The a2x program depends on having docbook-xml-dtd-4.2 present. If it is not present, the program tries to connect to the internet, which fails in networkless situations. Example, running a2x manually after I hit it in a package: $ /usr/bin/a2x -d manpage -f manpage -v man/mylvmbackup.1.txt a2x: eval: asciidoc --doctype=manpage -d manpage -b docbook "man/mylvmbackup.1.txt" a2x: eval: cd "man" a2x: eval: xsltproc --stringparam callout.graphics 0 --stringparam navig.graphics 0 --stringparam admon.textlabel 1 --stringparam admon.graphics 0 --nonet "/etc/asciidoc/docbook-xsl/manpage.xsl" "/home/robbat2/mylvmbackup-svn/man/mylvmbackup.1.xml" I/O error : Attempt to load network entity http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd /home/robbat2/mylvmbackup-svn/man/mylvmbackup.1.xml:2: warning: failed to load external entity "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" D DocBook XML V4.2//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" ^
*** Bug 191535 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Well, I've added asciidoc-8.2.7 with additional dependency: app-text/docbook-xsl-stylesheets With that a2x still issues warnings about failed to load external entity but works and generates pages. So a2x can work without docbook-xml-dtd as I see. I think bug is fixed.