ps2pdf hangs?

[Macros73]

Hola folks, having a very frustrating issue attempting to convert a PostScript file into pdf using ps2pdf. I am running the latest version of Ghostscript available unmasked in portage.

Basically, all it does is hang. I can ctrl+c to exit the program, but nothing converts.

I have uploaded the same file to an online ps2pdf conversion utility and it turned the same file into a perfect PDF.

Any ideas? I've tried running ps2ascii on the file and ps2ascii was able to parse it.

[red_over_blue]

Can you post the commands that you are issuing at the commandline?

[Macros73]

"ps2pdf file.ps file.pdf"
"ps2pdf12 file.ps"
"ps2pdf file.ps"

All with the same "hanging" result.

[red_over_blue]

I just did a quick test, and it failed since I had recently unmerged CUPS for LPRng.

Do you have ghostscript and CUPS installed? I don't know why, but it complained that I didn't have a shared object file provided by CUPS.

Sorry... but I am on my way out the door now. I'll check back when i get home.

[red_over_blue]

If you want, email me the ps file at

tuxmaster@linuxmail.org

and I will try it from work when I get there. Perhaps it is the file. Do you know latex, you could also create a quick tex file, tex it, ps the dvi, and then ps2pdf that. (If you know latex, you will know that is very easy).

[Macros73]

That really seems the long way around. I have tried the same file via an online PS-PDF conversion site and they were able to spit back a PDF immediately..so I don't think it is the file.

I do have both CUPS and Ghostscript installed. I don't get an error, just....nothing. It hangs until I Ctrl+C. Very frustrating. Does this on every system. Will try from one more system and see.

[red_over_blue]

What do you mean "does this from every system?"

If it is not the file, then I would guess that it would only "not" work on one system, but should work on the others.

I use ps2pdf as provided by the Gentoo ebuild all the time and it works for me.

Have you tried converting another postscript file to pdf? Does it hang everytime you try to convert any ps file?

Do you have tetex installed? If so, create a file called test.tex that only contains the following:

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\begin{document}
This is a test
\end{document}

Then type the following:

[Macros73]

Sorry, suffering from severe fatigue on my end.

When I said "from every system", I meant from the two Gentoo servers I have here at work available for testing.

When I took the PostScript files home to try the same conversion on my home Gentoo PC, it worked fine.

The only difference I can see is that the work servers have CUPS installed. I have removed CUPS from one of my test servers, and I'm currently rebuilding Ghostscript with -cups as a USE variable.

I'll test again once it finishes and let you know if it works.

[Macros73]

Once I removed the CUPS package and recompiled Ghostscript with -cups as a USE variable, ps2pdf was able to convert the test file.

I have removed the '-cups' setting, and will re-emerge CUPS to re-test. If it still works, I'll re-emerge Ghostscript with CUPS installed and see if the problem returns.

If it does, it looks like an issue for bugs.gentoo?

[Macros73]

Oh, crap. I've isolated the problem!

I was using SSH to connect to the servers on which I was attempting to run ps2pdf. If I run it from the console directly, it works just fine.

The output from ps2pdf usually has strings like:

%%[ Product Name: Blah ]%%

I think that the string is somehow causing SSH to lock. Any insight on this twist?

[red_over_blue]

Well,

I tried SSHing to another machine and using ps2pdf, and it worked fine. I did notice some lag, and I was ps2pdf'ing a very small file.

Have you tried starting ps2pdf, going for a cup of coffee, and seeing if it is just taking an unusually long time?

I think I am officially out of ideas... hopefully you get it going though.

[Macros73]

I waited about..20 minutes for one attempt via SSH to finish. Nada.

Fortunately, I have no production need for SSH if we set up the ps2pdf print queue we're looking to do. It was just a quick means of connecting to the server to run a test.