[XeTeX] Ubuntu Dapper A4 vs letter problem

[Akira Kakuto]

>   When I run xelatex on anything, the PDF paper size always ends up
> A4, not 8.5" x 11".  I found a program called texconfig and I have run
> it both as root and as an unprivileged user to set the default paper
> size to 8.5" x 11".  This fixed the problem for the latex command and
> also for the pdflatex command, but xelatex doesn't seem to look in the
> same place for its settings.

I think perhaps texconfig does not rewrite the configuration file
for xdvipdfmx.
If you want to change the default paper size for xdvipdfmx,
please find the place of the configuration file "dvipdfmx.cfg" by

kpsewhich --progname=dvipdfm --format='other text files' dvipdfmx.cfg

and search for a line
p a4
in the file dvipdfmx.cfg
and change the line into
p letter

If the line
p a4
does not exist, simply add the line
p letter



Best regards,
Akira