SDB:Configuring Scanners from SUSE LINUX 9.3

Concern

You want to configure your scanner.

Basic information on this subject is available in the SUSE LINUX 9.3 manuals.

Details are provided in the article SDB:Configuring Scanners from SUSE LINUX 9.2

The following section mainly features information regarding changes and peculiarities of this version in comparison to older SUSE LINUX versions.

Changes regarding the SANE packages

• The package "sane" is split according to the two parts of the SANE project into two packages:
  • "sane" (does no longer require GTK libraries)
    • backends (the actual hardware drivers)
    • scanimage (command-line frontend)
    • saned (daemon to make a scanner available in the network) The "sane" package provides now also the RPM capability "sane-backends" so that external RPMs which require "sane-backends" can be installed without an RPM error message.
  • "sane-frontends" (requires GTK)
    • xscanimage (graphical scanner frontend)
    • xcam (graphical camera frontend)
    • scanadf (command-line tool for "Automatic Document Feeder")
• To scan directly from GIMP the package sane-frontends or xsane (or both) must be installed. Both packages provide appropriate links in the GIMP plugin directory:

  /opt/gnome/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/xscanimage -> /usr/X11R6/bin/xscanimage
  /opt/gnome/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/xsane -> /usr/X11R6/bin/xsane
See "man xscanimage" and "man xsane". After a default installation with the KDE desktop neither sane-frontends nor xsane is installed because the default scan program for KDE is kooka (package kdegraphics3-scan).

Changes Concerning Scanner Drivers

• New free printer and scanner software "HPLIP" from HP:

HP has combined the printer driver HPIJS with the new HP scanner driver "hpaio" (designed for HP all-in-one devices) in the new HPLIP software (HP Linux Imaging and Printing). Thus, the new packages are "hplip" and "hplip-hpijs". See SDB:Printer Configuration from SUSE LINUX 9.3 on. The "hplip" packages contains the following:

• • The SANE backend (scanner driver "hpaio").
  • The "hplip" service and its utilities "hpiod" and "hpssd", which are needed for the SANE backend "hpaio".

The previous HP scanner driver "hpoj" for HP all-in-one devices is still available. This driver requires the "ptal" service; see SDB:Set up a HP OfficeJet ("all-in-one" device). The ptal and hplip services are mutually exclusive, as ptal occupies the device for itself, thereby preventing hplip from accessing the device. On the other hand, HPLIP does not yet support devices connected to the parallel port. Accordingly, if you have an HP all-in-one device which cannot be connected to the USB port, the scanner driver hpoj with the ptal services must be used for all HP all-in-one devices. Despite this limitation, it is better to make HPLIP available to a wide user base at this stage (0.x version), instead of waiting until support for non-USB devices is implemented. For testing purpose there are newer versions (0.9.2 and 0.9.3) of HPLIP for SUSE LINUX 9.3 available at "ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/jsmeix/unsupported/hplip/9.3/RPMS" for 32-bit Pentium compatible (i586) and for AMD 64-bit (x86_64) machines. Note the "unsupported" and read the README in the directory. Please send feedback to the e-mail address at the bottom.

• Image Scan / iscan / epkowa scanner software from Epson Avasys (former Epson Kowa): "http://www.avasys.jp/english/linux_e/index.html"
  • There are some limitations, some of which are described in the release notes: [file:///usr/share/doc/release-notes/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html "/usr/share/doc/release-notes/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html": ]

      The following scanners require the Image Scan frontend (iscan):
      Epson Perfection 1250 / 1250 PHOTO, 1260 / 1260 PHOTO, 3170 PHOTO,
      4180 PHOTO, GT-7200U, GT-7300U, GT-9400, GT-F600.
      Other scanner frontends, like kooka, xsane, xscanimage,
      and scanimage, may not work.
As indicated, the above models can only be addressed via the iscan frontend (/usr/bin/iscan). kooka or xsane are said to work in some instances.

For testing purposes there is a newer version of Image Scan for SUSE LINUX 9.3 available at "ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/people/jsmeix/unsupported/iscan/9.3/RPMS". Note the "unsupported" and read the README in the directory. It is possible that all frontends work with this version. Please send your feedback to the e-mail address at the bottom.

