evince and okular do not render eps files correctly resulting in a black background

I have the same problem in my machine.

I am experiencing what appears to be the same problem. Just upgraded to 14.04 from 12.04, all of my eps files now have black backgrounds when viewed with evince. I've attached an example eps file.

The file displays normally with ghostview.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

The source of this problem is contained within the libspectre1 library. This is the evince postscript backend. Between precise and trusty, libspectre1 was upgraded from 0.2.6-1build1 to 0.2.7-2ubuntu1.1. I downloaded and installed the previous version from the precise archive and eps files now render correctly in envice and the thumbnails are correct, too.

Update manager, of course, now wants to update me back to 0.2.7.

Chris,

Is there a previous version of libspectre1 from the trusty repository? I've been running 14.04 on this machine, and feel like this is a recent development.

I will mention that 13.10 did not have this issue either, so the regression likely happened between the last version supplied to 13.10 and the current version in 14.04.

Hi John,

You can download the old package from ubuntu: http://packages.ubuntu.com/precise/libspectre1

Install with : sudo dpkg -i libspectre1_0.2.6-1build1_amd64.deb

Do not try and remove the newer 0.2.7 package before you install this one, that would require you to remove a ton of stuff to satisfy dependencies.

After installing, you can go into synaptic package manager, search for libspectre1, click on it, then select Package->Lock Version from the menu. That will keep it from trying to update to the new version.

Just a workaround until the problem gets fixed, but I hope it helps.

I just checked, and the prior version of libspectre (libspectre1_0.2.7-2ubuntu1_amd64.deb), located at:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/amd64/libspectre1/0.2.7-2ubuntu1

renders the eps files correctly. Thus the bug was introduced in the change from -ubuntu1 to -ubuntu1.1 as a result of trying to fix Bug #1242678.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libspectre/+bug/1242678

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Hi all,

I'm happy to discover that this bug is registrated here. I tried many times early in july to find some information on the web about this problem, but I always failed.

In my case (ubuntu-14.04, 64 bits), I discovered and identified this bug at the end of june.

It appears that it affects only the EPS files which doesn't contain the 'showpage' postscript command at the end of the file. Indeed, a work-around of this bug is to add the 'showpage' command at the end of the EPS file.

So, the good new is that a workaround exists and is pretty easy to do: you can use any text editor to modify an EPS file!

Not all the EPS files are affected: for example the EPS files created with the Matlab software already include a 'showpage' at the end, so they are not affected by this bug.

It is worth noting that EPS files which doesn't contain the 'showpage' command at their end are valid. Don't answer that these EPS are not valid! The 'showpage' command is used to eject the page and it is mandatory in PS files, not EPS files. Please for example the discussion in:
   http://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/929463
which contain the following extract of the official Adobe documentation:
<quote>
Redefine showpage

    The showpage operator is permitted in EPS files because it is present in so
    many PostScript language files. Therefore, it is reasonable for an EPS file
    to use the showpage operator, although it is not necessary if the EPS file
    will only be imported into another document. The application importing the
    EPS file is responsible for redefining showpage. showpage may be redefined
    using the following code segment:

    /showpage { } def

</quote>

Cheers,
EC

Thanks Edouard,

Yes, I can confirm that appending the "showpage" command to my eps files causes them to be rendered correctly by evince and libspectre. From what I can tell reading the latest EPS standard (https://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/ps/5002.EPSF_Spec.pdf), as you say, showpage is allowed in eps, but should be redefined by programs that import eps. evince libspectre should do so in order to display correctly formatted eps files that lack the superfluous showpage command.

So how's fault is it? Is it in scope of libspectre tasks to add a dummy showpage for eps files? Or have all applications that
use libspectre handle this case themself?

The ubuntu1 ubuntu1.1 diff is here:

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/trusty/libspectre/trusty-updates/revision/14

I've subscribed Till Kamppeter to this bug, to get his attention. He the one that cherry picked the patch.

