Well, I did find the first problem. The only book that successfully builds a .fo file using my (modified) script is also the only book that has its own DTD (PACKINSTALL). Any relying on the common DTD fail.
The modified script relies on using the common sun-iso-map.xml, using a modified version of Ceri's trick to copy it as the include file for the xmlcatalog creation. Rainer -- Mind the gap.
