--- texinfo/util/texi2dvi
+++ texinfo/util/texi2dvi
@@ -27,6 +27,17 @@
 # No failure shall remain unpunished.
 set -e
 
+if ! command -v tex >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  cat >&2 <<%EOM%
+You don't have a working TeX binary installed, but the texi2dvi script
+can't proceed without it. If you want to use this script, you have to
+install some kind of TeX, for example, ALT Linux TeX Live packages.
+You can do that with this command:
+       apt-get install /usr/bin/tex
+%EOM%
+  exit 1
+fi
+
 # This string is expanded by rcs automatically when this file is checked out.
 rcs_revision='$Revision: 1.135 $'
 rcs_version=`set - $rcs_revision; echo $2`