Printer bug adds cnij* into /var/tmp endlessly

[Mark Preston]

Canon Maxify MB2320 printer (all-in-one) causes or systemd causes lines to be added to /var/tmp/ continuously. By constant, I mean whenever the printer, or scanner, or copier function. I reported a bug at the Canon Printer Community Forum for it's writing massively large files (starting cnij) and filling /var/tmp to the point where / was complaining of no space remaining. As these two problems may be linked I'm posting a little about the cnij files, too. Please bear with me.

http://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Office-Printers/Maxify-MB2320-and-driver/td-p/165313

The next problem occurs after I start a weekly removal of those cnij files. When the device (printer) was first installed there were but 3 or 4 files in /var/tmp, no including the cnij-s.

That has now grown to 70+ lines. I append a few here, as they are somewhat similar. If you wish to see all 70, they are at https://paste.ubuntu.com/16968056/

Representative sample:

mark@Lexington:/var/tmp$ ls
canon_sgmp2_setting.ini
kdecache-mark
mkinitramfs-FW_mgeshg
systemd-private-273505a4cf664ff0af6e81870ea6665a-colord.service-hk7T18
systemd-private-273505a4cf664ff0af6e81870ea6665a-rtkit-daemon.service-Lv8yQF
systemd-private-273505a4cf664ff0af6e81870ea6665a-systemd-timesyncd.service-Fizgv4
systemd-private-29b03f52b21d493abf1e8ea22b6b7adc-colord.service-WLN1p1
systemd-private-29b03f52b21d493abf1e8ea22b6b7adc-rtkit-daemon.service-ghG257
systemd-private-29b03f52b21d493abf1e8ea22b6b7adc-systemd-timesyncd.service-BuNOet

While trying to run Ubuntu's (badly named app) "Backup", I received the following error message:

Backup Failed

Giving up after 5 attempts. Error: g-io-error-quark: Error opening file: '/media/mark/80cb5313-35a0-432b-9250-4cc62d79a3c8/duplicity-inc.20160528T201042Z.to.20160603T203335Z.vol2.diff tar.gpg': Read-only file system (21)

I have asked for help at AskUbuntu and the Ubuntu Forums. At AskU I was directed to report the bug here. Following the Launchpad reporting guidelines:

Description: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Release: 16.04

mark@Lexington:/var/tmp$ apt-cache policy backups
N: Unable to locate package backups

I expected the backup to run as it has for years and years.

Backup reports fail message.

I am not aware of whether this is a security bug. I have left that box unchecked.

There has been no response at Ubuntu Forums as yet. If there is one I will add the relevant information as it becomes available.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

I suppose you are talking abou the cnij* files which aren't being cleaned up? That's what your link refers to. I'm not entirely sure which driver is doing this, but tentatively assigning to the Canon one.

[Mark Preston (emarkpreston)]

Dear Sirs: After some more research I have posted to the Canon Printer forum about this. As they are the source of the drivers for their products, it is better if they do this work.

To be thorough about this, I am appending these links.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=150151

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=150052

https://askubuntu.com/questions/627594/can-i-delete-older-systemd-private-md32-files-in-var-tmp

https://askubuntu.com/questions/781508/systemd-adding-lines-continuosly

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for cjet (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]