Bug 1079007

I get the same problem.

Seems like yum is pulling in an old version of the powerdot package. There has been a new version of powerdot (judging by the version number, since 2014-01-01, so actually quite a while now) which fixes this issue (which seems to have been related to a major change made in pstricks). This version of powerdot is not used by either updates or updates-testing.

If you manually install powerdot from CTAN, and hide the version pulled in by yum, the problem disappears.

Dear package maintainers of texlive: do you think it might be possible to pull in the updated version of powerdot, to restore the package's functionality?

As it is, I can confirm the original poster's verdict that the package is currently *unusable*.

Ping.

Here is a simple failing example:

> uname -a
Linux cmn6.stanford.edu 3.10.27-200.rt25.1.fc20.ccrma.x86_64.rt #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Thu Jan 30 13:25:00 PST 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

> cat powerdot-failing-example.tex 
\documentclass[mode=present]{powerdot}

\begin{document}

\begin{slide}{a slide}
Contents of the slide.
\end{slide}

\end{document}

> rpm -qif `which latex`
Name        : texlive-latex-bin-bin
...
Release     : 5.20131226_r32488.fc20
...

> latex powerdot-failing-example
...
> latex powerdot-failing-example
...

> rpm -qif `which dvips`
Name        : texlive-dvips-bin
Epoch       : 3
Version     : svn30088.0
Release     : 5.20131226_r32488.fc20
...

> dvips -f powerdot-failing-example.dvi > powerdot-failing-example.eps
This is dvips(k) 5.993 Copyright 2013 Radical Eye Software (www.radicaleye.com)
' TeX output 2014.10.29:1625' -> 
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/base/tex.pro>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/pstricks/pstricks.pro>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/pstricks/pst-algparser.pro>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/pst-tools/pst-tools.pro>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/pstricks/pst-dots.pro>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/base/texps.pro>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/base/special.pro>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/dvips/base/color.pro>. 
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmss8.pfb>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmssbx10.pfb>
</usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmss10.pfb>[1] 
[2</user/j/jos/w/inputs/powerdot-default.ps>] 

> rpm -qif `which ps2pdf`
Name        : ghostscript
Version     : 9.14
Release     : 5.fc20
Architecture: x86_64
...

> ps2pdf powerdot-failing-example.eps powerdot-failing-example.pdf
Error: /undefined in InitOL
Operand stack:

Execution stack:
   %interp_exit   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push   1902   1   3   %oparray_pop   1901   1   3   %oparray_pop   1885   1   3   %oparray_pop   1771   1   3   %oparray_pop   --nostringval--   %errorexec_pop   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--
Dictionary stack:
   --dict:1176/1684(ro)(G)--   --dict:0/20(G)--   --dict:116/200(L)--   --dict:183/300(L)--   --dict:110/200(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
Last OS error: Not a directory
Current file position is 141296
GPL Ghostscript 9.14: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1

I was using the latest version of powerdot-default.ps from CTAN.  (According to diff, it was identical to /usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/powerdot/images/powerdot-default.ps which was already installed on our system.)

The behavior is identical on my Mac OS X system using MacPorts to install things, so this looks like an upstream problem rather than something distribution-specific.

Since this bug has been around as "New" for almost a year, maybe someone who has time and interest to delve into it should volunteer?  If nobody is interested, how about a KickStarter campaign?  I would pledge at least $100 right now to avoid having to rewrite all of my presentation materials in KeyNote.  If we can't come up with a way to quickly fix broken things that used to work, it will be very bad for FOSS.  Many will decide that they really can't afford to rely on it due to the cost of having to fix anything that matters oneself, even though someone else broke it, and switch to commercially supported applications.  And then we'll be locked into closed-source single-vendor software, which has its own downsides.  Can we find a way to avoid this fate?

I personally vote for rolling back to a sufficiently early ghostscript that makes this problem go away, until the GS maintainers fix this backward compatibility problem.  It's not ok to crash on postscript that used to work just fine.

Julius, I'm in your same position.

A workaround is to circumvent Fedora's package maintenance in this case and install texlive directly, in a different path, using its native package manager (install-tl and then tlmgr for updates). Using the tree that comes from the direct installation, things just work for me. That's how I am currently operating. This way, as long as the upstream developers keep the package tree functional, yours will also be.

Follow the directions here:

https://www.tug.org/texlive/quickinstall.html

The important part is to keep the Fedora packages around as well (they will be in a different path) for packages that depend on TeXlive. If you do the "PATH" hack described on that page after installation for your user (i.e. not system-wide or for root) you should be set up in such a way that your stuff uses the direct TeXlive installation and system functions use the TeXlive tree that comes with Fedora.

I know it's ugly, but it's a pragmatic solution that doesn't require re-writing presentations in a different format.

Thanks Tobias!  Before I saw your comment, I hit upon the following even more horrible (but effective) workaround (on my Mac using MacPorts):

  wget http://giraffe.cs.washington.edu/texlive/texlive-pstricks-15485.tar.bz2
  sudo /bin/cp -rp texlive-pstricks-15485/runfiles/texmf-dist/* /opt/local/share/texmf-texlive/

Now I can compile presentations for the first time in about a year!

This was the oldest pstricks I could find at the above server.  Presumably later versions also work.  I did not try to find the latest working version, but the following quote from http://tug.org/pipermail/pstricks/2013/010169.html is relevant toward that end:

"Using git bisect terminology, the `good' TeX Live package revision is 32254 and the "bad" package revision is 32283."

I will now try your workaround on my Fedora machine...

updating the TeX distribution will _always_ help.

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(In reply to fulvio ciriaco from comment #0)
> Created attachment 876966 [details]
> sample input
> 
> Description of problem:
> after latexing and dvips,
> the resulting file is incorrect, i.e. neither convertible to
> pdf nor readable.
> 
> Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
> texlive-powerdot-svn31446.1.4i-4.fc20
> 
> How reproducible:
> always
> 
> Steps to Reproduce:
> 1.produce any simple powerdot file, say example.tex
> 2.latex example.tex 
> 3.dvips example.dvi
> 4. ps2pdf example.ps
> 
> Actual results:
> Error: /undefined in InitOL

Update pstricks.sty|tex and install pst-ovl.sty|tex.
Then it will work