Hi Nate,

As others have said, your problem sounds more like a broken TeXlive
install, I would highly recommend installing the official distribution.

However, even with a proper working LaTeX install, the output from the
plain LaTeX exporter can be underwhelming, particularly if you want things
to look "pretty". Things like syntax highlighting need to still be
configured manually. If you don't know LaTeX, it can be quite a task.

One shortcut I found (although I don't use this actively) is to export to
reStructuredText using ox-rst (https://github.com/kandread/ox-rst), and
then use Sphinx (http://www.sphinx-doc.org/
<http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/master/usage/quickstart.html>) to produce
PDF. Sphinx has a pleasing default theme which includes syntax highlighting
and other nice formatting touches. Sphinx requires some initial setup but
it's not too complicated. Mind you: you still need a working LaTeX install,
as this is what Sphinx uses in the backend.

Hope this helps,
--Diego


On Mon, Nov 11, 2019 at 1:01 AM Nathan Neff <nathan.neff@gmail.com> wrote:

> After using org-mode for 10 years, I run for the doorway when
> I even think about trying to convert an org-mode file to PDF.
>
> *** I quiver when I see errors such as:
>
> warning: kpathsea: configuration file texmf.cnf not found in these
> directories:
> /usr/bin:/usr/bin/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/bin/texmf/web2c:/usr:/usr/share/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/texmf-local/web2c:/usr/texmf-dist/web2c:/usr/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c:/://share/texmf-local/web2c://share/texmf-dist/web2c://share/texmf/web2c://texmf-local/web2c://texmf-dist/web2c://texmf/web2c.
> This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (TeX Live 2019/Arch Linux)
> (preloaded format=pdflatex)
>
> kpathsea: Running mktexfmt pdflatex.fmt
> mktexfmt: No such file or directory
> I can't find the format file `pdflatex.fmt'!
>
> *** I run for cover when I read documentation such as:
>
> https://orgmode.org/manual/LaTeX-Export.html#LaTeX-Export
>
> I think people who have been using LaTex and related tools for a long time
> have
> no issue with this (seemingly) insurmountable feat.  However, I am not
> familiar with
> such a myriad of tools and I'm simply looking for the "easiest" way to
> convert/export an org
> mode file to PDF on Linux.
>
> Can anyone point me to some tutorials?  I'm sorry if I miss something
> obvious.
>
> Thanks,
> --Nate
>