Install TexLive via your package manager. On Debian/Ubuntu, install the full distribution (TexLive plus all common packages) or a minimal set if disk space matters.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install texlive-full       # ~3GB, includes everything

If you want a smaller installation, install only essential packages:

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

texlive-latex-base gives you core LaTeX with common document classes. texlive-latex-extra adds most packages (amsmath, graphicx, xcolor, etc.). texlive-fonts-recommended and texlive-fonts-extra provide additional fonts.

Check installation by compiling a test document:

echo '\documentclass{article}\begin{document}Hello\end{document}' > test.tex
pdflatex test.tex
ls test.pdf

If test.pdf is created, TexLive is working. The first run takes time as it generates font cache; subsequent runs are faster.

On Fedora/RHEL, use:

sudo dnf install texlive-latex-full

On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install texlive

For minimal setups or when you need specific packages not in your distro, install TexLive directly from tug.org. The distro package is usually simpler—stick with it unless you need the latest version.

After installing new packages later with tlmgr, you may need to rebuild the font cache: fmtutil-sys --all.