Installing USB Scanner - HOWTO

[Joseph_sys]

Due to lack of decent installation instructions, I decided to write a short but complete how-to on installing USB scanner in Gentoo for kernel 2.6.4 and higher. There is already a lot of information around but none of them is complete and in some cases not applicable to kernel 2.6.4 and higher.

To install USB Scanner in Gentoo (kernel 2.6.4 & higher) follow the steps below:

Note that all of these information is based on assumption that SANE supports your scanner. You will find a list of SANE supported scanners at:
http://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html

1.) Before emerging any packages make sure you have "USE=usb" variable in your /etc/make.config; if not add "usb" variable using your favorable editor.

The packages we will need are:
libusb
sane-backends
hotplug

Check if you have any of them intalled:

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# emerge -s libusb sane-backends hotplug

2.) Make sure you have USB support in your kernel:
(the option you select will depend on your motherboard shipset, select "OHCI HCD" or "UHCI HCD") check your manual or select both options and see which one your motherboad will recognize (might not be the professional way of doing it but it will work if you have no manual or not sure which chipset you have).

In my case above I've VT82xxxxx motherboard with UHCI support so I selected the kernel below: "UHCI HCD"

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# cd /usr/src/linux
# make menuconfig

Device Drivers  --->
    USB support  --->
        <*>   EHCI HCD (USB 2.0) support
	< >   OHCI HCD support 
        <*>   UHCI HCD (most Intel and VIA) support 

Save and compile the kernel if you made any changes, upload and reboot.

NOTE: I compiled the options into kernel though you can compile it as Modules <M>

Connect your scanner to USB port when you issue a command:

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# cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

(you should see similar output).

T: Bus=02 Lev=00 Prnt=00 Port=00 Cnt=00 Dev#= 1 Spd=12 MxCh= 2
B: Alloc= 0/900 us ( 0%), #Int= 0, #Iso= 0
D: Ver= 1.10 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=0000 ProdID=0000 Rev= 2.06
S: Manufacturer=Linux 2.6.7-gentoo-r11 uhci_hcd
S: Product=VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (#2)
S: SerialNumber=0000:00:11.3
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr= 0mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=09(hub ) Sub=00 Prot=00 Driver=hub
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 2 Ivl=255ms

T: Bus=02 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 3 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 2.00 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff MxPS=64 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=04b8 ProdID=011b Rev= 1.00
S: Manufacturer=EPSON
S: Product=EPSON Scanner
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=c0 MxPwr= 2mA
I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 2 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)
E: Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms

(you might or might not have a USB 2 support, it depends on your motherboard). Though at this point you should notice on "P" section (of the EPSON Scanner) the output: Vendor=04b8 ProdID=011b (you might have different values depending on your scanner model). Write it down as you will use this output in some configuration files later on.

3.) Next, you will emerge libusb, sane-backends and hotplug

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# emerge libusb

4.)

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# emerge sane-backends

If you have sane-backends installed, check as it is important that sane-backends is compiled with usb support.
Quick check: was sane-backends compiled with the usb USE flag? etcat should have "+ + besides usb" like:
Code:

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# etcat -u sane-backends
[ Colour Code : set unset ]
[ Legend   : (U) Col 1 - Current USE flags        ]
[          : (I) Col 2 - Installed With USE flags ]

 U I [ Found these USE variables in : media-gfx/sane-backends-1.0.14-r3 ]
 + + usb     : Adds USB support to applications that have optional USB support (e.g. cups)
 + + gphoto2 : Adds digital camera support

If not re-emerge sane-backend with USE="usb" in your make.conf file.

5.)

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# emerge hotplug

Edit /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap

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# nano -w /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap

This section is straight copy from: http://khk.net/sane/libusb.html where you will find more information.

