What is the standard way to get dvipos? It's used by texexec in dvi mode, to find the location of figures. I guess it can eventually go away now that pdftex's \pdfsavepos works even in dvi mode (from v1.40.0). But for the moment it's still needed. It's neither in texlive2006 (except for win32) nor in the Debian or Ubuntu tex-related packages, but I think it needs to be in both. There's source here: http://cvs.sarovar.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/texlive/Build/source/texk/dvipos/ I think the version I built and use -- Version 20030628 (KPATHSEA) -- is from here http://cvs.ktug.or.kr/viewcvs/dvipos/. Actually I found the one I use, and I've attached it. That version doesn't work well on one document I just tried (see recent msg to ntg-context). It outputs correct information, but the coordinates are in sp (scaled points) with no unit marker, and context expects them in pt (see NASA's Mars lander that crashed into Mars due to a unit disagreement). That was with context 2007.01.02 in Norbert's debian packages. If I try it with the texlive2006 test tree, then it fails with ** Fatal: Unable to find TFM file 'ec-lmtt10' Although the TFM is in the TL tree: $ kpsewhich ec-lmtt10.tfm /home/sanjoy/admin/tex/texlive/image/texlive/texmf-dist/fonts/tfm/public/lm/ec-lmtt10.tfm Unfortunately, dvipos doesn't have a kpathsea-debug switch, so I don't know what lookups it's doing. I can guess, using strace, that it's using the TEXFONTMAPS path to search for the tfm file, but I'm not sure. Or that it's looking for texfonts.map but isn't finding it, which is confusing it in searching for the tfm file? If anyone wants the dvi file to test, I can send it to you offlist. Actually, no need, because you can see the same problem by making a dvi file from \starttext a \stoptext Then, with (ba)sh syntax: texexec --dvi --nobackend a.tex TLROOT=~/admin/tex/texlive/image/texlive TEXMFCNF=$TLROOT/texmf/web2c /usr/local/bin/dvipos a.dvi Here is the "strace -e trace=open,access dvipos notes.dvi" after I replaced the long texlive root with @TLROOT@ access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("/etc/ld.so.preload", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/etc/ld.so.cache", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm.so.6", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/usr/lib/libkpathsea.so.4", O_RDONLY) = 3 access("/etc/ld.so.nohwcap", F_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("notes.dvi", O_RDONLY) = 3 open("/usr/local/bin/dvipos", O_RDONLY) = 4 access("@TLROOT@/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf", R_OK) = 0 open("@TLROOT@/texmf/web2c/texmf.cnf", O_RDONLY) = 4 access("./texfonts.map", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-config/fonts/map/dvipos/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-var/fonts/map/dvipos/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/texmf/fonts/map/dvipos/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-config/fonts/map/pdftex/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/texmf/fonts/map/pdftex/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-config/fonts/map/dvips/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-var/fonts/map/dvips/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/texmf/fonts/map/dvips/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-config/fonts/map/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-var/fonts/map/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/texmf/fonts/map/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("./ec-lmtt10.tfm", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-config/fonts/tfm/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-var/fonts/tfm/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/texmf/fonts/tfm/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("./ec-lmtt10.ofm", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("./ec-lmtt10.tfm", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-config/fonts/ofm/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/.texlive2006/texmf-var/fonts/ofm/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) open("/home/sanjoy/texmf/fonts/ofm/", O_RDONLY|O_NONBLOCK|O_LARGEFILE|O_DIRECTORY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("./ec-lmtt10.ofm", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("./ec-lmtt10.tfm", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("./ec-lmtt10.tfm", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) access("./ec-lmtt10.tfm", R_OK) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory) ** Fatal: Unable to find TFM file 'ec-lmtt10'. Process 16521 detached -Sanjoy `A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.' (Gibbon)