Note:

Although this installation is just optional and you have to do some manual configuration it will make tex package installation at least more comfortable

Miktex Package Manager

MPM (MiKTeX Package Manager) is used to install packages from a MiKTeX package repository.

MPM was originally intended to be a tool for MiKTeX users. But the program can be helpful for users of other TeX systems too, because many of the MiKTeX packages are system-independent.

Unfortunately this program isn't packaged yet. Under http://heanet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/miktex/miktex-tools-2.5.2719-beta-15.tar.gz there is a sourcecode package for linux.

To make the installation easier I compiled the program with checkinstall and as result I got a ubuntu deb package. Just type:

wget -c http://linuxonpc.com/miktex-tools_2.5.2719-beta-15-i386.deb

sudo dpkg -i miktex-tools-2.5.2719-beta-15.deb

To get mpm work you will need additionally the libcurl4-openssl-dev package.

sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev

The following extra packages will be installed:
comerr-dev libidn11-dev libkadm55 libkrb5-dev libssl-dev

• Update the list of available packages (verbose mode):

sudo mpm --update-db --trace

Note:

There are some repositories. To identify a near repository to your location consult:

mpm --list-repositories

e.g.:

mpm --update-db --repository=http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/dante/systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/

• List all available packages

sudo mpm --list

Informationen zu einem bestimmten Paket anzeigen:

• Look for particular package

e.g.:

sudo mpm --list|grep datatool

• Install package
  

The metapackage texlive-full brings the most packages needed for working with latex. Nevertheless there a a few more packages available. Let's say you want to install one of the following packages:

datatool - Tools to load and manipulate data.

glossaries - Package for creating glossaries and acronyms. (Updated: 13 Oct 2007) This package replaces the glossary package which is now obsolete.

e.g.:

sudo mpm --install=datatool

sudo mpm --install=glossaries

• Necessary post-installation step:

sudo texhash

You will receive similar messages:

texhash: Updating /usr/local/share/texmf/ls-R...
texhash: Updating /var/lib/texmf/ls-R-TEXMFMAIN...
texhash: Updating /var/lib/texmf/ls-R-TEXLIVE...
texhash: Updating /var/lib/texmf/ls-R...
texhash: Done.

Packages are installed under /usr/local/share/texmf/tex/latex/

• Print package info

mpm --print-package-info=glossaries

• Update packages

After you installed a package with mpm you are able this package later

e.g.:

sudo mpm --update=glossaries

How to find out in which package group a package is included?

For example, I want to install mathdots, and http://www.dante.de/CTAN//help/Catalogue/entries/mathdots.html says it is included in MiKTeX. However, I do not find it in mpm --list. So I suppose it is in some other package. But which one?

grep -l mathdots /usr/local/share/texmf/tpm/packages/*

result /usr/local/share/texmf/tpm/packages/genmisc.tpm