[syslinux] ppmtolss16 and RedHat 8.0/perl 5.8.0

[David Ross]

Okay, what's the deal?  How come ppmtolss16 always terminates with 
"Premature EOF"?
A previous poster said he fixed it by using a different conversion 
routine, but that doesn't help me at all.  In fact, it appears to me the 
problem is with perl 5.8, not the file.  Characters vs. bytes?  Another 
poster said adding "use bytes" to ppmtolss16 fixed the error.  That may 
be so, but I can't use the files generated either.

Does anyone know what this problem really is and how to really fix it??
Please??!  Thanks!