I had /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/config.dj5550 installed. When I run "dvips -Pdj5550 filename.dvi", it says "dvips: warning: no config file for `dj5550'". Strace on the dvips process shows that it is trying to open config.dj5550 in the current directory but never tries to open it in /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config. I do not have the TEXCONFIG environment variable set, but I do have TEXINPUTS set to ".:~/tex:/usr/lib/texmf/tex/language/hebrew:". This used to work. I have version 1.0.7-58 of the tetex packages installed.
Does this still happen in Phoebe?
Current Raw Hide packages do not exhibit this bug. I don't know when exactly it was fixed, but it's gone in Raw Hide.