Why does stmt, label(btex Au dessus etex, (0,0)); fail when using stmt, \DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{mps}{*}{} but works with stmt, \DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{eps}{*}{} I am running texlive/2010. Here is the error msg I get when using mps.

/usr/local/texlive/2010/bin/i386-linux/mpost xtest.mp This is MetaPost, version 1.211 (TeX Live 2010) (kpathsea version 6.0.0) (./xtest.mpfatal: Command failed: etex --parse-first-line --interaction=nonstopmode mpIYqrrH.tex; see mpxerr.log

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xtest.mp xtest.mpx ! Unable to make mpx file. l.15 label(btex Au dessus etex, (0,0)); Transcript written on xtest.log.

-- xtext.mp % verbatimtex %&latex \documentclass{book} \usepackage{dvidrv} \usepackage{hrefout} \usepackage{xbookjh} \usepackage{xstyle} \usepackage{verbatim} \begin{document} etex beginfig(1); label("Au dessus ",(0,0)); label(btex Au dessus etex, (0,0)); endfig; bye; --- xbookjh.sty \ProvidesPackage{bookjh}[2001/05/24 Material for _Linear Algebra_ (JH)] \usepackage[\dvidrv]{color} \usepackage[\dvidrv]{graphicx} % \DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{mps}{*}{} % make pdflatex take fig.1 as metapost. % \DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{eps}{*}{} % make pdflatex take fig.1 as metapost. \endinput --- xstyle.sty \AtBeginDocument{\newlength{\heightofcdot} \newlength{\widthofcdot} \settoheight{\heightofcdot}{$\cdot$} \settowidth{\widthofcdot}{$\cdot$} \newsavebox{\dotprodcircle} \savebox{\dotprodcircle}{\includegraphics{dotprod.1}} \newcommand{\dotprod}{\mathbin{\raisebox{.5\heightofcdot}{ \makebox[\widthofcdot]{$\smash{\usebox{\dotprodcircle}}$}}}}} Alternatively if I use stmt, \DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{mps}{*}{} and comment out all the lines in xstyle.sty no error is generated when mpost is run. I don't understand what in xstyle.sty can be having an affect on \DeclareGraphicsRule{*}{mps}{*}{}. Can anyone provide any helpful information? My preference is to use mps and not eps.