diff -up texlive-base-20210325/source/texk/web2c/pdftexdir/pdftoepdf.cc.debug texlive-base-20210325/source/texk/web2c/pdftexdir/pdftoepdf.cc

--- texlive-base-20210325/source/texk/web2c/pdftexdir/pdftoepdf.cc.debug	2022-01-20 10:25:58.454233201 -0500

+++ texlive-base-20210325/source/texk/web2c/pdftexdir/pdftoepdf.cc	2022-01-20 12:57:04.241513707 -0500

@@ -962,21 +962,30 @@ A change

 does not improve the situation.

 The changes below seem to work fine. 

 */

+            if (page->getGroup() != NULL) {

+                groupDict = Object(page->getGroup());

+            } else {

+                pdftex_fail("PDF inclusion: getGroup failed");

+            }

+/*

 // begin modification

             groupDict = pageDict->lookup("Group");

             Dict *dic1 = page->getGroup();

             Dict *dic2 = groupDict.getDict();

             // replace dic2 in groupDict with dic1

             l = dic2->getLength();

+            pdftex_warn("dic2 length is %d", l);

             for (i = 0; i < l; i++) {

                 groupDict.dictRemove(dic2->getKey(i));

             }

             l = dic1->getLength();

+            pdftex_warn("dic1 length is %d", l);

             for (i = 0; i < l; i++) {

                 groupDict.dictAdd(dic1->getKey(i),

                                   dic1->getValNF(i).copy());

             }

 // end modification

+*/

             pdf_printf("/Group %ld 0 R\n", (long)pdfpagegroupval);

         }

     }