Bug#245599: tetex-bin: mpost always fails with "Fatal mem file error; I'm stymied"

[Seth M LaForge <sethml@ofb.net>]

Package: tetex-bin
Version: 2.0.2-13
Severity: important
Tags: sid

I installed tetex-bin, and whenever I run it I get the following:

  % mpost foo
  This is MetaPost, Version 0.641 (Web2C 7.4.5)
  (Fatal mem file error; I'm stymied)

(Regardless of whether the file foo exists or not.)  On a debian stable
system, I get:

  % mpost foo
  This is MetaPost, Version 0.641 (Web2C 7.3.7)
  ! I can't find file `foo'.
  <*> foo

  Please type another input file name: 

and of course, if I give it an actual file, it does stuff.

I purged tetex-bin and tetex-base and reinstalled them to clean out old
config, and the behavior changes a bit but is still broken:

  % mpost foo
  This is MetaPost, Version 0.641 (Web2C 7.4.5)
  kpathsea: Running mktexfmt mpost.mem
  fmtutil: format `mpost' not available.
  I can't find the mem file `mpost.mem'!

If you have any problems reproducing, let me know and I can give more
details.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.20
Locale: LANG=en_US, LC_CTYPE=en_US

Versions of packages tetex-bin depends on:
ii  debconf                     1.4.22       Debian configuration management sy
ii  debianutils                 2.8.1        Miscellaneous utilities specific t
ii  dpkg                        1.10.20      Package maintenance system for Deb
ii  ed                          0.2-20       The classic unix line editor
ii  libc6                       2.3.2.ds1-12 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgcc1                     1:3.3.3-6    GCC support library
ii  libice6                     4.3.0-7      Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libkpathsea3                2.0.2-13     path search library for teTeX (run
ii  libpaper1                   1.1.14       Library for handling paper charact
ii  libpng12-0                  1.2.5.0-5    PNG library - runtime
ii  libsm6                      4.3.0-7      X Window System Session Management
ii  libstdc++5                  1:3.3.3-6    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libt1-5                     5.0.2-2      Type 1 font rasterizer library - r
ii  libwww0                     5.4.0-9      The W3C WWW library
ii  libx11-6                    4.3.0-7      X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxaw7                     4.3.0-7      X Athena widget set library
ii  libxext6                    4.3.0-7      X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxmu6                     4.3.0-7      X Window System miscellaneous util
ii  libxt6                      4.3.0-7      X Toolkit Intrinsics
ii  mime-support                3.26-1       MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap
ii  perl                        5.8.3-3      Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  sed                         4.0.9-2      The GNU sed stream editor
ii  tetex-base                  2.0.2-7      Basic library files of teTeX
ii  ucf                         1.05         Update Configuration File: preserv
ii  xlibs                       4.3.0-7      X Window System client libraries m
ii  zlib1g                      1:1.2.1-5    compression library - runtime

-- debconf information:
  tetex-bin/upd_map: true
  tetex-bin/cnf_name: 
  tetex-bin/fmtutil: true
  tetex-bin/userperm: false
* tetex-bin/hyphen: 
  tetex-bin/oldcfg: true
* tetex-bin/use_debconf: true
* tetex-bin/groupname: users
  tetex-bin/groupperm: true
* tetex-bin/lsr-perms: true