I decided to go ahead and commit some changes that I have extensively tested here. This will make things more concrete for further discussion here. The SVN commit log is: * Added build-infrastructure files defs.make and octave-depends to the octave2.1-headers package * Include PDF instead of PS files in octave2.1-doc pakcage Please snv checkout the octave2.1 Debian files and try the new 2.1.65 package. -- Rafael