Hey There! It's 8:40 AM EDT, 41°F, sunny
I had to make two pots of coffee this morning, as Son2 is in town. I'll get to that later.
Yesterday after the morning walk I got down to trying to solve the printing situation again on my Linux computers. I decided to take the drastic step of replacing Zorin with Mint, since I had come to believe that the trouble was with the operating system. So I went ahead and did a file backup, and installed and updated Mint.
It turns out that my suspicions were correct, but not exact. Once I got Mint installed, I went to test a print page, and got a crash message containing cryptic information about a Signal 11 error. Often Linux can be very obtuse because of its roots as a command line operating system. I tested this situation with my downstairs computer, and got the same message. Not good.
At first I thought something was wrong with either the network or the printer not connecting properly with the network, so I re-booted the network first. No dice. Then I unplugged all my network satellites and made sure the printer was connected to the base router. No luck. With all these options gone, I felt the only solution had to lie in the operating system. Both Mint and Zorin have gone through recent upgrades, and upon researching the situation it appears that Mint 22 has a flaw in its CUPS operation. In previous versions CUPS just found the printer on the network and ran it. For some reason, however, with the upgrades, you have to manually tell CUPS about the printer and install a driver. Long story short, I found the directions for this on a Linux forum and followed the directions. This worked, and now both printers are working.
I am tempted to reinstall Zorin, but tbh while the OS has a nice look and interface, it does nothing so spectacular that going through a reinstall is worth the time and effort. It's still Linux at root. So I will leave it as it is and run Mint on both of them.
In the afternoon I completed a post for my public blog on Japan. Son2 came over for dinner, as he had a gig in town and is sleeping over. We talked about his business and getting a new building with an apartment and an open space for the studio. He also wants a new car. I can see why he would want these things, but I am concerned about him overextending himself financially. While I do have some money to offer and I expect I'll be helping him somehow, I don't want to blow all my cash this way. We will have to talk about this further, and come up with some hard budget numbers. Putting stuff down on paper and in a spreadsheet is where the rubber will hit the road. I also don't want to see him burn out.
The element that involves DW and I is moving to his city. At first we were looking for a building that could serve as a place for us, a studio apartment for him, and the space for his business. But this building might either be a unicorn, or be located in an area where we wouldn't want to live. More discussion is on tap for sure, but time is also beginning to play a role.
We had pork loin, potatoes, and salad for dinner. I watched a condensed baseball game and then some Youtube videos before hitting the rack at 11:20 PM.
'Til We Meet Again!