Hi,

Here’s an improved version of the patch you posted, which removes the
dependency on Autoconf/Automake and keeps using /var as the
localstatedir.

However, programs now need help to find their Python modules:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ /gnu/store/4s58vq7zn5l10143736imvq4nzjzyc7m-hplip-3.16.2/bin/hp-scan --version
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/gnu/store/4s58vq7zn5l10143736imvq4nzjzyc7m-hplip-3.16.2/bin/hp-scan", line 40, in <module>
    import scanext
ImportError: No module named 'scanext'
$ /gnu/store/4s58vq7zn5l10143736imvq4nzjzyc7m-hplip-3.16.2/bin/hp-probe 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/gnu/store/4s58vq7zn5l10143736imvq4nzjzyc7m-hplip-3.16.2/bin/hp-probe", line 38, in <module>
    from base import device, utils, tui, module
  File "/gnu/store/4s58vq7zn5l10143736imvq4nzjzyc7m-hplip-3.16.2/share/hplip/base/device.py", line 42, in <module>
    from . import status
  File "/gnu/store/4s58vq7zn5l10143736imvq4nzjzyc7m-hplip-3.16.2/share/hplip/base/status.py", line 33, in <module>
    import cupsext
ImportError: No module named 'cupsext'
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

Could someone add a phase to do this?

TIA.  :-)

Ludo’.