I use Feren OS classic (which is basically a twin of Linux Mint) and I had the PDF printer driver working all of a sudden it prints but no PDF is created anywhere. I have tried all the standard stuff of removing and reinstalling the driver the PPD is present nothing so far

Have you set the destination for the PDF files?
On that file system how much space is free?
Have you checked the logs for errors or messages that pertain?
Is CUPS running?

I assume by PDF printer driver you are referring to cups-pdf?

Does the output of the command lpstat -p show the cups-pdf printer enabled?

As posted check the cups log files for errors.

When you say "PDF printer," are you referring to a physical printer or some sort of software save to PDF thing.

What is the name of the driver you mention?

To address all your responses

1. I am not sure where to set the destination
2. several hundred Gigabytes
3. No I have not yet only know printing occurs no new PDF file is created
4. As far as I know

1. yes

1. yes PDF printer is software that emulates a printer driver creating a new PDF for each print job

I assume by the way you answered the questions that you are using cups-pdf.

If it was working where did you normally find the PDF files? Are you printing as your regular user?

Did you update the system or make any changes lately?

Again, check the cups log files usually at /var/log/cups/. There should be an error.log file that might have something useful.

On mine when I tell the system to print, I select "print to pdf" then it asks where to save it.

As in answer to #1, I have to add the file name to save it as.

See these images.

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computersavvy, does have a good point and my assumption could be wrong since you were vague as to what questions you were actually answering.

There is a "Print to File" selection feature of the desktop print dialog box that creates a PDF file and is separate from cups. The destination directory of the PDF file is where ever you choose it to be.

cups-pdf is special virtual print driver that looks like a regular printer but saves a PDF file to a specific directory and works through cups printing system. cups-pdf is not installed by default but is found in most repositories. With the Print to File feature found in just about all desktops now days its almost obsolete in all but some special cases.

On my system I am asked where to save the file and the name it used to be save to my PDF folder now it is not there just is no PDF created anywhere. Ye I am using cups.PDF. By destination I though you meant where are the PDFs created and stored which used to be /home/cmdr/PDF the output of lpstat -p is printer PDF is idle. enabled since Sun 01 Aug 2021 03:22:02 PM EDT it was installed long before this date. yes this system changes as this was a fresh install of several weeks ago and the standard user is in use. cups-PDF log files show no error

By default PDFS are saved to your /home/username/PDF directory and if there is no name associated with the print job the file will be saved in the /var/spool/cups-pdf/ANONYMOUS directory. Unless you changed the defaults in the cups-pdf.conf file. Have you checked the ANONYMOUS directory?

In the /var/log/cups/access_log there should be something like the below if everything worked.
localhost - - [ date time ] "POST /printers/PDF HTTP/1.1" 200 355 Create-Job successful-ok
localhost - - [ date time ] "POST /printers/PDF HTTP/1.1" 200 343 Send-Document successful-ok

What type of stuff are you trying to print? text, graphics etc and from what application?

Firefox web pages, the anonymous folder is empty, yes the log file lines you mention are present

The raw print data should be in /var/spool/cups/, any file that begins with d. Assuming that cups is configured to not delete print data.
Since the standard output from the desktop is a PDF that should be the data as captured by cups.

/var/spool/cups should be only accessible via sudo. You can access a root shell via sudo -s to make it easier to navigate and see the files. When finished type exit to go back to your regular user.

The raw print data should be in /var/spool/cups/, any file that begins with d. Assuming that cups is configured to not delete print data.
Since the standard output from the desktop is a PDF that should be the data as captured by cups.

/var/spool/cups should be only accessible via sudo. You can access a root shell via sudo -s to make it easier to navigate and see the files. When finished type exit to go back to your regular user.

The /var/spool/cups folder is empty except for a TMP folder which is also empty

Not much help there. Typically control files (c0001) are cleaned out after 500 jobs and data files (d0001) are deleted. Not sure how Feren configures cups but I would of expected some control files.

Just of curiosity does printing to a real printer work?