-------- copy ------------
You have to add one or more lines (for one or more scanners) to the file /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap. Every line in this file is for one device, the line starts with a name that will also be used for a handler script. We are trying to get an EPSON scanner working, so let's call the entry "epson_scanner". The next entry is always 0x0003, and I don't know - and don't care - what it stands for, so let's just keep it set to 0x0003. The following two entries are the vendor ID (0x4b8 for EPSON) and the product ID (e.g. 0x11c for the Perfection 3200). The remaining fields are all set to 0, so let's just add the following after the product ID: 0x0000 0x0000 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00000000

You can make this a lot simpler by just copying an existing line and replacing the script name and the two IDs. The line for the Perfection 3200 should look like this (the whole string should be on one line, I split it up so that it does not make this page unreasonable wide):

epson_scanner 0x0003 0x04b8 0x011b 0x0000 0x0000
0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00 0x00
0x00 0x00000000

I already mentioned a handler script that gets started when the device is connected or disconnected. Save the following script as /etc/hotplug/usb/epson_scanner

------- epson_scanner --------------

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#!/bin/bash

if [ "${ACTION}" = "add" ] && [ -f "${DEVICE}" ]
then
        chown root "${DEVICE}"
        chgrp scanner "${DEVICE}"
        chmod 660 "${DEVICE}"
fi

--------- epson_scanner -----------
------------end copy ---------------

IMPORTANT: make this script executable

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# chmod 755 /etc/hotplug/usb/epson_scanner

Next, edit /etc/fstab and add entry

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# Scanner
none   /proc/bus/usb   usbfs           defaults,devmode=0666   0 0

6.) Edit /etc/sane.d/epson.conf and comment out the entry "scsi EPSON" by default this entry is uncommented; add the following line:

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usb 0x4b8 0x011b 

#make sure these numbers match your scanner manufacture and ID you wrote earlier

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# rc-update add hotplug default
# /etc/init.d/hotplug start

Plug-in back your scanner to USB port.

If you type sane-find-scanner you should see:

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# sane-find-scanner

# No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that
# you have loaded a SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter.

found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x011b [EPSON Scanner]) at libusb:001:003
# Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by
# SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage.

# Not checking for parallel port scanners.

# Most Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports
# can't be detected by this program.

# You may want to run this program as root to find all devices. Once you
# found the scanner devices, be sure to adjust access permissions as
# necessary.

7.) One last importand change, when you emerge xsane the program will add group scanner to your /etc/group file. At the end of the file you will find (your number might be different - DO Not change this number):
scanner408:

add to the end root and yourself (or any other users that will have access to the scanner):
scanner408:root,joseph

Exit and login your session for group to take effect.

Now in console as user type:
In console type groups
$ groups
tty wheel uucp audio games users scanner

Make sure you see "scanner" word above.

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$ xsane

Now, you should have a working scanner, scan anything to your heart's content. enjoy
If you find that I missed anything or your scanner requires an additional configuration post your message here with additional instructions.

Final ERROR NOTES:
Sometimes when you restart your hotplug you will get an error:
Starting usb hotplugging...
chown: cannot access `/proc/bus/usb/001/005': No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access `/proc/bus/usb/001/005': No such file or directory

See this thread:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=172556
and bug report:
http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50934

If you have a solutions share it with us, I was not able to resolve this bug.

[gcostanz]

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

I can't thank you enough. I have not been able to scan as a user (non-root) since I upgaded my kernel. This worked great the first time.

Thanks!

[eWoud]

sane-backend provides its own libusbcanner in /etc/hotplug/usb, so there's no need to make your own
just add 'libusbscanner' to /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap
(you don't have to find out those weird numbers, everything is handled by the libusbscanner script)

Also editing /etc/fstab and /etc/sane.d/<vendor>.conf shouldn't be necessary

so here's my howto:

put all the necessary usb stuff in your kernel (or let genkernel do it for you)

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USE="usb" emerge sane-backends hotplug
rc-update add hotplug default

add 'libusbscanner' as a new line in /etc/hotplug/usb.usermap

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/etc/init.d/hotplug start

don't forget to add your user to the scanner group

done

now, you need a frontend, like xsane:

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emerge xsane

testing:

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xsane

[anj]

I've spent eons trying to find why my scanner was not seen by sane-find-scanner.
This howto was the first really helfull !!!
It works !!!
I did not have "usb" in my USE parameters !

