# Bug with psconvert? gmt begin \ png fails, but gmt begin \ png,ps works **URL:** \ **Category:** Q&A\ **Created:** [June 4, 2026, 5:43pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/bug-with-psconvert-gmt-begin-name-png-fails-but-gmt-begin-name-png-ps-works/6423 "2026-06-04T17:43:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Esteban82](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/esteban82/32/54_2.png) [@Esteban82](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/Esteban82)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2026, 5:43pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/bug-with-psconvert-gmt-begin-name-png-fails-but-gmt-begin-name-png-ps-works/6423/1 "2026-06-04T17:43:52Z")
Hi, I recently reinstalled my operating system (Kubuntu 26.04) and noticed a strange issue with GMT. The following script works as expected: ```auto gmt begin 3 png,ps gmt basemap -R0/1/0/1 -Baf gmt end ``` However, if I remove the `ps` format: ```auto gmt begin 3 png gmt basemap -R0/1/0/1 -Baf gmt end ``` I get the following error: ```auto Error: /undefinedfilename in (/home/esteban82/.gmt/sessions/gmt_session.43357/gmt_0.ps-) Last OS error: Permission denied psconvert [ERROR]: System call [gs -q -dNOSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=bbox -DPSL_no_pagefill -dMaxBitmap=2147483647 -dUseFastColor=true '/home/esteban82/.gmt/sessions/gmt_session.43357/gmt_0.ps-' 2> '/home/esteban82/.gmt/sessions/gmt_session.43357/psconvert_43374c.bb'] returned error 256. end [ERROR]: Failed to call psconvert end [ERROR]: gmtinit_process_figures returned error 79 ``` Has anyone seen this before? Could this be related to Kubuntu 26.04, Ghostscript, file permissions, or a GMT configuration issue introduced during the OS reinstall? gmt version: 6.7.0\_7b70493\_2026.06.01 gs version: 10.06.0 Any suggestions on what I should check would be appreciated. Thanks, Federico ---
**Author:** ![jjg](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/jjg/32/2822_2.png) [@jjg](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/jjg)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 10:04am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/bug-with-psconvert-gmt-begin-name-png-fails-but-gmt-begin-name-png-ps-works/6423/2 "2026-06-05T10:04:47Z")
My first guess would be to `ls -lR /home/esteban82/.gmt/` to see if anything is owned by root, this might be the case if you accidentally run a script under `sudo` … ---
**Author:** ![mkononets](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/mkononets/32/4029_2.png) [@mkononets](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/mkononets)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 10:08am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/bug-with-psconvert-gmt-begin-name-png-fails-but-gmt-begin-name-png-ps-works/6423/3 "2026-06-05T10:08:31Z")
A Linux Mint user here Not confirming the issue gmt 6.3.0 (system) and 6.6.0 (conda/mamba), gs 9.55.0 or 10.04.0, respectively. All good. ---
**Author:** ![mkononets](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/mkononets/32/4029_2.png) [@mkononets](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/mkononets)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 10:12am UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/bug-with-psconvert-gmt-begin-name-png-fails-but-gmt-begin-name-png-ps-works/6423/4 "2026-06-05T10:12:01Z")
Maybe try running `gmt end -Vd` to check verbose/debug output? ---
**Author:** ![Joaquim](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/joaquim/32/16_2.png) [@Joaquim](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/Joaquim)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2026, 4:09pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/bug-with-psconvert-gmt-begin-name-png-fails-but-gmt-begin-name-png-ps-works/6423/5 "2026-06-05T16:09:54Z")
The error is saying that the syscall to gs has no rights to write in `/home/esteban82/.gmt/sessions/gmt_session.43357` but this cannot (??) be a permissions problem because the file `gmt_0.ps-` was already created. So … no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Esteban82](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex047/user_avatar/forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/esteban82/32/54_2.png) [@Esteban82](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/u/Esteban82)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2026, 9:40pm UTC](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/bug-with-psconvert-gmt-begin-name-png-fails-but-gmt-begin-name-png-ps-works/6423/6 "2026-06-08T21:40:27Z")
I managed to solve (at least temporary) the issue. According to ChatGPT this was the issue and the solution: > The issue was not related to GMT, file permissions, or Ghostscript itself. Ghostscript was unable to open GMT’s temporary PostScript files located in `~/.gmt/sessions`, even though the files existed and had the correct permissions. > > The root cause was AppArmor. The kernel logs showed that the `gs` profile was denying read access to files such as: > > `~/.gmt/sessions/gmt_session.xxxxx/gmt_0.ps-` > > This caused Ghostscript to fail with: > > `Error: /undefinedfilename` > `Last OS error: Permission denied` > > The problem was confirmed by copying the PostScript file to `/tmp`, where Ghostscript processed it successfully. > > The solution was to relax or disable the AppArmor profile for Ghostscript (`gs`), or modify the profile to allow access to the GMT session directory.