[LINK] Linux scanner and printer support

[Robin Whittle]

While I still use my Windows 2000 desktop machine for most work, one
Linux experience which has been particularly positive for me is the Sane
scanner driver:

  http://www.sane-project.org/

However, it took me a long time to get it going.  This would never have
been possible for someone who lacked expertise and persistence, and who
was not willing to scrutinise documentation and trawl the Web for clues.

It took me a day or so to configure the system to recognise a SCSI
scanner, and I still need to run a root script to have the scanner
recognised after I plug it in.  But after that, it is rock-solid and
really good to use.  It integrates perfectly with The Gimp, the Open
Source image editing program, comparable to Photoshop (including with
unsharp mask).  The XSane program also runs on its own.

The list of supported devices is immense, and includes my 10 year old,
but good, 600DPI Umax Astra 1200S.  By chance, this is a scanner used by
the Sane developer, but I suspect that the support for other scanners is
as good.

Sane and XSane were already installed on my Debian 3.1 system.  It was
already set up to look for a "/dev/scanner" (/etc/sane.d/umax.conf).
However, there was no such device in my system.  I fixed this with a a
symlink:

  ln /dev/sg0 /dev/scanner

Then some permissions stuff:

  chgrp scanner /dev/scanner
  chmod 660 /dev/scanner

  chgrp scanner /dev/sg0
  chmod 660 /dev/sg0

In /etc/groups I need to include user scanner in the group of the user
who will be running X windows.  So I add "robin" to create:

  scanner:x:110:robin

After plugging the scanner in to the Adaptec 2940 and setting the
scanner SCSI device number to 1, I give the following incantation, as root:

  echo "scsi add-single-device 0 0 1 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi	

Then the scanner is ready to work with Sane.

This is with an April 2005 version of Sane - later versions may be
easier to set up.  This required a great deal of investigation and a
number of commands to be given as root.

This is absolutely not for inexperienced users.  But the scanner was
essentially unusable under Windows 2000, since it would hang the SCSI
bus after every scan (or something similar) and this required some
heroics to get it going again.  I persist with this scanner because it
has a long bed (Legal = 14") and because I added a reflective strip so
the illumination of the page comes from both front and back, reducing
shadows and improving the image considerably.

In the future I hope to purchase an Epson R1800 printer.  This is supported:


http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_printer.cgi?recnum=Epson-Stylus_Photo_R1800

but I expect to spend some time getting it going.  I don't know what the
printer driver system is like, but I would be glad of something more
organised than the multiple levels of menus and various settings and
automatic defaults which drive me nuts with Windows 2000 printer drivers.

  - Robin