• • The 32-bit Image Scan software from Epson Avasys should now also work on AMD 64-bit (x86_64) systems.

For this purpose, SUSE LINUX 9.3 delivers 32-bit versions of the SANE libraries in the "sane-32bit" package, as 32-bit software does not work with 64-bit libraries. As Image Scan contains proprietary 32-bit software, we cannot compile it for 64-bit systems (like normal free software). Therefore, Image Scan does not run like normal software, but has some limitations on AMD 64-bit systems which are also described in the "Release Notes":

      Any scanner for which the epkowa driver is set up can only be used
      with the iscan frontend.
      Image Scan is proprietary 32-bit only software and, consequently,
      normal 64-bit scanner frontends cannot work with the 32-bit epkowa driver.
On AMD 64-bit systems, any scanner configured with the epkowa driver can only be addressed with the 32-bit frontend iscan (/usr/bin/iscan), as the normal 64-bit frontends do not work with the 32-bit driver library libsane-epkowa.

Changes in the YaST Scanner Configuration

• The YaST module for the scanner configuration has been completely revised for SUSE LINUX 9.3.
• Apart from the usual SANE backends (from the "sane" package), the following external backends are now fully supported:
  • "hpaio" ("hplip" package)
  • "hpoj" ("hp-officeJet" package)
  • "epkowa" ("iscan" package) The hpaio and hpoj backends are mutually exclusive (see above).
• The backend epkowa has some limitations. See above and [file:///usr/share/doc/release-notes/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html "/usr/share/doc/release-notes/RELEASE-NOTES.en.html": ]

    The following scanners require the Image Scan frontend (iscan):
    Epson Perfection 1250 / 1250 PHOTO, 1260 / 1260 PHOTO, 3170 PHOTO,
    4180 PHOTO, GT-7200U, GT-7300U, GT-9400, GT-F600.
    Other scanner frontends, like kooka, xsane, xscanimage,
    and scanimage, may not work.
    Those scanners can be set up with YaST by activating
    the epkowa driver, but as a side-effect, the scanners cannot be
    recognized as "active scanners" by YaST.
Accordingly, the above models can be configured with YaST (i.e., the epkowa driver can be activated), but scanimage cannot address the scanner with the epkowa driver. The scanner is not listed as an "active scanner" in YaST, as YaST uses scanimage for detecting active scanners.

Updating from an older SUSE LINUX version

Following the update from an older SUSE LINUX version, e.g. 9.0 (or previous version) -> 9.3, or one version at a time, 9.0 -> 9.1 -> 9.2 -> 9.3, the scanner might no longer be listed by the command "/sbin/lsusb", see SDB:Configuring Scanners from SUSE LINUX 9.2 In this case, the scanner can neither be accessed nor be detected by the command "sane-find-scanner" or by YaST (YaST uses sane-find-scanner). The usual reason is an obsolete "usbdevfs" entry in the file "/etc/fstab" such as:

usbdevfs  /proc/bus/usb  usbdevfs  noauto  0 0
Up to SUSE LINUX 9.2, the obsolete entry used to work. However, since SUSE LINUX 9.3, the correct entry must be used:
usbfs  /proc/bus/usb  usbfs  noauto  0 0

Finally, the USB file system ("mount | grep usb" must show "usbfs...") must be mounted. This is necessary for creating the /proc/bus/usb/... entries which must exist in order to access the scanner, see SDB:Configuring Scanners from SUSE LINUX 9.2

• Following the update from a an older SUSE LINUX version, the old backend config files /etc/sane.d/*.conf might no longer work with the new backend version. This depends on the backend actually used and the content of its configuration file.

To obtain up-to-date configuration files, move /etc/sane.d/ or remove /etc/sane.d/*, and reinstall the "sane" package again (and the "iscan" package if you use the "epkowa" backend). Then set up the scanner anew (e.g. by using YaST). <keyword>scanner,scanning,sane,iscan,hplip,hpaio,9.3,93</keyword>