Removing ghostscript 8.70, and using 9.05~dfsg-0ubuntu4.2 from the 12.04 repositories, and then following the suggestion of @lorenzo worked for me.
-- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to auctex in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1028681 Title: ghostscript 9.05 fails with preview-latex and auctex Status in “auctex” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed Bug description: This is not the same as this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ghostscript/+bug/543266 The error in this bug is reported as: Error: /invalidfileaccess in --file-- It is the same as the bug mentioned here: http://email.esm.psu.edu/pipermail/macosx-emacs/2011-January/002566.html and here: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-auctex/2010-10/msg00016.html I was able to fix this by downgrading to ghostscript 8.70. Note that 8.71 has a different bug in it that produces an error that says Error /undefined in copy_trailer_attrs (as reported here: https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?29023) To answer the required questions: 1) Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Release: 12.04 2) ghostscript: Installed: 9.05~dfsg-0ubuntu4 Candidate: 9.05~dfsg-0ubuntu4 Version table: *** 9.05~dfsg-0ubuntu4 0 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status auctex/ preview-latex: Installed: 11.86-2ubuntu1 Candidate: 11.86-2ubuntu1 Version table: *** 11.86-2ubuntu1 0 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status 3) In emacs pressing 'C-c C-c C-p' inside of an equation environment should produce a preview of the equation. I 4) Instead a red circle/ error symbol is shown. Button-2 clicking the error yields the following error message gs -dOutputFile\=\(_region_.prv/tmp30703Qa0/pr1-1.png\) -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -DNOPLATFONTS -dPrinted -dTextAlphaBits\=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits\=4 -sDEVICE\=png16m -r119.953x119.811 GS>{DELAYSAFER{.setsafe}if}stopped pop/.preview-BP currentpagedevice/BeginPage get dup null eq{pop{pop}bind}if def<</BeginPage{currentpagedevice/PageSize get dup 0 get 1 ne exch 1 get 1 ne or{.preview-BP 0.246098 0.246098 0.246098 setrgbcolor clippath fill 0.859388 0.859388 0.796887 setrgbcolor}{pop}ifelse}bind/PageSize[1 1]>>setpagedevice/preview-do{[count 3 roll save]3 1 roll dup length 0 eq{pop}{setpagedevice}{ifelse .runandhide}stopped{handleerror quit}if aload pop restore}bind def [(_region_.prv/tmp30703Qa0/preview.ps)(r)file]aload exch dup 0 setfileposition 101518()/SubFileDecode filter cvx .runandhide aload pop dup dup 101518 setfileposition 577()/SubFileDecode filter cvx<<>>preview-do Error: /invalidfileaccess in --file-- Operand stack: --nostringval-- (_region_.prv/tmp30703Qa0/preview.ps) (r) Execution stack: %interp_exit .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- --nostringval-- %loop_continue --nostringval-- --nostringval-- false 1 %stopped_push .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- Dictionary stack: --dict:1167/1684(ro)(G)-- --dict:0/20(G)-- --dict:79/200(L)-- Current allocation mode is local Last OS error: 2 Current file position is 533 GS<3> To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/auctex/+bug/1028681/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
