SANE/Scanner-specific problems

This article contains scanner or manufacturer-specific instructions for SANE.

BenQ/Acer

If you own an USB scanner from Acer (now BenQ), you need to download a suitable firmware binary and configure /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf.

  • Find out which model you own and take note of the USB ID:
$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 010: ID 04a5:20b0 Acer Peripherals Inc. (now BenQ Corp.) S2W 3300U/4300U
  • Go to snapscan main page and see whether your scanner is supported and which firmware you need (e.g, u176v046.bin).
  • Search the firmware image on the Internet and download it to /usr/share/sane/snapscan/.
  • Edit the head of /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf and configure the following two lines:
firmware /usr/share/sane/snapscan/u176v046.bin
/dev/usb/scanner0 bus=usb

Brother

In order to install a Brother scanner or printer/scanner combo you need the right driver. To find the right one, search for your model at the Brother Linux scanner page.

Then, install the appropriate package:

Now, the scanner should be recognized by SANE.

For network scanners, Brother provides a different configuration tool for each brscan version (eg. brsaneconfig2 for brscan2 compatible devices):

# brsaneconfig2 -a name=<ScannerName> model=<ScannerModel> ip=<ScannerIP>

Example:

# brsaneconfig2 -a name=SCANNER_DCP770CW model=DCP-770CW ip=192.168.0.110

Scan-key-tool

Brother has released a tool to enable scanning to be triggered by user interaction with the scanner itself (e.g. by selecting one of "Scan to email", "Scan to image", etc. on the scanner keypad) rather than by an attached computer. This can be set up by installing the brscan-skeyAUR package and starting brscan-skey.service using systemd. Note that by default this service runs as the brscan-skey user which is created by the package, whose home directory is located at /srv/brscan-skey.

Brother supplies some default scripts that are executed when a scan type is selected on the keypad. These may require the installation of some optional dependencies of the brscan-skeyAUR package. For all options apart from "Scan to email" the resulting output can be found inside $HOME/brscan, with $HOME the home directory of the user running this tool (so /srv/brscan-skey if started via systemd as a systemwide process).

It is possible to change what action takes place when a given type of scan is selected on the keypad. This is done by editing /opt/brother/scanner/brscan-skey/brscan-skey-0.2.4-0.cfg. For each variable SCAN_COMMAND in IMAGE, OCR, EMAIL, FILE, the command

 $ $SCAN_COMMAND $SCANNER_DEVICE $SCANNER_FRIENDLY_NAME

is executed when the corresponding scan type is selected. Note that $SCAN_COMMAND is not quoted so may specify more than one positional parameter in the final command that is executed. $SCANNER_DEVICE refers to the name of the device that should be specified to a sane frontend (e.g. via the --device-name flag when using scanimage), for example brother3:bus4;dev2. $SCANNER_FRIENDLY_NAME is the human-readable name of the scanner.

xsane crashes

Tango-inaccurate.pngThe factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.Tango-inaccurate.png

Reason: Should be mentioned on AUR page (Discuss in Talk:SANE/Scanner-specific problems#)

Tango-inaccurate.pngThe factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.Tango-inaccurate.png

Reason: This may only be relevant for the Brother DCP-150C scanner (Discuss in Talk:SANE/Scanner-specific problems#)

If xsane crashes with message "=bugchk_free(ptr==(nil))@brother_modelinf.c(482)", then you need to create the link /usr/local/Brother -> /usr/share/brother.

Canon

Scanning over the network with Canon Pixma all-in-one printer/scanners

Find out your printer/scanner's IP address, and add it on a new line to /etc/sane.d/pixma.conf in the format bjnp://10.0.0.20.

Sane should now find your device. For more details refer to man sane-pixma.

Cannot read scanner make and model

If you have a Canon multi function printer/scanner and get an error message of the following kind:

Cannot read mac address, skipping this scanner
Cannot read scanner make & model: bjnp://

and the scanner refuses to connect, then it may be because you have a newer scanner using the mfnp, and not the bjnp protocol. Unfortunately, this scanner may not be supported (yet) by the current sane version. However, you can install sane-gitAUR to get a version supporting mfnp reasonably well. (And make sure that the scanner is in "remote" scanning mode - otherwise it will not communicate it's scanning capabilities over the network at all)

Epson

Tango-inaccurate.pngThe factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.Tango-inaccurate.png

Reason: The scanner group is deprecated. (Discuss in Talk:SANE/Scanner-specific problems#)

With Epson scanners, you can use "Image Scan! for Linux".