Achim

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

The "vanilla" libspectre-0.2.7 doesn't show this behavior. The patch we are takling about has been introduced in the master branch of the git repository last June, but was reverted in September:
http://cgit.freedesktop.org/libspectre

Some time between those two dates, somebody added this patch to the debian/ubuntu version of libspectre though, and it has not yet been reverted here.

While this gets fixed, you can get the source of the debian package, download the vanilla libspectre, and build yourself a new .deb package without this faulty patch (make sure that the source repositories are enabled). I give below a script that should do this for you. There may be a better way, but at least this one works.

# Install the tools needed to build debian packages
sudo apt-get install devscripts
# Install the dependencies of libspectre
sudo apt-get build-dep libspectre1

# Make yourself a temporary directory
mkdir ~/tmp/
cd ~/tmp/

# Download the vanilla libspectre-0.2.7
wget http://libspectre.freedesktop.org/releases/libspectre-0.2.7.tar.gz

# Download the debian source code
sudo apt-get source libspectre1

# Create a new directory with the correct code
cd libspectre-0.2.7
uupdate ../libspectre-0.2.7.tar.gz -v 0.2.7-vanilla
cd ../libspectre-0.2.7-vanilla

# Remove the debian patch
rm debian/patches/*

# Build the package
dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc -nc
# Note: fore some reason, this fails to build libspectre-dev, but we don't care

# Install it
cd ../
sudo dpkg -i libspectre1_0.2.7-vanilla*.deb

Marek, it seems that your fix on libspectre for bug 1242678 is causing this bug. Can you have a look? Thanks.

This patch fixes the problem for me. But I can not reproduce the problem mentioned in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=76450#c34 so there are still some problems probably.

The attachment "Erase the current page before its drawing" seems to be a patch. If it isn't, please remove the "patch" flag from the attachment, remove the "patch" tag, and if you are a member of the ~ubuntu-reviewers, unsubscribe the team.

[This is an automated message performed by a Launchpad user owned by ~brian-murray, for any issues please contact him.]

Thanks a lot Corentin. The re-build of a vanilla DEB package solves the rendering perfectly.
Your explainations were quite clear...

Regards,
Edouard

Marek, is the patch from upstream (or at least submitted to upstream)? Can we expect it to be included in an upstream version of libspectre soon?

The patch is a simplified version of the patch https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=105606. I still can not reproduce the problem mentioned by Carlos and my previous patch was reverted so I don't know whether it will be included there at all.

Attached is a debdiff to get the fixed package for Vivid using the attached patch.

I've just spoken with Till about this on IRC.

It seems to me that there are two patches involved here. Patch 1 (fix-document-rotation) fixed bug 1242678, but caused a regression (tracked by this bug: bug 1348384). Marek has kindly provided patch 2 (erase-page) that fixes this.

But patch 1 was reverted upstream, and we don't know what the current status of this is. So patch 1 has inadvertently caused Ubuntu to diverge from upstream, and this is what is causing the current pain.

I think that taking patch 2 is going to exacerbate the problem. Then we'll be even further diverged from upstream, and this will make future merges harder, which sets Ubuntu up to end up with an old version for fear of regression.

So to avoid making the situation worse, can someone please resolve the situation of these two bugs upstream before pushing this patch into Ubuntu? What has upstream done about bug 1242678? Would it be better to revert patch 1 from Ubuntu, and take what upstream has done to fix it instead, thus avoiding this regression altogether and bring us closer to upstream?

Finally, when preparing debdiffs, please use dep3 headers (http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep3/) to make it easier to follow upstream status on these patches.

Thanks.

