[aur-dev] pdftk unusable

[tt at bu.edu]

I have errors from pdftk, and the pdf files that come out are unusable.
Any suggestions, or links to a usable pdftk source or monolithic bynary?
Thanks,
			Tommaso Toffoli


I just installed the pdftk 1.44-5 (AUR package) in a freshly installed Arch
Linux 64-bit system. I installed this package first manually, directly from
AUR, and a second time using Yaourt, with exactly the same results.
 [I had used pdftk on the previous install (a couple of months ago) of Arch
Linux on the same machine, and that had been working without any
problems. Also, the latter installed instantly, while the new one had to go
through half an hour of an enormous gcc-gcj installation.]

		Nature of the problem

When I run pdftk I get the following messages:

tt at pks:~/beazwork$ pdftk body.pdf cat 645   output page.pdf
Unhandled Java Exception:
Unhandled Java Exception:
java.lang.NullPointerException
   at gnu.gcj.runtime.NameFinder.lookup(libgcj.so.12)
   at java.lang.Throwable.getStackTrace(libgcj.so.12)
   at java.lang.Throwable.stackTraceString(libgcj.so.12)
   at java.lang.Throwable.printStackTrace(libgcj.so.12)
   at java.lang.Throwable.printStackTrace(libgcj.so.12)

When I play back the resulting file, I get the following messages:

tt at pks:~/beazwork$ xpdf page.pdf 
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-courier-medium-r-normal--12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-times-bold-i-normal--20-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
Warning: Cannot convert string "-*-times-medium-r-normal--14-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1" to type FontStruct
Syntax Error: Couldn't read xref table
Syntax Warning: PDF file is damaged - attempting to reconstruct xref table...
Syntax Error: Couldn't find trailer dictionary
Syntax Error: Couldn't read xref table

		Questions

 -- The gcc version currently supplied by Arch Linux is gcc 4.6.3.
Mine is a 64-bit system; could it be an issue of 32 vs 64 bits?
 -- Is there a simpler, perhaps older, monolithic binary that I can use in the
interim?
 -- Any hope I could be running pdftk again any time soon?