Thank you so much.

[j_c_p]

Final ERROR NOTES:
Sometimes when you restart your hotplug you will get an error:
Starting usb hotplugging...
chown: cannot access `/proc/bus/usb/001/005': No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access `/proc/bus/usb/001/005': No such file or directory

To solve that, you can put into /etc/conf.d/local.start :

chmod 0666 /proc/bus/usb/001/*

it's not beautiful but it works .

[alarmcall]

First off: To "Joseph-sys" thanks a lot for this How-To - at last a fully working system!

Just thought I'd share this problem I had (and solution ) with you all.

I have an Epson Perfection 1250, which after completing all the steps above results in xsane taking a very long time to start, whilst "searching for devices". When I tried to aquire preview it returns an error "Device Busy" and it will not scan at all

Now issuing "sane-find-scanner" results in the following:

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$ sane-find-scanner

found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x010f [EPSON Scanner 010F], chip=LM9832/3) at libusb:002:002

However, typing "scanimage -L" at the CMD is much more revealling:

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$ scanimage -L

device `plustek:libusb:002:002' is a Epson Perfection 1250/Photo USB flatbed scanner

Hmmm, plustek....Apparently the Epson uses the same chipset (National Semiconductor LM9832) as Plustek, see the link below for more details:

http://www.gjaeger.de/scanner/plustek/

So, in order to get the scanner working properly, the solution is not bother with point 6 in the How-To:

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6) Edit /etc/sane.d/epson.conf and comment out the entry "scsi EPSON" by default this entry is uncommented; add the following line:

usb 0x4b8 0x011b

Simply comment out the line containing the word "epson" from the dll.conf file:

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nano -w /etc/sane.d/dll.conf
...
dmc
#epson
fujitsu
...

Bingo! a working scanner and xSane front-end

[_AbYsS_]

Final ERROR NOTES:
Sometimes when you restart your hotplug you will get an error:
Starting usb hotplugging...
chown: cannot access `/proc/bus/usb/001/005': No such file or directory
chmod: cannot access `/proc/bus/usb/001/005': No such file or directory

To solve that, you can put into /etc/conf.d/local.start :

chmod 0666 /proc/bus/usb/001/*

it's not beautiful but it works .

I doubt this solves the pb, because /etc/conf.d/local.start is run after hotplug so ... but I will try nevertheless

And thanks joseph for your how-to it's great

[totopo]

Hello I have a HP OfficeJet v40, I followed the instructions but never detected the scanner, it worked when I emerged xsane and uncommented hpoj in the file:

/etc/sane.d/dll.conf


hope it works if someone is facing problems.

Regards

Marco

[hadoque]

I've been trying to install my USB scanner from canon, which actually wen't great until I restarted my machine. I've followed the steps in this thread and the scanner works like it should.

When I restart I'm getting two errors messages. The first one is:

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mount: mount point /proc/bus/usb does not exist

But when the system is started the mount point is mounted, and if I remount it there is no error.
The second error is:

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/etc/hotplug/usb.agent: line 259: 04a9: Value too great for base (error token is "04a9")

When the sysetm is started xsane cannot find the scanner, but if i restart hotplug everything works perfectly. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this?

[kmarasco]

Follow eWoud's instructions. You don't need to mess with much of the stuff in the initial how to.

Still, you may run into a situation where you cannot access the scanner except as root, unless you unplug and replug in the scanner after booting.

This is probably because you have not emerged "coldplug." Not too long ago hotplug was split into to progs, hotplug and coldplug. Coldplug handles devices on boot. So,

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emerge coldplug
rc-update add coldplug boot

Then be sure to get rid of the stuff in fstab if you added something there, and reboot. FYI, I'm using udev to manage my devices.