This bug was fixed in the package libspectre - 0.2.7-2ubuntu3

---------------
libspectre (0.2.7-2ubuntu3) vivid; urgency=medium

  * erase-page.patch: Some EPS files get rendered with black background.
    This patch fixes this. Thanks to Marek Kasik for this patch (LP: #1348384).
 -- Till Kamppeter <email address hidden> Mon, 15 Dec 2014 18:34:44 +0100

libspectre - 0.2.7-2ubuntu3 does not solve the problem for me.
Rather, it replaces the original problem (black background) with another one (nothing displayed, completely white).
As before, manually adding "showpage" at the end of the eps file renders correctly.
I observe the problem on Ubuntu 15.04 (upgraded form 14.10) and Kubuntu 15.04 (fresh install).

I confirm the previous post of GrandVizier.

Incredible that it has been badly fixed !

Previously totally black, the background is totally white.

Please read the ADOBE standard concerning the EPS language before implementing some hazardous or not professional things !

My linux box is Ubuntu 15.04 (64bits) newly upgraded from 14.10.

I know the bug status says "Fix Released", but the problem is still present on new installs of Ubuntu 14.04 (using a 14.04 image and upgrading all packages, NOT installing from a 14.04.2 image).

Are there any plans to backport/fix this in the LTS release?

I just did a fresh install of 14.04.2 from a newly downloaded 14.04.2 iso. This contains libspectre1_0.2.7-2ubuntu1.1_amd64 and produces the bug.

I tried Corentin's fix to install the vanilla version, but compiling crashed with:

dpkg-genchanges: error: cannot read ../libspectre_0.2.7-vanilla-0ubuntu1.dsc: No such file or directory
dpkg-buildpackage: error: dpkg-genchanges gave error exit status 2

I've gone through all of the ubuntu versions and this is what I get:

libspectre1_0.2.7-2ubuntu1_amd64 -- White background
libspectre1_0.2.7-2ubuntu1.1_amd64 -- Black background
libspectre1_0.2.7-2ubuntu2_amd64 -- Black background
libspectre1_0.2.7-2ubuntu3_amd64 -- White background

So, version 3 works for me, but that is in 14.04.2. I see GrandVizier has a new problem in 15.04.

I've attached an example eps file that renders correctly in 14.04.2 with libspectre1_0.2.7-2ubuntu3_amd64.

Ha ha... we are close to the first birthday of this bug, which is not yet fixed on 15.04

Perhaps it will be fixed for 15.10, or 16.04, or 17.04?

I'm setting the bug importance to Critical according to #7 of
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libspectre/0.2.7-2ubuntu2 was an SRU that introduced this regression on Trusty.

The SRU was the simple application of an upstream patch from this upstream bug report

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=76450

I do not know anything of the internals of libspectre and even do not have upload rights for it, as it does not belong to printing. It is used by evince to generate certain output data formats. I only have done the debdiff for that SRU because no one else did it. I am not maintaining libspectre in Ubuntu.

So my suggestion is to simply remove the patch if the solution of the current problem is urgent and no better patch from upstream is available. But take into account that the problem of the original SRU will reappear. Let this be a new SRU. Wait for a better upstream fix if it is not so urgent.

In general make upstream aware of both problems and that fix of the first problem caused the second and what is needed is a fix to solve both problems. Do another SRU if the final fix is available.

Till, I'm taking care of this bug. Thank you!

Hello John, or anyone else affected,

Accepted libspectre into trusty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libspectre/0.2.7-2ubuntu1.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

I completed both test cases successfully with libspectre1 0.2.7-2ubuntu1.2 from trusty-proposed on Ubuntu GNOME 14.04.

This bug was fixed in the package libspectre - 0.2.7-2ubuntu1.2

---------------
libspectre (0.2.7-2ubuntu1.2) trusty; urgency=medium

  * Replace fix-document-rotation.patch with new version from 0.2.8.
    This fixes a regression introduced in 0.2.7-2ubuntu1.1 where some
    eps files are mostly unreadable with a black background when viewed
    in apps like Evince or Okular (LP: #1348384)

 -- Jeremy Bicha <email address hidden> Wed, 07 Dec 2016 15:52:17 -0500

The verification of the Stable Release Update for libspectre has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.