evince reports "incorrect format" for DVI files when no TeX distribution is installed. evince should Suggests tetex-bin

[Loïc Froidmont]

1) lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS
Release: 14.04

2) apt-cache policy evince
evince:
  Installed: 3.10.3-0ubuntu10.1
  Candidate: 3.10.3-0ubuntu10.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.10.3-0ubuntu10.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.10.3-0ubuntu10 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/main amd64 Packages

3) What is expected to happen is when one opens the following file via evince, it opens successfully:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/evince/+bug/42410/+attachment/10857/+files/test.dvi

4) What happens instead is evince notes:
"Unable to open document
DVI document has incorrect format"

WORKAROUND: Install the texlive-binaries package.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for your bug. What version of Ubuntu do you use? What configuration do you have? For how long does it use 100% of the CPU? Is that happening with all the dvi or do you have an example or one .dvi creating an issue?

[Loïc Froidmont (lfroidmo)]

II use Ubuntu dapper drake. My laptop is a acer aspire 1640

I realised that the problem is bigger than just thumbnail. I tried to
open the a .dvi file with evince and he wasn't able to do it.
I tried other viewer and they were able to open it without any problems.

Evince just show the word 'Loading' and keep working until I stop it.

I had the problem with a big report generated by tetex, but it is the
same probleme on really simple file like the one I attach.
''Test'' is the only word of this file.

Evince and evince thumbnailler keep using all the CPU they can as long
as I don't stop it manually.

Sebastien Bacher a écrit :
> Thanks for your bug. What version of Ubuntu do you use? What
> configuration do you have? For how long does it use 100% of the CPU? Is
> that happening with all the dvi or do you have an example or one .dvi
> creating an issue?
>
> ** Changed in: evince (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop Bugs
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info
>
>

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

There is no attachment to that page, could you try again?

[Loïc Froidmont (lfroidmo)]

No problem, I hope it's fine this time

Sebastien Bacher a écrit :
> There is no attachment to that page, could you try again?
>
>

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Still no attachment. Do you try to mail it? Maybe you should open the web page and use the option from the left frame?

[Loïc Froidmont (lfroidmo)]

This file cannot be vieuw with evince on my computer

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

No issue on my box with that example. Could you get a backtrace?
- gdb evince
(gdb) run filename.dvi
... eats CPU
<Ctrl-C>
(gdb) thread apply all bt

[Loïc Froidmont (lfroidmo)]

Sorry I took so long to do it....

I retry opening the test-file. I now get a error box which says that Evince cannot open the file because the format is not correct.

Here is what I get when I run a backtrace :

[New Thread -1230480464 (LWP 13929)]
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi 600 cmr10
mktexpk: Aucun fichier ou répertoire de ce type
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
page: Warning: font `cmr10' not found, trying metric files instead
kpathsea: Running mkofm cmr10
mkofm: Aucun fichier ou répertoire de ce type
kpathsea: Running mktextfm cmr10
mktextfm: Aucun fichier ou répertoire de ce type
page: Error: could not load font `cmr10'

Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
[Switching to Thread -1228802368 (LWP 13923)]
0xffffe410 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
(gdb) thread apply all bt

Thread 2 (Thread -1230480464 (LWP 13929)):
#0 0xffffe410 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
#1 0xb79fac76 in pthread_cond_wait@@GLIBC_2.3.2 ()
   from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0
#2 0x08063573 in ev_document_types_add_filters ()
#3 0xb6e165d2 in g_static_private_free () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#4 0xb79f8341 in start_thread () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0
#5 0xb77814ee in clone () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6

Thread 1 (Thread -1228802368 (LWP 13923)):
#0 0xffffe410 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
#1 0xb77778c4 in poll () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#2 0xb6dfd7d8 in g_main_context_check () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#3 0xb6dfdca8 in g_main_loop_run () from /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
#4 0xb73166d5 in gtk_main () from /usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0
#5 0x0807fabb in main ()

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

do you have tetex-bin installed? does installed it makes a difference?

[istoyanov (istoyanov)]

After installing tetex-base, tetex-bin and tetex-extra I am able to open the attached .dvi file. Before installing these packages, evince used to say "DVI document has incorrect format" when I was trying to open *any* .dvi file.

