Install TexLive 2008 and Texmaker under Ubuntu

This article describes how to install latest TexLive from TexLive official website. However, it was found that even though you can taste the lastest version, there are some imcompatibility with Ubuntu. Unless you are a Ubuntu guru, you may not be able to fix these problems.

So, it is recommended for you to install TexLive from Ubuntu repository, which may be one-year lags behind the most recent release. However, this difference is trivial.
The easiest way is to use synaptic package manager.

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If you are brave enough to taste the latest version, then following below steps:

1. In order to use TexLive GUI installation, do following first
   $ sudo apt-get install perl-tk
   
2. Download network installer (install-tl-unix.tar.gz) from TexLive official site, and extract it to desktop, getting a folder 'install-tl'. Do not use TexLive distribution form Ubuntu repository, since some components are missing.
   
3. Start GUI installer
   $ cd ~/Desktop/install-tl
   $ sudo perl install-tl -gui (or just '$ sudo ./install-tl -gui')
   
4. As the installing GUI comes out
   Customize installation components and options. Make sure to check 'create symlink in system directories', and also may check 'using letter instead of A4'. Keep the default installation location.
   
5. The installation takes really really long time ........go for coffee.
6. Install Latex editor (IDE)
   Personally I think TEXMAKER is the best one under GNOME. Again, do not download Texmaker from Ubuntu repository, since it will grab old Telive 2007 files from the repository and overwrite what you just installed. Download it from here. This is a .deb file and you can use Gdebi package installer to install it directly.