The Zotero search feature for PDF full-text was not working in my Zotero install and I didn’t have the “install” button in the search pane of the settings. I already had the needed binaries installed with the OS but it seemed like Zotero could not use those.

Instructions can be found here but with no examples. It would definitely have been easier with screenshots so here are some add on information to use as a supplement to the instructions. I suggest reading the official instructions first.

First, I downloaded the XPDF binaries here : http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html and extraxted the pdfinfo and pdftotext executables into my Zotero profile folder. Note that I use the standalone version so the path to my profile folder is: /home/epp/.zotero/zotero/{profilestring}/zotero

Then I checked the version of the binaries and created the appropriate text files as instructed. After that, I opened Iceweasel, activated the console with Ctrl + Shift + k and entered the Js property navigator.platform at the prompt line.

Since the instructions seemed to add a bit that replaces spaces by dashes, I modified both binaries and text files names to include “Linux-x86_64”.

I also downloaded the shell script and renamed it as indicated. My profile folder now looks like this:

Works now!