5.0 KiB
Klammertext on a Raspberry Pi
A Raspberry Pi runs Linux, and Klammertext's Linux installation applies
on it: the same compiler, the same Python, the same TeX Live, the same
runtime.env. So this page is short. It says which Pi and which system
the installation was done on, sends you to the Linux page, and then says
what is specific to a small machine: what its four cores and its memory
mean for the build, what TeX Live takes there, and what to do if a step
runs out of room. The steps were followed on a Raspberry Pi 5 Model B
with 8 GB of memory, running the 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS (Debian 12,
"bookworm"), from a fresh clone of the public repository.
The system
Use the 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS, whichever edition (with desktop or
Lite). The installation on this page was done on it; the 32-bit edition
was not tried. Its Debian base has everything the Linux page asks for,
under the same package names, and uname -m says aarch64.
Everything below happens in a terminal on the Pi, or over ssh to it.
Nothing needs the desktop.
Installing Klammertext
Follow linux_source_install.md, from its first line. Everything on it
applies: the packages by apt-get (g++, make, python3-dev, the
image library python3-openimageio, poppler-utils), the clone, the
line in ~/.bashrc that sources runtime.env, the build, TeX Live by the
bundled script, the verification. No command on that page is different
on the Pi.
What the Pi did with them, on the machine this page was written on:
| Step | On a Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB) |
|---|---|
| Compiler | GCC 12.2, the Debian 12 package |
| Python | 3.11, with OpenImageIO 2.4 from python3-openimageio |
make -C com |
under five minutes, four jobs |
Engine test suite (make -C tst test) |
about two minutes, all passing |
| TeX Live | a 770 MB tree under ~/external/texlive/2026, aarch64-linux binaries |
| Memory in use at the height of the build | about 1.6 GB |
| Temperature at the height of the build | 57 °C on the passive heat sink, no throttling |
Cores and memory
The build runs one compile per core, four on a Pi 5, and more jobs than cores gain nothing: a compile keeps a core busy, so eight jobs on four cores only take turns. Four jobs is what the Linux page's build command does on a Pi by itself, with no option to add.
Memory is the other side. The optimizing compiler takes up to about half
a gigabyte for one of the larger source files, and four of them at once
took the machine's use to about 1.6 GB, which an 8 GB Pi 5 does not
notice. By that measurement a 4 GB model has room for the same four-job
build. On a model with less memory, or if the build ever stops with
out of memory allocating, lower the count:
make -C com JOBS=2 # or JOBS=1: slower, and it finishes
The default Raspberry Pi OS swap file is small (512 MB), which is why the job count is the thing to lower rather than something to wait out: a build that has run out of memory does not finish by itself.
TeX Live
The Linux page's TeX Live script fetches the binaries for the machine it
runs on, so on a Pi it installs the aarch64-linux set with no option
given. The download is about 600 MB and the finished tree about 770 MB;
plan the time by your connection, since the download is most of it.
runtime.env finds the tree under ~/external/texlive/2026 on the Pi
as it does anywhere, and ktext hello.kt -t pdf then works from the
Linux page's verification section.
The container route
The prebuilt Klammertext images are built for arm64 as well as
amd64, so linux_container_install.md applies on a 64-bit Raspberry Pi
OS with Docker installed, and Docker pulls the arm64 build by itself.
That route was not part of the installation this page records; the
source route above is what was done and measured.
Troubleshooting
The build stops with out of memory allocating, or the Pi freezes
during it. The machine has run out of memory for the number of
compiles running at once. Restart it if it froze, then build with fewer
jobs, make -C com JOBS=2 or JOBS=1, as in Cores and memory above.
python3 -c "import OpenImageIO" fails. Install the Debian package,
sudo apt-get install python3-openimageio; it is the OpenImageIO for the
system Python that ktext is built against. A pip install is refused
into the system Python on Debian 12 without --break-system-packages,
and the package avoids that.
xelatex: command not found. The TeX Live tree is not under
~/external/texlive/<year>, where runtime.env looks, or the shell was
started before the tree existed. Open a new terminal; if that does not
help, check the path the script was given.
The Pi gets hot during the build. A four-core compile for several
minutes is the hardest thing Klammertext asks of the machine. The build
on this page peaked at 57 °C on the passive heat sink the Pi came with,
well below the point where the system slows the processor down, and
vcgencmd get_throttled reported no throttling. A Pi without any heat
sink may throttle, which makes the build slower but not wrong.