Re: weird problem with .fmt file

>     http://gallatin.physics.lsa.umich.edu/~dwchin/tetex/

I can use the .fmt file from there with teTeX-2.0.2.

> To produce the .fmt file, I run this sequence:
> 
>     initex phyzzm_maker
>     mv phyzzm_maker.fmt phyzzm.fmt
>     tex \&phyzzm foobar

This works for me as well (foobar.tex just containing \bye).

All I can think of is that tex != initex in your installation or that
you have some special parameter settings for tex in you texmf.cnf file.

Can you please send me your texmf.cnf file and the banner of tex?

BTW: there exists a robust solution to prevent such problems:
use "tex -i" instead of initex.

Thanks,

Thomas