Getting Mustek 600 III EP Plus to work

jhenager · 02-10-2006, 02:46 AM

jeff@linux:~> uname -r
2.4.21-303-athlon
jeff@linux:~> /sbin/lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133] (rev 02)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8363/8365 [KT133/KM133 AGP]
00:07.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 22)
00:07.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT8233/A/C/VT8235 PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 10)
00:07.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 10)
00:07.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 10)
00:07.4 Bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super ACPI] (rev 30)
00:0d.0 Communication controller: Lucent Microelectronics 56k WinModem (rev 01)
00:0f.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:0f.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
00:11.0 Ethernet controller: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21140 [FasterNet] (rev 12)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X/2X (rev 5c)
jeff@linux:~>
This is SuSE Professional 9.0.

I understand it is possible, but not easy for me. I have tried everything I can find . SANE is not easy with this particular scanner.
I would be indebted to anyone that can provide step by step instructions.
This and getting my Creative Webcam to work is all that keeps me from completely dumping Windows on this machine. Thanks.

jhenager · 03-11-2006, 08:55 AM

I would expect someone would have a suggestion.

GrapefruiTgirl · 03-31-2007, 03:07 PM

I've got the above mentioned old parallel port scanner connected, and made some parallel port kernel modules. I installed sane, xsane, and lib1284 or whatever it's called, and modprobed the parallel port modules into the kernel.
I've got some info from google about configuring it, and much of the info was the same as what's in the sane-related MAN pages, which are direct copies of the docs within the sane folder(s) themselves.. There's only one entry in the HCL, but no reviews.

I think I'm close to making the thing work, but would appreciate any tips from users who may have made one of these old things come to life.

NOTE: I haven't seen a kernel module called 'pg' anywhere (including in kernel xconfig), which is mentioned in the MAN pages somewhere; I think it's a parallel port module, but I am guessing for the time being that I don't need it, as I can already see the scanner by doing:

Code:

root:# sane-find-scanner -p

So it looks good, it tells me my scanner is there, and to see the sane docs for config options.
NOTE2: I have uncommented 'mustek' in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf and have configured /etc/sane.d/mustek_pp.conf with the port and driver for the scanner.

PROBLEM: Despite the sane-find-scanner -p working as root, it doesn't work as non-root, and also if I run 'xsane' as either root OR user, it doesn't find the scanner; it tells me NO DEVICES FOUND.
Do I need to have the sane daemon running? Is that a necessity? I'll be turning that on soon, but didn't think I'd need it to run the device from command line. Maybe I'm wrong.

I'm still working on it, and will post results if I get them (er.. WHEN I get them!) but if anyone has any tips, I'd be grateful.

Sasha

GrapefruiTgirl · 03-31-2007, 04:00 PM

In /etc/sane.d/mustek_pp.conf I had to specify 'parport0' as the port instead of the port address 0x03BC.
When I did the sane-find-scanner -p it told me that it found possible scanner at this location 'parport0' so that's where I got that from.

Then I just typed 'scanimage > /home/Desktop/filename' and presto, it scanned a half-decent color image and saved it to the file

There are some options I may be able to use to fine-tune the image, but basically I call this successful, considering the scanner has been outside in the shed for a year or two, and no longer worked under WinXP at all!

GrapefruiTgirl · 03-31-2007, 07:28 PM

OK, not out of the woods yet..
YES, I can scan images. But:
They are like 433x538 pixels, 24 bpp color, and 50dpi.
Too small, and not quite text- or image-quality.
This scanner is capable of either 300x600 or 600x1200 resolution / 300dpi. According to the Mustek website, it can produce an image of 4800x4800 with 'software interpolation'.
Meanwhile, while I can scan an image at the command line just fine, what I CAN'T do is open either xscanimage or xsane. Neither program can seem to locate any devices (scanner) when run as user, and keep returning

Code:

'failed to open device 'dev/parport0':invalid argument'

. If I run them as root, they can't open 'Display 0.0' and won't run.
I have created multiple dev-nodes which are apparently for the parallel port, as follows:

Code:

mknod -m 666 /dev/parport0 c 99 0

but to no avail.
I also have emailed support @ Mustek.com outlining the whole situation. Not holding my breath waiting for a reply, but hopefully...
Meanwhile, still looking for any other input from the LQ crowd.

UPDATE: I think I may have gotten it working as best as it can/will, which is actually pretty decent. I had to change the port address in the mustek_pp.conf file, from 'parport0' to '*', so that xscanimage or xsane can scan for the device. They weren't finding it otherwise.
As per all the docs, both programs are set up as root-execute only, so I made a system-menu item like:
kdesu xscanimage
and all is well

GrapefruiTgirl · 03-31-2007, 10:54 PM

UPDATE:

Wow!! This thing works great! By creating a symlink from the GIMP's plug-ins directory to xsane, I can use Gimp to do the scanning

and it has so many features I don't know where to start!
It recognizes the scanner by name, complete with Mustek logo, and scans 100% awesome quality images, not to mention saving as like 100 different filetypes!
Note: Gimp must be run with su or sudo or kdesu, as I chose not to mess with the xsane permissions, but no big deal at all.
I'm impressed---I hereby change my vote in the HCL to a 10/10 for this device.

kwill · 10-17-2008, 09:33 PM

I have just succeeded in getting my Mustek 600CP scanner to work on Kubuntu7.10. It was working some years ago with an earlier linux distribution, can't remember what. After loading new distro it didn't work and I couldn't find out how. Since then the parallel port models seem to be depreciated.

You need package sane-utils which has the sane-find-scanner and scanimage progs.

In the mustek_pp.conf file I uncommented the line "scanner Mustek 600CP" and changed the port to * and uncommented the "mustek_pp" line in dll.conf.

Once I had got sane-find-scanner to detect the device I had problems on my old Dell GX150 with high CPU usage and lockup. The fix was to enable option no_epp in the mustek_pp.conf file. scanimage then worked, so gave the Gimp a try as user and it detected new plugin when it loaded, and as you described full logo and everything. Scans O.K. without being root which is good. It is however VERY slow, at 300 dpi it took several minutes to scan. Xsane 0.991 works on it's own without going thru Gimp but is still slow, 600 dpi took 20 minutes!! but it was a 90M file.

I was looking for something else when I found your posts. Could have used it several years ago, thanks GrapefruiTgirl.