Install Texlive on WSL

May 16, 2023 2022

Markdown and LaTeX are both powerful tools for document creation. When combined with Visual Studio Code (VS Code) and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), you get a high-performance environment for typesetting professional research papers and reports.

Installing LaTeX on WSL

To set up TeX Live on your Ubuntu WSL distribution, run the following commands:

# Update the package list
sudo apt update

# Option A: Install the base TeX Live distribution (minimal)
sudo apt install -y texlive-base

# Option B: Install the full TeX Live distribution (recommended for most users)
# This includes all packages and can take significant disk space.
sudo apt install -y texlive-full

# Optional: Install an editor and PDF viewer for Linux
sudo apt install -y texmaker evince

Verify your installation:

tex --version

Configuring VS Code for LaTeX

To write and compile LaTeX documents directly within VS Code, you can use the LaTeX Workshop extension.

Install Extension: Open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X), search for “LaTeX Workshop,” and install it.
Configure Tools: Open your settings.json (File > Preferences > Settings > Search for “json”) and add the following configuration to enable latexmk:

"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
    {
        "name": "latexmk",
        "command": "latexmk",
        "args": [
            "-synctex=1",
            "-interaction=nonstopmode",
            "-file-line-error",
            "-pdf",
            "%DOC%"
        ]
    }
],
"latex-workshop.latex.recipes": [
    {
        "name": "latexmk",
        "tools": [
            "latexmk"
        ]
    }
]

Conclusion

With TeX Live installed on WSL and the LaTeX Workshop extension configured in VS Code, you can now write, compile, and preview professional documents seamlessly. Happy typesetting!