[Unresolved] Xsane scanner tool

mark2 · Last edited by mark2 on Wed Dec 09, 2015 5:33 pm; edited 1 time in total

It will not detect my HP ScanJet 8200 flatbed scanner. But scanimage -L gives:

soulsource · n00b Joined: 25 Jan 2014 Posts: 28

Have you tried running xsane from the command line, to see if it gives some informative output?
Also, have you tried to run xsane as root? Of course I'm not suggesting to always scan as root, but if xsane works when being run with full privileges, you've probably got a permission issue that can be resolved by writing a suitable UDEV rule. For instance you could create a group for all users allowed to use scanners, add your user to it, and write an UDEV rule that gives this group access to the scanner.

Another crazy idea: Have you tried to use other USB ports, or a different cable? I had similar issues (scanimage found the scanner, but xsane couldn't use it), and I'm meanwhile certain they were caused by a cheap USB cable... What confirmed that it's the cable was that after switching it with the printer cable of my girlfriend's computer, her printer didn't work any more... Funny enough, I'm still using that cable, but on a different USB port, where obviously my mainboard has slightly higher voltage levels (or accepts lower voltage input).

mark2 · Posted: Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:25 pm Post subject:

I will try running it from the command line. I'm not sure, but I thought that I had. I did try running it as root, but it gave the same error.

I like your idea of a different USB cable, because I have two cables piggybacked since the original one is not long enough. So I will try that and post back.

Thanks.
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Thanks,
Mark
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mark2 · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 12:57 am Post subject:

Well, that didn't work. I used a completely new USB cable, plenty long enough, but it was of no help. I get the error:

russK · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 665

wondering if you have either SANE_BACKENDS="hp" or SANE_BACKENDS="avision"

just a shot in the dark

mark2 · Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 7:27 am Post subject:

Good question. I didn't really know there was a difference, to tell the truth. How do I change that?
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Mark
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soulsource · n00b Joined: 25 Jan 2014 Posts: 28

Oh, I didn't even think about SANE_BACKENDS...
It's an auto-expand variable for portage (similar to the LINGUAS or the VIDEO_CARDS variable) and can be defined in /etc/portage/make.conf

mark2 · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 4:00 am Post subject:

I added the SANE_BACKENDS="hp" to make.conf, but it made no difference.
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Mark
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"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

The Doctor · Moderator Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 2678

I have also been unable to get xsane and hp to work properly. However, I did find a workaround that is very effective. That is to use hp-scan. Here is the man page if you want to try it
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mark2 · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:19 pm Post subject:

Thanks Doctor, but the link you provided didn't quite show me what to do for a scanner. It says the Hplip does not work for scanners. And, unfortunately it seems that my scanner is not supported by SANE Backends, either. When I run "sane-find-scanner", I get:

Buffoon · Veteran Joined: 17 Jun 2015 Posts: 1369 Location: EU or US

http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-HEWLETT-PACKARD

It shows your scanner is supported.

soulsource · n00b Joined: 25 Jan 2014 Posts: 28

My scanner, a HP Scanjet 7400c, requires the avision backend, the same might be true for yours.

mark2 · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 2:48 pm Post subject:

mark2 · Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2015 3:51 pm Post subject:

The reboot did nothing to help. Also ran through the Hplip setup with the tarball and after following the instructions to download it to my desktop, now I have a crap load of files all over my desktop. If it's not going to work, I want to clean up this thing. I tried to run the hp-setup and hp-scan and I don't guess I know where to find these commands, because that is what it says, "Command not found". If the instructions are going to tell one what to run, why do they not also tell one just where to find the command? This sort of documentation is no doubt the reason so many inexperienced users (of which I am one) experience great frustration.

I had absolutely no trouble whatsoever installing Cups and my Oki 6100C printer.
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Mark
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"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

soulsource · n00b Joined: 25 Jan 2014 Posts: 28

Strange...
I'm honestly out of clever ideas, and back to wild guesses... Have you enabled the global "scanner" use flag?

bbgermany · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:17 pm Post subject:

Can you post your configfile (/etc/sane.d/avision.conf) and the full output of "lsusb" please. Maybe you need some tweaking there.

Thx, bb

EDIT: Please add "avision" back to your make.conf and dll.conf. It is needed for your scanner according to the sane website!
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mark2 · Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 5:12 pm Post subject:

First my make.conf:

bbgermany · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 7:39 am Post subject:

mark2 · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:48 pm Post subject:

Thanks, bb.

scanimage -L (as root in console) produces the following:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 5:23 pm Post subject:

mark2,

Are you in the scanner and or plugdev groups?
One of those is obsolete but I can't recall which.
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Computer users fall into two groups:-
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mark2 · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 5:39 pm Post subject:

I am in the scanner group, but not the plugdev group. Also the usb group.
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Thanks,
Mark
__________________________________________________________________
"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 6:44 pm Post subject:

mark2,

I think the scanner group gave access to /dev/scanner in the days when the kernel had a usbscanner option in menuconfig.

When libusb came along /dev/scanner went away.
If you have plugdev group on your system, add yourself to it, then logout and back in to pick up the new group membership.
If the plugdev group does not exist, you don't need it.

Google suggests my memory is faulty and plugdev came along with HAL, which has long since gone away again.
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Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

mark2 · Posted: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:49 pm Post subject:

I used getent group to show:

russK · l33t Joined: 27 Jun 2006 Posts: 665

mark2 · Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2015 1:28 am Post subject:

The only problem I ran into with strace is that there is so much more code than I can capture on a screen. And it won't wgetpaste because it says there is nothing to post.
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Mark
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"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams