The recently released version 2.9 of MiKTeX, which is the first MiKTeX release with LuaTeX integration, now supports ConTeXt Mark IV, as Christian Schenk announced.

The beta version of MiKTeX 2.9 has been released. Windows 7, Vista, XP (at least SP 3), Server 2003 and 2008 (at least SP 2) are supported, Windows 2000 no longer.
LuaTeX has been integrated for the first time and several software packages have been updated.

The final version of MiKTeX 2.9 will be released in October.

For more information visit

• the MiKTeX homepage,
• the 2.9 status page,
• the release notes,
• the blog announcement,
• the download/setup area.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

Christian Schenk announced today that the support for MiKTeX 2.6 and MiKTeX 2.7 will end at the end of this year. MiKTeX 2.6/2.7 will be removed from CTAN on January 1st, 2011.

So, the last possible date for updating MiKTeX 2.6/2.7 over the internet is December 31st. Users of those versions are encouraged to switch to MiKTeX 2.9 expected to be released in October 2010.

German version | auf Deutsch

Christian Schenk has published the roadmap for MiKTeX 2.9. According to his blog the beta version of 2.9 shall appear in August and the general release of 2.9 is expected in October 2010. The new version will contain updates of pdfTeX, XeTeX, BibteX and of the editor TeXworks. LuaTeX will be introduced.

MiKTeX is a very popular LaTeX distribution running on Windows systems.

German version | auf Deutsch

The version 2.8 of the Windows LaTeX Distribution MiKTeX has been released on September 1, 2009. Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003 and 2008 are supported. It’s coming with a portable edition that makes it possible to run MiKTeX for instance from USB sticks. MiKTeX now includes the integrated development environment TeXworks.

For more information visit

• the MiKTeX homepage,
• the 2.8 status page,
• the release notes,
• the download/setup area.

This text is available in German. Dieser Text ist auch in Deutsch verfügbar.

Yesterday Christian Schenk has released the portable edition of MiKTeX 2.8 beta3. This edition allows to use MiKTeX on portable storage devices like USB sticks or flash cards for use on any Windows (2000/XP/Vista/7) computer. Using Portable MiKTeX leaves no traces on the host computer, no administrator privileges would be needed. Visit miktex.org/portable for more information and download.

Christian Schenk announced on April 2nd that he’s planning to release a portable MiKTeX edition later this year. The portable edition will allow you to run MiKTeX from a flash drive:

• you could carry MiKTeX on a portable drive for use on any Windows computer,
• configuration settings will be stored on the portable drive and not on the host computer,
• using the portable edition won’t leave traces on the host computer,
• administrator privileges on the host computer won’t be necessary.

Christian said that a beta will be released soon, on April 6th he has noted that also the package manager will be available with the portable edition and that packages will be on installed on the flash drive.

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