Problem with GhostScript (X11)

Question

Level 1

120 points

Problem with GhostScript (X11)

I have a problem opening files with Ghostview. Whenever I try to open a PDF or PS file error messages come up such that:

Exec of gs failed: No such file or directory

Error: PostScript interpreter failed in main window.

and

Execution of
gs -dNODISPLAY -dQUIET -sPDFname=filename.pdf -sDSCname=temporaryfile.pdf.tmp pdf2dsc.ps -c quit
failed

Does anyone know what that means and how to fix it?

Mac mini Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Aug 31, 2006 11:37 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 31, 2006 12:07 PM in response to Neithan

"Exec of gs failed: No such file or directory" says it all, really. It tried to run a program called "gs", but it couldn't find that program. Probably you didn't fully or correctly install Ghostview (where did you get it?) or you didn't set some shell variable or ghostview configuration preference.

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Answer 2

Neithan Author

Level 1

120 points

Aug 31, 2006 1:03 PM in response to Daniel Macks

Sorry, I should have mentioned it before: I have GhostScript 8.54 and GV 3.5.8 installed with i-Installer. As far as I can tell, Ghostscript is correctly installed: I have gs-X11 in /usr/local/bin/ and gs pointing to it.

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Answer 3

Neithan Author

Level 1

120 points

Aug 31, 2006 1:30 PM in response to Daniel Macks

Moreover I can open PDF files in XTerminal by typing /usr/local/bin/gs file.pdf.

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Answer 4

Aug 31, 2006 1:38 PM in response to Neithan

Sounds like /usr/local/bin isn't in your PATH shell environment variable as seen by GV. Does typing "gs file.pdf" (no explicit /usr/local/bin, i.e., the way GV seems to be calling it) fail with a similar error message? What does "echo $PATH" say?

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Answer 5

Neithan Author

Level 1

120 points

Aug 31, 2006 2:09 PM in response to Daniel Macks

It's not in $PATH, but GV uses /usr/local/bin/gs anyway (I have set this in State > GhostScript Options). It seems like a more complex problem.
It sometimes outputs

Exec of [some other file in the directory!] failed: etc.

And each time I open a PS file the PostScript error appears.
Well, at least I will try and re-install GV one more time tomorrow (I have done it twice already), without much conviction.

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Answer 6

Aug 31, 2006 2:20 PM in response to Neithan

Wonder if GV is running [some other script], and that (which isn't aware of GV's settings) is then failing to find gs? IIRC, if a failure is occurring when an explicit full path is used, the error message includes the whole path, not just the simple executable name...that would correspond to your setting not having any effect.

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Answer 7

Neithan Author

Level 1

120 points

Sep 1, 2006 12:29 AM in response to Daniel Macks

Well, it seems you were right: I updated the $PATH variable and now I can read PS files (the error messages in my first post were copied before I changed the GhostView settings). Unfortunately, a problem solved means a new problem (2, in fact): whenever I open a PDF file I get the following rather complicated message:

Error: /invalidfileaccess in --file--
Operand stack:
(test.pdf) (r)
Execution stack:
%interp_exit .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- false 1 %stopped_push 1 3 %oparray_pop 1 3 %oparray_pop 1 3 %oparray_pop 1 3 %oparray_pop .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval--
Dictionary stackGPL Ghostscript 8.54: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1
:
--dict:1119/1686(ro)(G)-- --dict:0/20(G)-- --dict:75/200(L)-- --dict:105/127(ro)(G)-- --dict:253/347(G)--
Current allocation mode is local

And more annoyingly, the $PATH variable is reset each time I start X11. I guess there is a file somewhere that contains $PATH and must be updated?

Mac mini Core Duo Mac OS X (10.4.7)

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Answer 8

Neithan Author

Level 1

120 points

Sep 3, 2006 9:53 AM in response to Neithan

Problem solved.

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