  • Install the iscan package
  • Install the appropriate iscan-plugin package for your scanner (for example, iscan-plugin-gt-x820AUR for the Epson Perfection Photo V600)
  • Add your user to the "scanner" group
  • Reboot, so that udev will recognize the device as a scanner and apply appropriate permissions

For network (including Wi-Fi) scanners, install iscan and iscan-plugin-networkAUR, then edit /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf and add the line:

net {IP_OF_SCANNER}

Epson Perfection 1270

For Epson Perfection 1270, you also need a firmware named esfw3e.bin. It can be obtained by installing the Windows driver.

Modify the configuration file of the snapscan backend, /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf. Change the firmware path line with yours:

# Change to the fully qualified filename of your firmware file, if
# firmware upload is needed by the scanner
firmware /mnt/mydata/Backups/firmware/esfw3e.bin

And add the following line in the end or anywhere you like

# Epson Perfection 1270
usb 0x04b8 0x0120

You can get such code information (usb 0x04b8 0x0120) by sane-find-scanner command.

Also add such information lines to /etc/hotplug/usb/libsane.usermap to setup your privilege, like:

# Epson Perfection 1270
libusbscanner 0x0003 0x04b8 0x0120 0x0000 0x0000 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00000000

Replug scanner, you have a working Epson Perfection 1270 now.

Note: I can scan image if I define the X and Y value, but without that error message occurs like: scanimage: sane_start: Error during device I/O, if anyone knows any other reasons, please add them to this section.
  • To prevent scanimage: sane_start: Error during device I/O and hangup of the scanner itself, when trying to scan with ADF (automatic document feed) enabled, I had to remove or comment out all Backends from /etc/sane.d/dll.conf and instead just add this to the file:
    snapscan

Finally. If you still get the Error I/O messages try to check the transportation lock of the scanner. It is on the bottom of the scanner. It must be opened.

Fujitsu

S300M

For the operation of the scanner S300M a firmware file /usr/share/sane/epjitsu/300M_0C00.nal is required, which can be downloaded here, or extracted from the Windows driver.

HP

Tango-view-refresh-red.pngThis article or section is out of date.Tango-view-refresh-red.png

Reason: hpoj is deprecated and ptal-init is not compatible with systemd. (Discuss in Talk:SANE/Scanner-specific problems#)

For HP hardware you may also need to install the hplip package (see hplib supported devices) and/or hpojAUR (see hpoj supported devices).

  • Uncomment or add hpaio and hpoj to a new line in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf.
  • Running hp-setup as root may help you add your device.
  • hp-plugin is the 'HPLIP Plugin Download and Install Utility'.
  • hp-scan is the 'HPLIP Scan Utility'. It requires python-pillow .

For Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet, PSC, LaserJet, and PhotoSmart printer multi-function peripherals, run ptal-init setup as root and follow instructions. Then start the ptal-init daemon.

Sometimes it helps to install the HP plugins with hp-plugin without running the ptal-init daemon. After that just do hp-scan.

Scanning over the network with HP all-in-one printer/scanner/faxes

Install the drivers as above, and configure it via:

$ hp-setup <printer ip>

Mustek

BearPaw 2400CU

Works with sane-gt68xx (sane-gt68xx-firmware)

Samsung

For some Samsung MFP printers you may need to edit /etc/sane.d/xerox_mfp.conf.

example entry:

#Samsung SCX-3200
usb 0x04e8 0x3441

Change the printer model as needed. You can get the idVendor and idProduct code with lsusb. See this thread.

When plugging in a usb2 printer/scanner to a usb3 interface there is currently a bug in the xhci kernel code that causes the xsane process to hang when the scanner is connected. In the event of a multi-function Samsung printer having an ethernet or wireless interface then it is possible to access the scanner over the network rather than the usb interface by adding in a line to the file /etc/sane.d/xerox_mfp.conf such as

#Samsung scx4500w wireless ip network address
tcp xx.xx.xx.xx

where xx.xx.xx.xx is the static ip address of the printer.

Then when xsane starts up you can choose the network tcp access option instead of the usb line, and the scanner will be accessed via the network instead of the usb port and avoid the current usb3 issues.