Do ANY distros work with HP Scanjet 4C or Epson 1670 scanners

moorejohn · 01-28-2009, 09:26 AM

I have two excellent scanners: (1) a SCSI HP Scanjet 4C and an Epson Perfection 1670 Photo. I have never been able to make the HP work with any distro, although it worked fiine with Windows 2000 and XP and (2) an Epson Perfection 1670, which I had used successfully with PcLinuxOS 2007 my basic distro of choice), Linux Mint (before Mint 6), Ubuntu (not the current version), Debian 4, and others.

Within the past few weeks, the Epson no longer gives me an image although it goes through the process of scanning. I read about the problems Ubuntu and Mint users were having, but I have yet to read about a solution for using the scanner properly with Linux. It seems that newer kernels may be making previously useful devices obsolete.

Does anyone know of any distro or solution that will allow me to use either the HP or the Epson? Does anyone know of a flatbed scanner that will work reliably with any distro?
I do NOT want an all-in-one printer-scanner-copier.

camorri · 01-28-2009, 09:46 AM

According to Sane, your HP 4c is know to work. See this link.

http://www.sane-project.org/man/sane-hp.5.html

For the Epsom, here is the link --> http://www.sane-project.org/man/sane-snapscan.5.html

This backend is supposed to work.

These are both SCSI scanners, so you will need SCSI support installed, in the kernel or through modules. Since SCSI devices are not so popular any more, it is quite possible some of these distros no longer have SCSI support in their kernels. That is the obvious thing I would look into.

If you decide to buy, make sure you research the Sane's list of supported scanners. Scanner support seems to be very slow coming. I have an old HP 3200C that works ( parallel port ) and a new HP that doesn't work. And probably won't unless I decide to try to write the driver... I checked the list, and could not find much in the stores in my area that was listed as working.

Good luck, getting the old ones to work, or buying a new one.

moorejohn · 01-28-2009, 11:09 AM

Appreciate your prompt response, Cliff. I will work on the HP 4C using the links you provided. The Epson Perfection 1670 is a USB scanner, not a SCSI one. It was working perfectly under PCLinuxOS 2007 and many other distributions. Now it no longer works. Based on the Ubuntu forum discussions, it appears that a newer kernel changed something that messed up this scanner. All of this is over my head, however, without a lot of research or help froom others. If I buy a new scanner compatible with Linux now, how do I keep it compatible with new kernels?

John

camorri · 01-28-2009, 07:01 PM

Quote:

If I buy a new scanner compatible with Linux now, how do I keep it compatible with new kernels?

Good question. The answer lines in what was changed. I'm no kernel expert either. I have tried to compile one, but without success.

Sorry I can't help more than that.