savWriter on Linux Red Cap gives error Problem committing header [SPSS_INVALID_HANDLE]

[Maggie Hancock]

when running simple savWriter code on Linux Red Cap (machine='x86_64')

savFileName = 'someFile.sav'
records = [[b'Test1', 1, 1], [b'Test2', 2, 1]]
varNames = ['var1', 'v2', 'v3']
varTypes = {'var1': 5, 'v2': 0, 'v3': 0}
with SavWriter(savFileName, varNames, varTypes) as writer:
    for record in records:
        writer.writerow(record)

gives the following error

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "savreaderwriter_test.py", line 23, in <module>
with SavWriter(savFileName,varNames,varTypes) as writer:
File ".......savReaderWriter-3.4.2-py3.7.egg/savReaderWriter/savWriter.py", line 241, in init
self._commitHeader()
File "....../savReaderWriter-3.4.2-py3.7.egg/savReaderWriter/savWriter.py", line 335, in _commitHeader
checkErrsWarns("Problem committing header", retcode)
File "......savReaderWriter-3.4.2-py3.7.egg/savReaderWriter/error.py", line 120, in checkErrsWarns
raise SPSSIOError(msg, retcode)
error.SPSSIOError: Problem committing header [SPSS_INVALID_HANDLE]