$ env KPATHSEA_DEBUG=-1 dvipos notes.dvi
Thanks; you can teach an old dog new tricks (which now I see is documented in the kpathsea manual). With sh/bash you can drop the 'env': $ KPATHSEA_DEBUG=-1 dvipos notes.dvi The debug output helped me figure out the problem: $SELFAUTOPARENT yukness. dvipos is in /usr/local/bin/dvipos, so SELFAUTOPARENT is /usr, and everything is being searched for in /usr/texmf, /usr/texmf-dist, etc, instead of in $tlroot/texmf{,-dist} etc. For binaries in TL, it all works since they live in $tlroot/bin/i386-linux/, so their $SELFAUTOPARENT is $tlroot/. I checked this analysis by putting a copy of dvipos in /tmp/x/y/ and symlinking /tmp/texmf* to $tlroot/texmf*. Then I ran /tmp/x/y/dvipos notes.dvi (using TL's texmf.cnf), and it worked identically to using dvipos with my regular tex installation (Debian/Ubuntu texlive). So dvipos belongs in TL and in the Debian packages, or else ConTeXt will crash when it makes dvi files with figures. Also, as I mentioned in another email (I think to ntg-context), ConTeXt needs to parse dvipos's scaled-points output. But that change is not specific to TL. Or dvipos should be changed to produce coordinates in pt (and label them). However, that change may break other users (are there any?) of dvipos. -Sanjoy `Not all those who wander are lost.' (J.R.R. Tolkien)