[Tex/LaTex] Lonely \item – perhaps a missing list environment

bibtexmoderncvsplitbibsubdividing

My problem is:

I am using moderncv and splitbib on a mac. In Linux my file compiles fine. In the mac, however, i run pdflatex and bibtex all right, but when I run pdflatex again, I get the error

Lonely \item – perhaps a missing list environment

Here's a MWE. The first section is kind of standard for moderncv, then I use splitbib to produce bibliography in several sections. Then there are two CV sections with an entry for the sake of completeness only and lastly, my linking to the bib file.

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{moderncv}
\moderncvtheme[blue]{classic}                 % optional argument are 'blue' (default), 'orange', 'red', 'green', 'grey' and 'roman' (for roman fonts, instead of sans serif fonts)
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}                   % replace by the encoding you are using
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[scale=0.8]{geometry}
\AtBeginDocument{\recomputelengths}                     % required when changes are made to page layout lengths

\firstname{MyName}
\familyname{MyLastName}

% SPLITBIB
\usepackage[export]{splitbib} % So I can display publications by categories.
\begin{category}{\subsection{Press}}
\SBentries{press1}
\end{category}
\begin{category}{\subsection{Presentations}}
 \SBentries{pres1,pres2}
\end{category}
\begin{category}{\subsection{Papers}}
 \SBentries{paper1,paper2}
\end{category}

% BEGIN DOC
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\section{Education}
\cventry{2005--2010}{Deg}{Some U}{Someplace}{Computer Science}{Some notes}

\subsection{Professional}
\cventry{2000--2005}{Technical Specialist}{Some company}{Some City}{}{Some description} 

\renewcommand{\listitemsymbol}{-} % change the symbol for lists

\nocite{*}

%BIBLIOGRAPHY
\SBtitlestyle{simple}
%\SBsubtitlestyle{none}
\bibliographystyle{plain}
\bibliography{publications}     % 'publications' is the name of a BibTeX file

\end{document}

For completeness, if someone wants to try it, here's the sample publications.bib used with this MWE.

@UNPUBLISHED{pres1,
  author = {John Doe},
  title = {Some title},
  note = {Presentation at XYZ},
  month = {July.},
  year = {2010}
  }

@UNPUBLISHED{pres2,
  author = {First Guy and Second Guy},
  title = {Some title},
  note = {Presentation at some University},
  month = {Nov.},
  year = {2008}
}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% PAPERS
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
@inproceedings{paper1,
    author = {Author One and Author Two},
    booktitle = {Anyone can get a Book},
    posted-at = {2010-07-23 15:33:06},
    publisher = {Springer},
    editor = {John Doe and Juan Perez},
    title = {Some Catchy Title},
    year = {2012}
}
@inproceedings{paper2,
  author    = {Author one and Author two},
  title     = {Complicated Title},
  booktitle = {pretentious journal},
  year      = {2011},
  pages     = {568-577}
}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Press
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
  %author    = {Phil McKenna},
@misc{press1,
  month     = {March},
  author   = {{New Scientist}},
  title     = {What you thought true is no more},
  howpublished = {\url{http://bit.ly/be0PpB}},
  year      = {2010}
}

Best Answer

From the documentation

Since [splitbib] deeply redefines \bibitem and thebibliography environment, it must be loaded after packages that redefine those commands...

However the moderncv class, version 2013/02/09 v1.3.0, does redefine exactly those commands. On the other hand, moderncv sets up things so that multibib works. You can use this to get subdivided bibliographies with your bib file as follows:

Sample output

\documentclass[11pt,a4paper]{moderncv}
\moderncvtheme[blue]{classic}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}  
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[scale=0.8]{geometry}
\AtBeginDocument{\recomputelengths}

\firstname{MyName}
\familyname{MyLastName}

\usepackage{multibib}
\newcites{press}{Press}
\newcites{presentations}{Presentations}
\newcites{papers}{Papers}

% BEGIN DOC
\begin{document}
\nocitepress{press1}
\nocitepresentations{pres1,pres2}
\nocitepapers{paper1,paper2}

\maketitle

\section{Education}
\cventry{2005--2010}{Deg}{Some U}{Someplace}{Computer Science}{Some notes}

\subsection{Professional}
\cventry{2000--2005}{Technical Specialist}{Some company}{Some City}{}{Some description} 

\section{Publications}

\bibliographystylepress{plain}
\bibliographypress{publications} 

\bibliographystylepresentations{plain}
\bibliographypresentations{publications} 

\bibliographystylepapers{plain}
\bibliographypapers{publications} 

\end{document}

compiled via

pdflatex file
bibtex press
bibtex presentations
bibtex papers
pdflatex file
pdflatex file