major yap/dvi issues after Dec. 7 updates

[cooch17]

Applied the numerous 'required' December 7 updates, and as of today, a lot of things that worked fine in past are broken. Most critically, .dvi files created with the updated MikTeX are not viewable using the newest yap (generic 'can't render' error). I've even tried the most basic MWE I have, and same issue. The .dvi file gets generated, but yap absolutely won't render it. Older .dvi files (created prior to Dec. 7 updates) open up just fine with newest yap.exe. So, I'm guessing that yap.exe is working OK, but there is now something being compiled into the .dvi file that yap can't render. Tried both from the command line, and by double-clicking the .dvi file. Doesn't work in either case. Which one(s) are the potential culprits?

I think it might be an issue with etex.exe. I suspect as much because various .bat files I use that call etex.exe are now failing. One of the consistent errors is the following:

 2021-12-08 09:32:44,183-0500 FATAL etex.core - Bad parameter value.
 2021-12-08 09:32:44,183-0500 FATAL etex.core - Data: parameterName="stack_size"
 2021-12-08 09:32:44,183-0500 FATAL etex.core - Source:  Libraries\MiKTeX\TeXAndFriends\include\miktex\TeXAndFriends\TeXMFMemoryHandlerImpl.h:107
 2021-12-08 09:32:44,183-0500 FATAL etex - Bad parameter value.
 2021-12-08 09:32:44,183-0500 FATAL etex - Info: parameterName="stack_size"
 2021-12-08 09:32:44,183-0500 FATAL etex - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\TeXAndFriends\include\miktex\TeXAndFriends\TeXMFMemoryHandlerImpl.h
 2021-12-08 09:32:44,183-0500 FATAL etex - Line: 107

I've rolled back to the pre-December 7 version of...everything (whenever the updates involve 'required' binaries and such, I make a backup of my working MikTeX directory), but thought I'd start the debugging effort.

[cooch17]

Feel free to move this to 'issues' -- wasn't quite sure where to post it. Since I can't specifically point to one package or binary that is causing the problem, thought I'd start it as a discussion.

[cooch17]

I think I've narrowed the problem down to a weird font issue. Many of my documents use the newpx fonts. Those that use 'something else' seem to compile and render fine. But, those using newpx -- .dvi doesn't render, and .dvi -> .ps also fails. The error messages include things like:

Command Line: dvips.exe "nr4100_2021_exam3_v5.dvi"
Startup Folder: C:\Users\egc\Desktop\egc\teaching\dnr\ntres4100\eval\exams\2021

 dvips.exe: ! Couldn't find header file: zpl_TOsF.enc

So, thats a step.