[Puppet Users] Custom Package Provider Issue

I'm running into a weird issue with a custom package provider for PEAR. I'm
using the provider I found here<https://raw.github.com/gist/305778/13f46dea6eba07e38778d7159644b4210ebe7bbe/pear.rb>and the provider itself works fine. I've got it stored on the Puppet master
under /etc/puppet/modules/common/lib/provider/package/pear.rb and the
puppet.conf has pluginsync = true enabled on it, however when I initially
deploy a class with any packages utilizing the pear provider, Puppet throws
an error that it can't find the package provider

Failed to apply catalog: Parameter provider failed: Invalid package
Puppet throws this error even though the file has been synchronized and is
available on the computer running the puppet agent in
/var/lib/puppet/lib/provider/package/pear.rb.

The weird behavior occurs if I modify the pear provider (on the client, or
on the puppet master) so that puppet recognizes the file has been changed
and re-sync's it from the Puppet master. After the file has been re-sync'd,
the class using the custom provider starts working.
I've done diff comparisons of the file that is initially sent to the client
and the file that it receives after the client side file is modified, and
the files are identical, so I'm not sure why Puppet is failing initially
and then starts working after re-transmitting that file. I've tried
restarting the Puppet agent on the client and even rebooting the client and
Puppet still behaves this way each time. So far I've been able to reproduce
the issue every time.


Currently I am using Puppet 2.7.18 on both the Puppet master and client,
with 64-bit RHEL 6 on the master and 32-bit RHEL6 on the client.

I am running into the EXACT same issue.

If I change my provider code and re-sync, the provider works. If I run the
configuration immediately after it successfully completes, it fails with:
Failed to apply catalog: Parameter provider failed: Invalid package
provider...

Did you ever solve this issue?