Re: [MiKTeX] initexmf: Unknown format name/engine: etex

[Ulrike F. <li...@ni...>]

Am Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:42:43 +1030 schrieb Chris Brien:

> I have received the following error message, which is very similar
> to that reported in ID 2935528:
 
> miktex-makefmt: Unknown engine: etex
> initexmf.EXE: The operation failed for some reason.
> initexmf.EXE: Data: C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin\miktex-makefmt.exe
 
> An obvious difference is that I am using MiKTeX 2.9. I am running Windows XP SP3
 
> I get this error message, and the same one for pdfetex, when I
> initiate Settings (Admin) and click on Update Formats. It is
> strange that I get this message as a result of this because both
> have attribute exclude when I look in the Formats tab.
 
> However, I also get the message if I try to build the etex format
> manually as follows: go to the Formats tab of Settings (Admin),
> remove the exclude Attribute from etex, select etex and click on
> Build. I can build other formats in this way e.g. luatex and
> lualatex.
 
 
> What is or could be causing the failure to build just the two formats etex and pdfetex?

I can build the etex format without problems (miktex 2.9, single
user mode, win xp).

Perhaps data from older miktex versions are confusing miktex. Check
your environment variables if there is something pointing to an
older miktex. Also remove personal local texmf-trees in miktex
settings. 



-- 
Ulrike Fischer