I have become comfortable enough using Linux now that I am working on a machine that is Linux only. I no longer dual boot as there are very few things that I need to accomplish that I can't do in Linux. One of those items though is getting a flat bed scanner working. I posted a similar question in the hardware form back in 2002 and never really heard from anyone who actually has a working scanner With the exception of one of my sons but that is another story.

I am using a system that I built up from parts obtained from Tiger Direct. It is an Asus mother board with an AMD quad core processor. I have installed Ubuntu 10.04 and prior to this version I have not been able to get Ubuntu to recognize my scanner which is an HP-3500C. I plug it onto the new box and it sees that scanner and identifies it properly as to make and model. When I bring up the scanning software provided with the Ubuntu it lets me scan a document but all I get in the file are broad white stripes and thin black lines.

If I increase the scan resolution to some unmanageable rate like 2400 DPI I get an image that I can read but it is far from photo quality even with just a plane letter sized page of text. And of course I end up with a multi megabyte that is a bear to manipulate.

I asked around on some mailing list and I received email from another user that told me he had the same problem but had downloaded a program called Skanlite and that it worked fine. So I found the program and installed it but it will not find my scanner.

My son who is using Ubuntu 10.10 and has used 10.04 has an HP all in one printer, copier, FAX, scanner that he says he only had to plug into the USB port and it worked fine. I really want a stand alone flat bed unit but I am getting ready to throw in the towel and buy whatever it is that he has assuming the model is still available.

Please don't point me to the hardware compatibility as that is the reply that I got the first time I asked this question and if I remember correctly my scanner is listed there. So if you have something other than an HP-3500C and it is working with Ubuntu I would like to hear from you. This is one of the few functions that I have to use a Windows laptop for when I need to scan documents or photos into digital format.

I did click the button above that says "Click Here to Find Similar Threads" and found some additional information. Most of it however dates back to 2004 and I don't need to tell you how much the computer world changes in seven years. So if you have recently purchased a flat bed scanner for your Ubuntu system and it worked out to be "plug and play" I would appreciate it if you would let me know. Thanks.

And thanks for any help in advance.

Have one that works...

I have a Canon LiDE 30 scanner that works well with XSane. If you look at the SANE list, it is listed as having "Complete" support whereas the 3500C is listed as "Good", meaning good for some after some work. "Complete" here does not mean "Plug and Play" guaranteed without some additional packages and effort. linux is not "Plug and Play".

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

Rather than fighting on with your 3500C, consider that as old gear, a scanner like the LiDE 30 or other "Complete" models can be found used at a cheap price.

The HP all-in-one machines that are supported by the HPLIP driver have a working scanner function under HPLIP, and HPLIP is included in many distributions as a standard package in their repositories.

Unfortunately, the HPLIP site with a support list is not on-line, so if you were to consider a HP all-in-one, you should google with the model number and HPLIP to be sure of support. Indeed, in the same way you might check for any scanner you bought with reference to any problems and your linux distribution.

Your son has it easy, but so could you if you started out with a device with better prospects under XSane or HPLIP.

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Last night I went on several sites including New Egg, Tiger Direct and Amazon. I ended up buying an Epson V300 after reading customer reviews and finding four that are using it with both Mac and Linux systems. I was looking to stay under $100 in purchase price, something I probably should have mentioned in my original post, and this model had an original retail price of $139 but was on sale for under $100. You can see the specifications HERE.

I really appreciate your getting back to me with the recommendation on the Cannon and if for some reason the Epson doesn't work out I will give it a try. This is one of those things that needed a "tuit device" for some time now never seeming to get around to it. A friend who I switched from Windows to Linux called the other day asking for help in getting a large amount of genealogy information into machine readable form to exchange with someone out of state. That was what prompted me to put this subject back on the front burner. Once I have a working unit I have a fair volume of items that I would like to archive myself.

Again, thank you for getting back to me with a specific recommendation. I will make a follow up post once I have the Epson working and report how easy/hard it was and what kind of results I'm getting.

After looking on Newegg, Tiger Direct and Amazon I found an Epson V300 flatbed scanner at Amazon and by way of the customer reviews found several people who said that they were successfully using this scanner with Ubuntu. So I ordered one and it came yesterday.

Today I sat down and hooked it up and went to Epson's site to download the drivers only to find that clicking on download redirected me to another site with the warning that neither Epson nor the site I was being directed too would offer any support for these drivers. Further when I got to the download page there was a warning that if installed on an Ubuntu system that it might cause "boot problems". Hummmm...........

Never being one to be intimidated I plowed ahead figuring the worst that could happen is I would screw up my system to the point that I would have to reload Ubuntu and I do have all my data backed up. I downloaded the .DEB package but when I tried to install it I got an error that there were "unresolved dependencies" and the package would not install. I tried without success to find out exactly what files it was still looking for perhaps not knowing quite where to look. I then went back to the download site and pulled down everything that said it was for a Debian Linux and installed it until I got no error messages from the main package. Finally got everything to install and powered up the scanner and brought up one of several packages that I had installed for scanning documents and photos. As I tried each one in turn I got the same result which was to report that there was no scanning device connected to the system. I tried disconnecting the scanner and reconnecting it again with the same result. So I decided to close all programs I had running and logged out of my session. Normally this isn't required for the installation of new software even that requiring drivers be installed.

I was about to start a Google search to see if I could find the cause of this problem when I thought of one more thing I could try. I normally take great pride in telling my Windows running friends who have to reboot their systems at least once a month on patch Tuesday and sometimes reboot two, three or more times just to install a new program that my Linux system runs for months without having to be powered down or even rebooted. My current uptime as of this evening was over a month but I decided it was worth a try. So I ran shut down and powered off the system.

When I restarted it and logged in I heard the scanner stepper motor chirp for the first time. I brought up the "Simple Scan" program that is installed with the distribution and behold and low I have a scanner. I went on to try all of the various programs that I had installed and they all seem to work just fine now. So once again I am a happy camper and will be scanning in old family photos (something I had planned to do with my Windows work laptop if I had to) and items that I want to archive digitally from my various hobbies.

Thanks again to those that replied to my call for help and I hope someone else can purchase this model scanner knowing that it will indeed work with their system.