[tex-live] Problem with Demo CD of TEXLive edition 09/2003

[Karl Berry]

Greetings,

    I just received the TEXLive CDs, and I try to use the demo version
    because I can not access to the hard disk of my computer. I work
    under Windows XP, and all my files are on a server. The problem is
    that, when I compile a tex-file (no errors in it, it is an example
    file) with "latex.exe", it says "can not load the LOG file". Can
    someone explain me how to make it work?

I'm guessing that you're running latex from within the CD directory and
thus it can't write the .log file (since the CD is obviously read-only).

Even with the demo/live versions, you have to run the installer to set
up a few writable directories.  They don't have to be specifically on
your local disk, having them be on the server should work.

I don't know specifically how this is chosen on Windows, but I hope it's
fairly obvious once you start the installation program.

Hope this helps.

karl