[pdftex] supp-pdf.tex being called incorrectly?

[James Haefner]

If this is not sufficiently pdftex related, I would appreciate a reference to possible documentation.
I use "txt2tex" to format Gutenberg public domain books. txt2tex attempts to convert "arbitrary" text files to
a tex file with minimum or no human intervention.  It accomodates special tex characters (e.g. ampersand) by
redefining catcodes in the preamble, as shown in the test file below.  On one texlive installation this works
fine. On a second installation that I installed from linux Ubuntu 8.10, this method of dealing with special
characters fails with this error message:

...
(/usr/share/texmf/tex/context/base/supp-pdf.tex
[Loading MPS to PDF converter (version 2006.09.02).]
! Missing = inserted for \ifnum.
<to be read again>
...

pdflatex version: 3.141592-1.40.3

I am posing my problem to you because of the implication of supp-pdf.tex.  The error from supp-pdf.tex arises
because characters like "<", ">" have been redefined.  Interestingly, if I insert the catcode changes below
\begin{document}, the error does not arise, but supp-pdf.tex is still called.  On the failing installation,
supp-pdf.tex is invoked whenever graphicx.sty is used, but not in the first installation.  They are same
version of graphicx.sty in both installations. On the first installation for  which this problem does not
arise, supp-pdf.tex is not called at all.

No doubt, this invocation of supp-pdf.tex is caused by some configuration error in my second installation of
texlive, but I can not determine where it might be. So, the basic question is why is supp-pdf.tex being called
and how do I prevent it?  I do note that on the working installation pdflatex.fmt is twice the size of
pdflatex.fmt on the failing installation, and I have not found the second installation to fail on other tex 
files (that do not redefine catcodes).

Thanks for any insights you can provide.

Here is a test file:
===================================
\documentclass[letterpaper,oneside,11pt]{report}
\usepackage{graphicx}
%------------------------------
\let\olddospecials=\dospecials
\def\dospecials{\samepage \catcode`|=11 \olddospecials}
%--------------------------------
%\iffalse
\let\leftangle=<
\let\rightangle=>
\let\doublequote="
\let\dollar=\$
\catcode`\_=\active
\catcode`\<=\active
\catcode`\>=\active
\catcode`\|=\active
\catcode`\"=\active
\catcode`\$=\active
\def<{\mbox{\(\leftangle\)}}
\def>{\mbox{\(\rightangle\)}}
\def|{\mbox{\(\mid\)}}
\def"{\mbox{\texttt{\doublequote}}}
\def${\dollar}
\catcode`\&=11
\catcode`\^=11
\catcode`\~=11
%\fi
%------------------------------
\begin{document}
%--------------------------------
% uncomment iffalse/fi to see it work
\iffalse
\let\leftangle=<
\let\rightangle=>
\let\doublequote="
\let\dollar=\$
\catcode`\_=\active
\catcode`\<=\active
\catcode`\>=\active
\catcode`\|=\active
\catcode`\"=\active
\catcode`\$=\active
\def<{\mbox{\(\leftangle\)}}
\def>{\mbox{\(\rightangle\)}}
\def|{\mbox{\(\mid\)}}
\def"{\mbox{\texttt{\doublequote}}}
\def${\dollar}
\catcode`\&=11
\catcode`\^=11
\catcode`\~=11
\fi
%--------------------------------
\thispagestyle{empty}
\pagestyle{empty}
%--------------------------------
Hello

A text file with "quotes" and other odd symbols by Jack & Jill.

4 is < 8 but > 3

\end{document}
===================================
-- 
James W. Haefner             Email: James.Haefner at usu.edu
Dept Biology/Ecology Center  Voice: 435-797-3553
Utah State University        FAX:   435-797-1575
Logan, UT 84322-5305