Hello all. I am using Ubuntu 9.10 on a Dell D620 laptop and so far everything is working except my flat bed scanner an HP 3500c.

I have Google'ed for answers and searched the forums here on LQ without any luck. When I checked the conf file the HP scanner is listed as supported and the system recognizes that the unit is plugged into the USB port.

When I go to the "graphics" menu and select Xsane image scanner the software comes up on the screen and all seems to be fine.

When I click the SCAN button it warms up the lamp and then scans for an image. As it starts to scan the screen dims like when it is going to prompt you for your root password. After the scan is complete the screen returns to full brightness and the Xsane software disappears from the screen. No image is written to the hard drive.

Since most of the entires I have read in the forums say they just plugged the scanner in and it worked I am at somewhat of a loss as to where to proceed next. The HP 3500 is listed in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf so I don't see anything to add manually that might remedy the problem. Any help anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

It looks to me as if you need Sane-hp_rts88xx file installed in /etc/sane.d/. This is a copy of part of the man page.

This man page also talks about if you get a 'blank' page and what to do with it. From what I could figure out, there may be different chips in some models of the 3500c.

If you run sane-find-scanner, it should find the scanner and report the chip in your device. Try that, and have a look at 'man sane-hp_88xx'.

I would suggest you have a look at /var/log/syslog to see if there is anything there listed that may help point at the problem.