Starting bitcoind for the express purpose of creating a wallet?

Question

Referencing this solution:

My favorite method:

• grab out a old/unused pc/mac
• install a linux over usb (maybe Talis) (make sure your USB stick is clean!)
• download a recent version of bitcoin-core (check hash, verify gitian signatures)
• copy bitcoin-core over usb to your offline machine
• start ./bitcoind
• ./bitcoin-cli getnewaddress (gives you a new public key)
• ./bitcoin-cli dumpprivatekey (gives you the corresponding private key)
• print or write down both strings (address can be recreated from private key, but print it anyhow)
• verify the printed or written down strings
• try to delete printers cache (power off, reset)

Now you could delete/format the pc/mac. But maybe it's worth keeping your new offline computer to generate new addresses or sign transaction in a "cold space/wallet".

I've installed bitcoin-core using snap on Ubuntu and ready to start a dry-run of this for reference. However, disk space is limited, and, even then, I have no interest in downloading the blockchain itself.

How do I start bitcoind for generating a wallet?

I have:

nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ bitcoin-core.cli status
error: Could not connect to the server 127.0.0.1:8332

Make sure the bitcoind server is running and that you are connecting to the correct RPC port.
nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ bitcoin-core.cli getblockchaininfo
error: Could not connect to the server 127.0.0.1:8332

Make sure the bitcoind server is running and that you are connecting to the correct RPC port.
nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ bitcoin-core.cli start
error: Could not connect to the server 127.0.0.1:8332

Make sure the bitcoind server is running and that you are connecting to the correct RPC port.
nicholas@mordor:~$ 

and am just looking to run bitcoin-core in pruning mode to play with.

I want to run a command like:

bitcoin-cli -testnet getblockchaininfo

Because I installed with snap I can run snap info bitcoin-core but man bitcoin-core doesn't give any results.

Starting the daemon:

nicholas@mordor:~$ 
nicholas@mordor:~$ bitcoin-core.daemon
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Bitcoin Core version v0.20.1 (release build)
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Assuming ancestors of block 0000000000000000000f2adce67e49b0b6bdeb9de8b7c3d7e93b21e7fc1e819d have valid signatures.
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Setting nMinimumChainWork=00000000000000000000000000000000000000000e1ab5ec9348e9f4b8eb8154
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Using the 'sse4(1way),sse41(4way)' SHA256 implementation
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Default data directory /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Using data directory /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Config file: /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Using at most 125 automatic connections (1024 file descriptors available)
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Using 16 MiB out of 32/2 requested for signature cache, able to store 524288 elements
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Using 16 MiB out of 32/2 requested for script execution cache, able to store 524288 elements
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Script verification uses 1 additional threads
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z scheduler thread start
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z HTTP: creating work queue of depth 16
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z No rpcpassword set - using random cookie authentication.
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Generated RPC authentication cookie /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/.cookie
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z HTTP: starting 4 worker threads
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z Using wallet directory /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/wallets
2020-11-11T20:55:32Z init message: Verifying wallet(s)...
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z Using BerkeleyDB version Berkeley DB 4.8.30: (April  9, 2010)
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z Using wallet /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/wallets
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z BerkeleyEnvironment::Open: LogDir=/home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/wallets/database ErrorFile=/home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/wallets/db.log
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z init message: Loading banlist...
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z Using /16 prefix for IP bucketing
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z Cache configuration:
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z * Using 2.0 MiB for block index database
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z * Using 8.0 MiB for chain state database
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z * Using 440.0 MiB for in-memory UTXO set (plus up to 286.1 MiB of unused mempool space)
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z init message: Loading block index...
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z Opening LevelDB in /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/blocks/index
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z Opened LevelDB successfully
2020-11-11T20:55:33Z Using obfuscation key for /home/nicholas/snap/bitcoin-core/common/.bitcoin/blocks/index: 0000000000000000
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z LoadBlockIndexDB: last block file = 186
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z LoadBlockIndexDB: last block file info: CBlockFileInfo(blocks=338, size=108899992, heights=325785...326349, time=2014-10-17...2014-10-21)
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z Checking all blk files are present...
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z LoadBlockIndexDB(): Block files have previously been pruned
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z : You need to rebuild the database using -reindex to go back to unpruned mode.  This will redownload the entire blockchain.
Please restart with -reindex or -reindex-chainstate to recover.
: You need to rebuild the database using -reindex to go back to unpruned mode.  This will redownload the entire blockchain.
Please restart with -reindex or -reindex-chainstate to recover.
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z Aborted block database rebuild. Exiting.
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z Shutdown: In progress...
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z scheduler thread exit
2020-11-11T20:55:43Z Shutdown: done
nicholas@mordor:~$