[xanderhsia]

Followed it and had success on first try. Kudos to the author.

But (there is always one isn't there?), I am getting an error everytime I try to save an image that xsane captures. As soon as it saves it, xsane exits with an error as follows

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*** glibc detected *** double free or corruption (!prev): 0x082fa880 ***

Anybody have a clue as to what this is? Or should I start another thread for this.

Thanks all.

[markandrew]

what to do if you don't use sane? i use vuescan with libusb, and can only access my scanner with root. i don't have anything sane-related installed; the devmode edit for fstab seems to do nothing. any ideas?

[nephros]

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*** glibc detected *** double free or corruption (!prev): 0x082fa880 ***

Anybody have a clue as to what this is? Or should I start another thread for this.

lookie here:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=1871330

I'd guess sane is calling ImageMagicks "display" tool to show images and hits the same error.

[NightDragon]

If the same Problem like above...
CanoScan 5000F

Found by sane-find-scanner
but not by the scanimage -L command.

I know the Scanner isn't supported on sane at the moment... ... but maybe has someone good infos?


Greets,
Nighty

[lazarusrat]

I was having the same problem with vanilla 2.6.9 and 2.69.-cksomething, where the libusbscanner script and scanimage -L had different values (001/003 vs. 002/003). Attempting to fix another problem, I recompiled the kernel with UHCI, EHCI, and agpgart as modules (they were compiled in) and added pci=routeirq to the boot arguments. It works now. The libusbscanner script and sane-find-scanner and scanimage -L all show it as 001/003.
Not sure which of those changes did the trick.

[evan18h]

thanks so much eWoud, Joseph_sys and alarmcall... I have been trying to get my Epson Perfection 1250 to work for a few days now... I tried everything and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work! But now It works and I a very happy ... really, i can't belive it was something this simple

[Tamerz]

Not quite sure what isn't working here. I followed the steps above and the scanner is being detected but xsane says no devices found. It does however detect my TV tuner as a device when I load the module for it.

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# scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname BT878 video (Leadtek WinFast 20 virtual device
device `artec_eplus48u:libusb:002:005' is a Memorex MEM 48U USB flatbed scanner

[sidkdbl07]

I can run xsane as root but not as my user

in /etc/group

...
scanner407:sid
...

[MrBrightside]

I followed this instruction guide and I still can't get my HP Scanjet 5400C to work. The scanner is detected by sane-find-scanner and I edited all of the config files, but scanimage doesn't find my scanner. I'm not sure what's wrong with it. Anyone have any ideas?

[Tamerz]

I followed this instruction guide and I still can't get my HP Scanjet 5400C to work. The scanner is detected by sane-find-scanner and I edited all of the config files, but scanimage doesn't find my scanner. I'm not sure what's wrong with it. Anyone have any ideas?

Sounds like the same problem I have above. What does scanimage -L give you?

[MrBrightside]

Scanimage -L gives me:

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No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different, check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages).

[Tamerz]

Hmm... not the same then. Sorry I can't help. I can't even get mine working even though it is detected by scanimage.

[Gentree]

how about some version into here. "my scanner does not work" approach is a bit vague.

version no.s for sane sane-backends libusb udev may help narrow it down.

Like all of you I have issues that seem to come and go every few months, you debug it, it works fine then it gets blown away and you start again.

version numbers gentlemen.

emerge -p sane sane-backends libusb udev glibc

(any others you think may be relevant)

[dr_rockstar66]

WORKS LIKE A CHARM, THANKS A TON!!!!!!

EPSON 1200U

[WL(inux)]

I can run xsane as root but not as my user

in /etc/group

...
scanner407:sid
...

I have more or less the same problem ...

I can RUN and SCAN as root
but as a normal User i cannot scan ... i think it is only a Permission Problem ... i tried to influence the rights manually but i doesnt work either
Somebody can scan as normal user ? please send me a Private message or answer here please !!!