USB scanners?

[uncle_meat]

I read someone else's thread on the subject, but his comments don't seem to apply in my situation.

I have USB scanner support compiled in as a kernel module. I also have devfs compiled in. (But it doesn't seem to work) I have emerged sane-frontends, sane-backends, and xsane. My scanner shows up in /proc/bus/usb/drivers. However, sane-findscanner doesn't find it - "invalid argument" over and over again.

I was thinking that since I have devfs, the device should appear automatically? But it doesn't. In fact, /dev appears to be a regular filesystem, and I don't understand why.

Help?

[uncle_meat]

Just to clarify, devfs IS getting mounted, according to the kernel (grep devfs /var/log/messages)... but I can create stuff on it just like any other filesystem... I thought devfs was supposed to create devices automatically?

Still haven't got a clue about how to get my USB scanner device up.

[qwkbrnfox]

My scanner shows up as /dev/usb/scanner0. I had to go into /etc/sane.d/plustek.conf and change the line that says

device /dev/scanner

to

device /dev/usb/scanner0

in order to get sane to recognize it.

Let us know how it goes.

T

[uncle_meat]

Nothing has changed, sane-find-scanner still doesn't work. "Checking /dev/usb/scanner0... failed to open (Invalid argument)"

[uncle_meat]

Also, I should mention that nothing is showing up in /dev/usb, e.g. /dev/usb/scanner0 does not exist.

[qwkbrnfox]

OK, have to dig deeper.

When you load the scanner module, does dmesg show any errors?

Start usbview. When you click on the scanner, what does it say?

What does 'ls /dev/usb' show?

What kind of scanner is it?

I had a problem with usb hotplugging not recognizing my scanner, and had to edit the conf file to connect it properly.

T

[uncle_meat]

[uncle_meat]

With scanner.o loaded, I tried removing and plugging in the USB scanner. dmesg shows this:

[qwkbrnfox]

Whoa, weird, I have the 1250. I had to edit /etc/hotplug/usb.distmap to get the usb system to connect the scanner to the module properly. You will need the vendor id and the product id, both found in usbview. Mine are 04b8 (vendor) and 010f (product). Yours will probably be similar.

Then, edit usb.distmap. Search for the scanner section, the go forward to the 04b8 series. Copy one of the lines, and change the product id to match yours. I added the following line:

scanner 0x0003 0x04b8 0x010f 0x0000 0x0000 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00000000

I guess that you should check to see if you scanner is already in the file, but I suspect that it isn't, since the 1260 is pretty new. After editing the file, you will have to restart the usb hotplugging, and the scanner module. One way (maybe not the best, but it should work) is to:

rmmod scanner
/etc/init.d/hotplug restart

This should automatically load the scanner module.
'lsmod | grep scanner' to check. If it didn't something is wrong. Let us know what happens!

T

[uncle_meat]

[qwkbrnfox]

That file comes from the hotplug ebuild. You don't really need it. Instead try

rmmod scanner
insmod scanner vendor=04b8 product=<prod id>

T

[uncle_meat]

[qwkbrnfox]

Unplug the usb cable from your scanner, wait a sec, then plug it in again. What does dmesg say?

[uncle_meat]

[qwkbrnfox]

Damn. Sorry, I knew I was forgetting something. Use

insmod scanner vendor=0x04b8....

As to why hotplugging doesn't work...dmesg is your friend! It works fine for me, with the modifications to the config file.

T

[uncle_meat]

I would like to get hotplug working. Broken software bothers me. But I also want to try out the scanner to see if it works. So let's move on.

What're some command line utils I can use to grab stuff from the scanner?

[uncle_meat]

[uncle_meat]

Okay, I found this command line utility called scanimage. sane-find-scanner sees the SANE scanner, but scanimage does not. Once again, I am lost.

[qwkbrnfox]

I know what you mean about broken software...for example, none of the Quote, Code, List,... buttons in this forum are working. Damned irritating. I usually use xsane, which is great. emerge xsane. However, if you are looking for a command line, try

scanimage -d plustek:/dev/usb/scanner0 --resolution 600 > test.pnm

Be aware that there has been reported problems with the 1260, although I'm a little suspicious of whether they are true. If you hear a hair-raising noise coming from the motor, pull the power plug, stat. It makes some funny noises, but I imagine you will know when to do it.

BTW, the latest version of sane has updated drivers for the epson, allowing the slide and negative adapter to be used. I've got a (slightly) modified ebuild to get 'em. Let me know if you want it.

Good luck!

T

[uncle_meat]

[qwkbrnfox]

About the hotplugging: Do you have hotplug enabled in your kernel? In general setup, set Support for Hotplug Devices.

I'm puzzled that scanimage doesn't work. The 1260 is a USB2.0 device, but I really doubt that is it.

Let me know if you figure it out. I'll post if I think of anything.

T

[uncle_meat]

[uncle_meat]

scanimage --list-devices finds nothing, BTW, although sane-find-scanner does detect /dev/usb/scanner0.

[qwkbrnfox]

OK, this is where I usually get desperate. There are a few things to try:

Make sure you run scanimage as root. Could be permissions?

Upgrade your sane-backends. You can simply (?!) copy /usr/portage/media-gfx/sane-backends-1.0.8-r2.ebuild to
/usr/portage/media-gfx/sane-backends-1.0.9.ebuild.
emerge sane-backends. It'll complain about a digest. Do what it tells you to and emerge again. You can try this, but I'd be surprised if it is the problem.

Add hotplugging to your default rc. rc-update add hotplug default, then *ahem* try rebooting. Embarrasing, but what the hell. It may work, and like I said desperate!

T

[uncle_meat]

Yes, I've been doing all this as root. I tried your other suggestions and rebooting and manually re-inserting the module; no luck. sane-find-scanner sees the device, but scanimage doesn't.