Re: Preview: finding what's broken

[Arash Esbati]

Hi Luca,

pglpm@duralexnonlex.org writes:

> Moved to a new machine (Ubuntu 20.04), and after installing GNU Emacs
> (28.1, snap distribution: build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version
> 3.24.20, cairo version 1.16.0), I installed several packages through
> package-list-packages. Including AUCTeX 13.1.3 (from the gnu package
> repository).
>
> After restarting Emacs, everything works well, except that
>
> • no Preview commands are available on C-c C-c,

Preview has its own set of key bindings and isn't invoked by C-c C-c.
You see the bindings if you look in the "Preview" menu.
`preview-buffer' is bound to C-c C-p C-b for instance.

> • I see a "Preview" menu in the menu bar, but the command "Generate
> previews" there does nothing, but I see a "Quit" in the minibuffer.

I don't understand the above.  Did you try to choose "Generate previews
for buffer" from the menu?

> I read
>
> https://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/manual/preview-latex.html
>
> and tried adding (load "preview-latex.el" nil t t) to my init file,
> but I get the error "No such file or directory" "preview-latex.el".

You shouldn't do this.  The manual says:

  If preview-latex is installed via the Emacs package manager (ELPA),
  activation should be automatic upon installation.


> • Looked for "preview-latex.el" in .emacs.d: there's no such
> file. There's a "preview.el" and a "preview.elc" in
> .emacs.d/elpa/auctex-13.1.3/ though.

Yes, IIRC "preview-latex.el" isn't generated when installed from ELPA.

> • So I tried (load "preview.el" nil t t) in my init file (restarting
> Emacs), but still nothing.

See above.

In your other mail, you wrote:

> PS: I just discovered that "M-x preview-buffer" works. So what's
> strange is that "Preview" is not available in the command list and
> that "Generate previews" in the menu-bar does nothing. I have no
> customization whatsoever of TeX-command-list, so this really baffles
> me...

Again, TeX-command-list isn't relevant for preview.  Does it work when
you hit 'C-c C-p C-b'?

Best, Arash