Document Viewer does not display pdf files

[Tony Lewis]

Whether launched from a web page, a directory view or a terminal, attempts to open any pdf file result in
: disk activity for several seconds
: sometimes the whole screen or a rectangular area greys out until disk activity stops, then returns to normal
:No error reports
:No display of pdf.

It looks as if evince starts and then stops for some reason.

Additional info :
Xpdf does the same
Okular works fine
Creating and logging in as a new user makes no difference
Logging in to Ubuntu 2d session makes no difference

Have asked for support from forum, https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/208999 and got suggestion to report a bug

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: evince 3.4.0-0ubuntu1.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-30.48-generic-pae 3.2.27
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-30-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu13
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Sep 20 11:34:40 2012
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: evince
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-01 (142 days ago)

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Are any messages printed if you open a terminal and type this?

evince <filename>.pdf

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for evince (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]