The MiKTeX Package Manager (mpm) is a tool originally intended for MiKTeX users on Windows platforms. It was ported by Christian Schenk for unix systems, to provide easy access to the MiKTeX package repository also for unix user. There are some docs describing installation and use, some are obsolete now, that’s why I will give a summary how I’ve installed the mpm on the latest Ubuntu Linux version today.

The mpm sources can be downloaded from http://miktex.org/unx.

Important: have a look at the README.unx file! Below are the commands I applied during installation.

Installation of some required packages in addition to the basic setup:
$ sudo apt-get install g++ cmake libcurl3 libcurl4-gnutls-dev lynx

Decompress the archive, change into the created directory, run cmake to produce customized makefiles (I added options to use texmf in my home directory) , run make to compile and to install:
$ tar xfj miktex-2.7.2960.tar.bz2
$ cd miktex-2.7.2960/
$ cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -DMIKTEX_INSTALLROOT="/home/stefan/texmf" -DMIKTEX_ROOTS="/home/stefan/texmf"
$ make
$ sudo make install

The MiKTeX Package Manager installation is complete. Create the file name database files:
$ sudo ldconfig
$ sudo initexmf -u
$ sudo mpm --update-db


Finally the mpm is ready to use.

Links:

• mpm Homepage
• How to use the package manager on Unix-like operating systems
• mpm on ubuntu.com
• mpm manual page
• M(iKTeX) P(ackage) M(anager) for Unix-alikes
• mpm in the ubuntuusers.de wiki
• Paket-Verwaltung unter Unix/Linux