However, I didn't notice any system slow-down while evince tried to generate a thumbnail, a file named "missfont.log" appeared in my home folder instead.

[Gennaro Bellizio (genbell)]

I have the same problem. Here is the crash log

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Loïc, does installed tetex-bin fix your problem?

[Loïc Froidmont (lfroidmo)]

With tetex-bin installed, there is no problem any more. I can open the .dvi file, and the thumbnail is generated correctly

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

evince should propably Suggests tetex-bin then, confirming

[Adam Buchbinder (adam-buchbinder)]

The current version (2.20.1-0ubuntu1 in Gutsy) still does not suggest tetex-bin, and when trying to open a DVI file without it installed, shows the same "Unable to open document: DVI document has incorrect format" error message. This is an incorrect error message, as there's nothing wrong with the DVI; the problem is that the user's system doesn't have DVI support. Given only this message, the user has no way of knowing that they need to install another package in order to view DVI files. (This bit the original reporter of this bug.)

[Adam Buchbinder (adam-buchbinder)]

Still present in evince 2.24.1-0ubuntu1. After removing all TeX-related packages, attempting to open a DVI file spews this on the command line:

$ evince /home/abuchbinder/pg/out/sw/slantsc.dvi
warning: Configuration file texmf.cnf not found! Searched these directories:
/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-texlive/web2c:/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c
Trying to proceed...
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi 600 cmsy6
mktexpk: No such file or directory
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
page: Warning: font `cmsy6' at 600x600 not found, trying `cmr10' instead
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi 600 cmr10
mktexpk: No such file or directory
page: Warning: font `cmsy6' not found, trying metric files instead
kpathsea: Running mkofm cmsy6
mkofm: No such file or directory
kpathsea: Running mktextfm cmsy6
mktextfm: No such file or directory
page: Warning: metric file for `cmsy6' not found, trying `cmr10' instead
kpathsea: Running mkofm cmr10
mkofm: No such file or directory
kpathsea: Running mktextfm cmr10
mktextfm: No such file or directory
page: Error: could not load font `cmsy6'
warning: Configuration file texmf.cnf not found! Searched these directories:
/usr/share/texmf/web2c:/usr/share/texmf-texlive/web2c:/usr/local/share/texmf/web2c
Trying to proceed...
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi 600 cmsy6
mktexpk: No such file or directory
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
page: Warning: font `cmsy6' at 600x600 not found, trying `cmr10' instead
kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi 600 cmr10
mktexpk: No such file or directory
page: Warning: font `cmsy6' not found, trying metric files instead
kpathsea: Running mkofm cmsy6
mkofm: No such file or directory
kpathsea: Running mktextfm cmsy6
mktextfm: No such file or directory
page: Warning: metric file for `cmsy6' not found, trying `cmr10' instead
kpathsea: Running mkofm cmr10
mkofm: No such file or directory
kpathsea: Running mktextfm cmr10
mktextfm: No such file or directory
page: Error: could not load font `cmsy6'

and displays "DVI document has incorrect format" in the evince window.

[Jacob Nevins (0jacobnk-ulp)]

Still in Jaunty (evince 2.26.1-0ubuntu1).

[Daniel Lee (longinus00)]

Still happens in karmic alpha 5. evince 2.27.90-0ubuntu8

[sdaau (sd-imi)]

Just wanted to note the following - if you have installed texlive from a script, then obviously all the necessities are on your system - but evince could still fail opening the DVI because it doesn't know where the texmf.cmf file is.

That can be remedied by use of TEXMFCNF variable - however, that is not all; even after setting it correctly, you may get "Permission Denied". That problem is due to apparmor controlling evince, and is described here:

[SOLVED] texlive 2009 + evince = no love - Ubuntu Forums -
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8690020

What I did was:

sudo mv /etc/apparmor.d/usr.bin.evince /etc/apparmor.d/disable/
sudo shutdown -r now

... and after restart, I could run:

TEXMFCNF=/path/to/texlive/2011/texmf/web2c evince mytemp.dvi

... and tex fonts are generated, and the document renders in evince..

Note that calling this path however:

TEXMFCNF=/path/to/texlive/2011 evince mytemp.dvi

... will actually *not* work, even if there is a texmf.cnf file there - it may fail with "page: Error: could not load font" in stdout, and "Unable to open document" in evince.