Many thanks everyone, problem now solved!
It was indeed the hard drive being a bit too full, running the commands posted by bryncoles freed up some more space, so root has now has 361MiB free (95% full).
Oddly, I thought I had run these commands before, after I did a Google search. Perhaps those were different but similar-looking commands.
I didn't reinstall hplip, and it turns out that wasn't the cause.
I will be getting a replacement computer as soon as funds allow, I need a desktop rather a laptop which I currently have, and a 20GB drive just isn't big enough now! Not to mention a couple of hardware problems - dodgy power socket and both screen hinges have broken! New computer will be getting the latest LTS release, when I can afford to buy it
Very pleased with Ubuntu overall, this is the first time in over 4 years that I've had to ask for help, and I'm not a computer person by a long way!
Thanks again guys! Much appreciated!
P.S. mörgæs - thanks for fixing the typo!
Bookmarks