requires disabling of latex-auto-install with global texlive

[gucio321]

I have:

• searched the issue tracker for similar issues
• installed the latest version of Quarto CLI
• formatted my issue following the Bug Reports guide

Bug description

Hi
I've installed quarto-cli on arch linux. I have a global texlive installation (dona via pacman).
When trying to render a project (I had no biber installed) reported an error that tlmgr update failed with no additional context.
after a bit of research turns out that tlmgr update requires root to run (which is expected) but I'd appreciate more context.

Steps to reproduce

example file: https://github.com/habemus-python/quarto-agh-thesis

• uninstall biber
• clone the repo
• run quarto render thesis.ipynb
• will see error message telling that tlmgr update failed
• add latex-auto-install: false in the ipynb file
• rerun render command
• quarto will tell us that biber is missing

Actual behavior

error message with no additional context appears

Expected behavior

logs should report (at least in verbose mode) which packages are missing (or at least what set of packages is going to be passed to tlmgr)

Your environment

• OS: Arch Linux

Quarto check output

[~ (0) ]$ quarto check
Quarto 1.9.37
[✓] Checking environment information...
      Quarto cache location: /home/mszeptuch/.cache/quarto
[✓] Checking versions of quarto binary dependencies...
      Pandoc version 3.8.3: OK
      Dart Sass version 1.87.0: OK
      Deno version 2.4.5: OK
      Typst version 0.14.2: OK
[✓] Checking versions of quarto dependencies......OK
[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.9.37
      Path: /opt/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking tools....................OK
      TinyTeX: (not installed)
      Chromium: (not installed)
      Chrome Headless Shell: (not installed)
      VeraPDF: (not installed)

[✓] Checking LaTeX....................OK
      Using: Installation From Path
      Path: /usr/bin
      Version: undefined

[✓] Checking Chrome Headless....................OK
      Chrome:  (not detected)

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........(None)

      Unable to locate an installed version of R.
      Install R from https://cloud.r-project.org/

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.14.4
      Path: /usr/bin/python3
      Jupyter: 5.9.1
      Kernels: python3

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking Julia installation...
[~ (0) ]$ 

[mcanouil]

Could you share the actual log?
Possibly use the debugging options to get more comprehensive logging: https://quarto.org/docs/troubleshooting/index.html

[gucio321]

sure!

With latex-aut-install set to false

[quarto-agh-thesis (0) ]$ quarto render thesis.ipynb 

Executing 'thesis.ipynb'
  Cell 1/4: ''..........Done
  Cell 2/4: ''..........Done
  Cell 3/4: ''..........Done
  Cell 4/4: 'fig-sin'...Done

pandoc 
  to: latex
  output-file: thesis.tex
  standalone: true
  pdf-engine: lualatex
  variables:
    graphics: true
    tables: true
  default-image-extension: pdf
  toc: true
  toc-depth: 3
  number-sections: true
  cite-method: biblatex
  
metadata
  block-headings: true
  documentclass: mwrep
  papersize: A4
  fontsize: 12pt
  biblatexoptions:
    - backref=true
    - backend=biber
    - style=authoryear
  bibliography:
    - refs.bib
  linkcolor: black
  urlcolor: black
  citecolor: black
  colorlinks: true
  header-includes:
    - |
      \usepackage{polski}
      \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
      \usepackage[margin=3.5cm]{geometry}
      \usepackage{graphicx}
  engines:
    - path: /opt/quarto/share/extension-subtrees/julia-engine/_extensions/julia-engine/julia-engine.js
  title: TBD
  author: TBD
  program: Fizyka Techniczna
  faculty: Wydział Fizyki i Informatyki Stosowanej
  department: Katedra ...
  thesis-type: Praca magisterska
  lang: en
  

Rendering PDF
running lualatex - 1
  This is LuaHBTeX, Version 1.24.0 (TeX Live 2026/Arch Linux) 
   restricted system commands enabled.
  
