Tinytex: Installed but not working (This program is blocked by group policy)

[randrescastaneda]

Dear @yihui ,

I work on a corporate laptop. I tried three different things

1. Install TinyTex by using tinytex::install_tinytex().

• I got a message saying,

Starting to install TinyTeX to C:\Users\wb384996\AppData\Roaming/TinyTeX. It will take a few minutes.
This program is blocked by group policy. For more information, contact your system administrator.

• when I type tinytex:::is_tinytex() I get FALSE

2. Install TinyTex by using tinytex:::install_prebuilt()

• I get a similar message about being blocked by group policy

• Yet, when I type tinytex:::is_tinytex() I get TRUE and when I type tinytex:::tinytex_root() I get "C:\\Users\\<username>\\AppData\\Roaming\\TinyTeX"

• However, when I try to compile a .tex file, it fails with the following warning message,

"'CreateProcess' failed to run 'C:\\Users\\<username>\\AppData\\Roaming\\TinyTeX\\bin\\win32\\xelatex.exe -halt-on-error -interaction=batchmode \"C:/Users/<username>/OneDrive - WBG/WorldBank/CHI_AM19_scorecard/AFR_HC_scorecard/AFR_HC_scorecard_AGO.tex\"'"

3. I follow the instruction here in issue #134.

• tinytex:::is_tinytex() is TRUE, but I cannot compile and get the same warning message like the one above.

4. Run Rstudio as admin

• TinyTex is installed in a directory different from the one used by the non-admin account. Basically, it is installed in C:\\Users\\<adminusername>\\AppData\\Roaming\\TinyTeX instead of C:\\Users\\<username>\\AppData\\Roaming\\TinyTeX

• I copied the version in the admin account into the corresponding folder in the non-admin folder... It did not compile either.

I think the problem is in the admin restrictions of my computer. If that is the case, I could talk to my IT team and they may be able to relax the restrictions. However, I don't know is there is something specific that IT should do it in order to make it work. Unfortunately, my IT is not familiar with R and Rstudio, so they don't really know what is it that they have to do.

Do you have any guidance?

Thank you so much.
Andres

session_info()
─ Session info ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 setting  value                       
 version  R version 3.6.1 (2019-07-05)
 os       Windows 10 x64              
 system   x86_64, mingw32             
 ui       RStudio                     
 language (EN)                        
 collate  English_United States.1252  
 ctype    English_United States.1252  
 tz       America/New_York            
 date     2019-12-09                  

─ Packages ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 package     * version date       lib source        
 assertthat    0.2.1   2019-03-21 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 backports     1.1.5   2019-10-02 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 callr         3.3.2   2019-09-22 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 cli           2.0.0   2019-12-09 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 crayon        1.3.4   2017-09-16 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 desc          1.2.0   2018-05-01 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 devtools    * 2.2.1   2019-09-24 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 digest        0.6.23  2019-11-23 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 ellipsis      0.3.0   2019-09-20 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 fansi         0.4.0   2018-10-05 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 fortunes      1.5-4   2016-12-29 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.0)
 fs            1.3.1   2019-05-06 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 glue          1.3.1   2019-03-12 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 magrittr      1.5     2014-11-22 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 memoise       1.1.0   2017-04-21 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 pkgbuild      1.0.6   2019-10-09 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 pkgload       1.0.2   2018-10-29 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 prettyunits   1.0.2   2015-07-13 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 processx      3.4.1   2019-07-18 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 ps            1.3.0   2018-12-21 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 R6            2.4.1   2019-11-12 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 Rcpp          1.0.3   2019-11-08 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 remotes       2.1.0   2019-06-24 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 rlang         0.4.2   2019-11-23 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 rprojroot     1.3-2   2018-01-03 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 rstudioapi    0.10    2019-03-19 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 sessioninfo   1.1.1   2018-11-05 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 testthat      2.3.1   2019-12-01 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 tinytex       0.17    2019-10-30 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 usethis     * 1.5.1   2019-07-04 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 withr         2.1.2   2018-03-15 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)
 xfun          0.11    2019-11-12 [1] CRAN (R 3.6.1)

[1] C:/Program Files/R/R-3.6.1/library

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[cderv]

You can try to work with your IT to get the offline installation process. See https://github.com/yihui/tinytex/issues/130#issuecomment-509020941

However, it seems the installation step is blocked by your security policicy. To be installed, TinyTex on windows will execute a .bat script with powershell. Your IT needs to allow that if the policy don't accept it by default. There nothing much that can be done from TinyTex side I think.

[randrescastaneda]

This is good info. Thank you so much @cderv
Best,

[rainer-rq-koelle]

Run into same issue and tried to work with #130 .
I cannot find the TinyTex.zip to download at CI appveyor. Following the link results in the following (empty page and) message:

{"message":"\"job\" parameter must be specified if build contains multiple jobs.\r\nParameter name: job"}

Can the zip-file be downloaded from elsewhere?

[cderv]

Yes, you can now find it here : https://yihui.org/tinytex/TinyTeX.zip

You can also use tinytex:::install_prebuilt() to download the zip for your platform.

See Release note https://github.com/yihui/tinytex/releases/tag/v0.23

[rainer-rq-koelle]

Thanks for the pointers! I somehow managed to not coming across it despite my desperate googling attempts ... Stay safe and keep flattening the curve!