[LINK] Linux scanner and printer support

[Craig Sanders]

On Tue, Sep 12, 2006 at 01:28:06PM +1000, Robin Whittle wrote:
> 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

i'm not 100% sure if it works with scsi scanners (i don't think it
auto-detects new devices on the scsi bus, you have to tell the system
to re-scan the bus for new devices before it notices them) but with USB
devices, you can configure hotplug or udev to run this script for you
automatically when you plug-in the scanner.

>   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

similiarly, the script run by udev when it detects the scanner being
plugged in can check that /dev/scanner exists and has the right perms -
creating it if not. that's actually one of the main reasons why the hot
plug system exists.

> 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

FYI, you don't need to edit /etc/groups manually if you don't want to.
you can use the adduser command to do this:

	adduser robin scanner

see 'man adduser' for more details.

NOTE for non-debian users. adduser/addgroup tend to differ from unix
to unix and distro to distro. unless you know that your distro is
using the same adduser program as debian, don't expect this to work as
above....check your system documentation.

> 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

i've found CUPS to be extremely easy to get going: install the CUPS packages,
connect to http://localhost:631/ with a web browser and select printers and
drivers from drop-down menuts.


craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>           (part time cyborg)