generating bibliography
ERROR: Error executing biber
WARN: Error encountered when rendering files
[quarto-agh-thesis (1) ]$ 

without touching latex-auto-install

Executing 'thesis.ipynb'
  Cell 1/4: ''..........Done
  Cell 2/4: ''..........Done
  Cell 3/4: ''..........Done
  Cell 4/4: 'fig-sin'...Done

pandoc 
  to: latex
  output-file: thesis.tex
  standalone: true
  pdf-engine: lualatex
  variables:
    graphics: true
    tables: true
  default-image-extension: pdf
  toc: true
  toc-depth: 3
  number-sections: true
  cite-method: biblatex
  
metadata
  block-headings: true
  documentclass: mwrep
  papersize: A4
  fontsize: 12pt
  biblatexoptions:
    - backref=true
    - backend=biber
    - style=authoryear
  bibliography:
    - refs.bib
  linkcolor: black
  urlcolor: black
  citecolor: black
  colorlinks: true
  header-includes:
    - |
      \usepackage{polski}
      \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
      \usepackage[margin=3.5cm]{geometry}
      \usepackage{graphicx}
  engines:
    - path: /opt/quarto/share/extension-subtrees/julia-engine/_extensions/julia-engine/julia-engine.js
  title: TBD
  author: TBD
  program: Fizyka Techniczna
  faculty: Wydział Fizyki i Informatyki Stosowanej
  department: Katedra ...
  thesis-type: Praca magisterska
  lang: en
  

Rendering PDF
running lualatex - 1
  This is LuaHBTeX, Version 1.24.0 (TeX Live 2026/Arch Linux) 
   restricted system commands enabled.
  
generating bibliography
command biber not found, attempting install
finding package for biber
> 1 package to install
> installing biber (1 of 1)
WARN: Error encountered when rendering files
ERROR: Problem running `tlmgr update`.

Stack trace:
    at renderFiles (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:136608:49)
    at eventLoopTick (ext:core/01_core.js:179:7)
    at async render (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:142236:19)
    at async _Command.actionHandler (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:142481:24)
    at async _Command.execute (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:102102:7)
    at async _Command.parseCommand (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:101979:14)
    at async quarto4 (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:187653:5)
    at async file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:187681:5
    at async file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:187536:14
    at async mainRunner (file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:187538:5)
    at async file:///opt/quarto/bin/quarto.js:187674:3
[quarto-agh-thesis (1) ]$ 

Well, I've just noticed that it actually tells about biber (in the way I'd expect) so probably this issue is pointless unless the error itself is a problem that could be solved.

[mcanouil]

Quarto auto-install tries to install packages based on logging.
When it fails it could be that the display name is not the name of the actual package or that the random CTAN LaTeX mirror is not responding.

You can try to manually install the package with tlmgr.

[gucio321]

@mcanouil problem is that quarto uses tlmr to install texlive packages, tmlr is present on the system, but it requires root access to install things. Thats why it crashes. Maybe quarto should print "Permission denied" info?

[~ (0) ]$ tlmgr install biber
You don't have permission to change the installation in any way,
specifically, the directory /usr/share/tlpkg/ is not writable.
Please run this program as administrator, or contact your local admin.
tlmgr: An error has occurred. See above messages. Exiting.
[~ (2) ]$ 

[mcanouil]

Maybe.
The issue is that Quarto cannot handle all possible install variation or all possible tex distribution.
It tries to do some generic lookup to help, but in the end and as documented Quarto recommends TinyTex which won't require special permissions, especially root permissions.

• https://quarto.org/docs/output-formats/pdf-basics.html#prerequisites

We recommend the use of TinyTeX

[cderv]

I compared with R tinytex, which handles package auto-install the same way Quarto does — with one gating default we don't apply.

R tinytex gates auto-install on whether tlmgr is user-writable. With a system TeX Live install (like the reporter's Arch pacman install), install_packages defaults to FALSE and the fallback never runs:

https://github.com/rstudio/tinytex/blob/4f7c4f0d4229275d18d1b8156fca270f972d9bfe/R/latex.R#L76

https://github.com/rstudio/tinytex/blob/4f7c4f0d4229275d18d1b8156fca270f972d9bfe/R/tlmgr.R#L148

The user sees the raw LaTeX error ("biber not found") directly, without the tlmgr update / tlmgr install cascade that requires root.

In Quarto, autoInstall defaults to true unconditionally:

quarto-cli/src/command/render/latexmk/pkgmgr.ts

Lines 32 to 34 in 10946d2

	autoInstall: mkOptions.autoInstall === undefined
	? true
	: mkOptions.autoInstall,

We already compute a usingGlobal flag (TeX Live on PATH, not our TinyTeX), but it's only used after install — not to gate the default:

quarto-cli/src/command/render/latexmk/texlive.ts

Line 30 in 10946d2

const usingGlobal = await texLiveInPath() && !hasTiny;

We could default latex-auto-install off when a system TeX Live is detected, matching R tinytex's tlmgr_writable() behavior. Users who want the current behavior would opt in with latex-auto-install: true. The failure would then surface the actual LaTeX error ("biber not found") instead of Problem running 'tlmgr update'..

Related: #8686 (different symptom, same unexpected-tlmgr-update family).

I'll look into this.