How to properly install and use texlive with package manager

I would like to know how to properly install, and use texlive along with the package manager tlmgr in Ubuntu. Here is what I did to install texlive:

sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-extra texlive-latex-recommended 

And now I do have texlive, but the package manager is not working. Following is the error

sudo tlmgr update -all (running on Debian, switching to user mode!) cannot setup TLPDB in /home/kniwor/texmf at /usr/bin/tlmgr line 5336. 

Is there a better way to install texlive? What can I do to fix the package manager at this point?

2 Answers

Just run tlmgr init-usertree first and then run sudo tlmgr update --all.

Maybe you will get:

/usr/bin/tlmgr: Initialization failed (in setup_unix_one): /usr/bin/tlmgr: could not find a usable xzdec. /usr/bin/tlmgr: Please install xzdec and try again. Couldn't set up the necessary programs. Installation of packages is not supported. Please report to . tlmgr: exiting unsuccessfully (status 1). 

If so, you have to install the xzdec package, from your package manager or through sudo apt-get install xzdec.

To use the GUI, you also need to install perl-tk:

sudo apt-get install perl-tk 

Then you can summon the GUI via:

tlmgr --gui 

And then hit the Load Default button.

If you want to use tlmgr on Ubuntu you basically have two options:

1. Install texlive from scratch and create a dummy package

2. Use install-tl-ubuntu, as described in this answer on tex.SE