latex & xdvi gives "ERROR: I can't write on file"
 

Problem when using latex and xdvi on Ubuntu 6.06:

when viewing the dvi file with xdvi and running latex again, I get the message:

I have to close xdvi before running latex which is really annoying. It's also contrary to what the man page says and contrary to the behaviour on other distro's. Does anyone have a solution?

Can't reproduce this on Debian either. Are you just running latex and xdvi from the command line, or inside some special environment like an Emacs latex-mode?

Otherwise I can't imagine how TeX knows the file is open. Do you get the same with pdflatex and acroread (or xpdf)?

What if you open the file with another app altogether? e.g. 'od file.dvi | less'. Is latex still blocked?

thanks for making an effort. Normally I would use emacs and auctex for latex editing, but that isn't the issue, it also happens with command line latex.

I spent some more time and found that the problem only occurs when the latex file is on the file server (samba file sharing between linux and windows). When it's on the local hard disk, no problem.