I finally have this solved, after taking several different lines of
investigation including checking to see if file permissions were all correct,
for I checked the cups-pdf_log in /etc/log/cups/, and would see this after
trying to print via lp:
> Mon May 28 09:46:00 2018 [ERROR] failed to set file mode for PDF file (non
fatal) .../PDF/_stdin_.pdf)
which led me to think there might be an issue along these lines.
Not able to find any answers, I again tried working with apt-get to see about
re-installing packages, and looked more closely at the messages along the
way. Using "apt-get purge", I noticed some complaints that included this
line:
> mktemp: failed to create file via template
‘/var/tmp/mkinitramfs-FW_XXXXXX’: No such file or directory
Investigating this, I realized that somehow I didn't have /var/tmp/ on my
system. I created it as su, and gave it rw access to all (chmod a+rw).
After that "apt-get purge" made no complaints. Without any further attempts
to re-install anything like ghostscript, cups, or even cups-pdf, I tried
printing to lp -- "cat doc.txt | lp", and this time the expected _stdin_.pdf
file appeared in ~/PDF/, and now the log file says:
> Mon May 28 17:23:06 2018 [STATUS] PDF creation successfully finished...
Also, the :hardcopy function in vim places a pdf in ~/PDF/ now, as expected.
So, the problem seems solved, just for having /var/tmp/ available now.
Did upgrading or updating packages from trisquel sources have anything to do
with this trouble? I can only say that when I was offered to upgrade to
trisquel 8, I did try and was warned that I did not have enough space. I
then went through purging stuff from past upgrades (there was quite a lot),
and a few other things. Still I did not have enough room, and decided to put
it off for a while. Perhaps in my zeal for space, I somehow got rid of
/var/tmp/? Or, did it happen as a bug in the upgrading process? I have no
idea, but at least here is a record of the event for what it may be worth.
Thanks to all for this forum and your helpful contributions to it.
-- BRC
