Window s /

PortableInstallation
<< | Page list | >> Categories: Window s, Manuals This page describes how to create a portable installation under Window s. This can then be used from a USB stick or a netw ork drive w ithout installing any softw are.

Limitations
Utilities for image conversion may not w ork.

Installation
For this installation, I used the follow ing softw are LyX 2.0.3, standard installer (http://w w w .lyx.org/Dow nload) MiKTeX Portable 2.9 (http://miktex.org/portable/about) The goal is to get LyX and LaTeX running w ithout the need to install them first. This also includes the softw are bundled w ith LyX, but it does not include a PDF view er. 1. 2. 3. 4. Create a base directory somew here, say D:\portable Install LyX to this directory, w ithout latex support, creating a start menu folder and shortcuts Extract MiKTeX Portable to the folder w here you installed LyX and rename it to Miktex Open the D:\portable\LyX2.0.3\Resources\lyxrc.dist file in notepad or w ordpad, then append ;$LyXDir\miktex\miktex\bin\ to the path_prefix line, so that it looks like this:
\path_prefix "$LyXDir\bin;$LyXDir\python;$LyXDir\imagemagick;$LyXDir\ghostscript;$LyXDir\miktex\miktex\bin\"

5. Create a new textfile in D:\portable\LyX2.0.3 and paste the follow ing line in it: start bin\LyX.exe -userdir "userdir". Save it, and rename it to startLyX.bat (w ithout the .txt extension!) 6. Excecute the startLyx.bat file. This w ill start lyx. Click yes w hen you're asked if you w ant to create the userdirectory. The first start may be slow , because miktex has to dow nload additional packages first.

Free up space
You can free up some space by deleting all the files that you don't need from
D:\portable\LyX2.0.3\Resources\dicts

Dictionary files
D:\portable\LyX2.0.3\Resources\thes

Thesaurus files
D:\portable\LyX2.0.3\miktex\docs

Documentation of MiKTeX packages Fresh install: 560MB on disk (FAT32)

Windows 7
Window s 7 new taskbar let's you pin applications to your taskbar. If you're w orking at a specific computer for a longer period and w ant to use your portable lyx, you might w ant to pin lyx to the taskbar. But remember that by doing so, you'll start lyx directly w ithout setting the userdir, like in the startLyX.bat file. To overcome this, make tw o more batch scripts in D:\portable\LyX2.0.3\: CopySettingsToLocalComputer.bat and CopySettingsFromLocalComputer.bat. CopySettingsToLocalComputer.bat
xcopy "userdir" "%appdata%\LyX2.0" /E /K /Y /I echo "Done" pause

CopySettingsFromLocalComputer.bat
xcopy "%appdata\LyX2.0" "userdir" /E /K /Y /I echo "done" pause

With these tw o files you can copy your settings from and to the local computer.

Using RCS version control with portable LyX

1. dow nload rcs w in binaries (ftp://ftp.cs.purdue.edu/pub/RCS/. rcs57pc1.zip, rcs57pc1.zip and rcs57pc1.zip) 2. copy w in32 folder to D:\portable\LyX2.0.3 and rename to RCS. 3. Open the Resources\lyxrc.dist file in notepad or w ordpad, then append ;$LyXDir\RCS\ to the path_prefix line, so that it looks like this:
\path_prefix "$LyXDir\bin;$LyXDir\python;$LyXDir\imagemagick;$LyXDir\ghostscript;$LyXDir\miktex\miktex\bin\;$LyXDir\RCS"

4. Open startLyX.bat in notepad, and add before the line w ith start ... the follow ing tw o lines:
SET TZ=CET SET RCSINIT=-x,v/

5. Change the timezone variable in the first line to your timezone 6. Start LyX, and reconfigure (Tools->reconfigure)

Tweaks
The follow ing tw eaks come from a portable installation w ith LyX 1.6. I'm not sure if this is still applicable to LyX 2.0, but I leave it here. 1. There may be an error message involving chklatex.tex, but that can be ignored. Removing the platex section from D:\portable\LyX16\Resources \configure.py got rid of the message - but I am not sure w hy it appeared in the first place.

Alternatives
LyTeX
A portable TeX suite called LyTeX, that includes TeX Works, TeX Live, and LyX 1.6.3all portablehere: http://code.google.com/p/lytex/ (about 400-500mb extracted)

Portable LyX
Portable LyX 2.0 is a repack of LyTeX w ith LyX 2.0 available here: http://portable-lyx.impossible-exil.info/ {{dead link}} (about 700-800MB extracted)

USBTeX
A fully-functioning Tex distribution designed for a USB stick is available here: http://w w w .exomatik.net/U-Latex/USBTeXEnglish (525MB extracted) I have tested USBTeX w ith LyX 1.6.2 and can report that is w orking w ell w ithout Admin Rights. The steps needed to do this need to be described in detail. If anyone can, please update! Window s Manuals
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