really.
Minor note:
you can run texonfig interactively as well. Just make sure to run it using sudo.
Links to this post:
http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/64894/error-i-cant-find-the-format-file-pdflatex-fmt
