helping SANE detect the scanner

Udi · 05-13-2011, 11:58 AM

Hello.

I got a new Canon LiDE 110 scanner. It's a very cheap device but the important thing is that it is listed as "completely supported" in the SANE site. I had to compile the latest SANE from sources, but I have no problems with compiling from sources, and now everything runs from the version in /usr/local/...

The problem is that "scanimage -L" doesn't detect the scanner. I also don't see any scanners under /dev/... I think it might help if I pass the scanner device with the -d option to scanimage but I don't know how to find out what the device file of it is.

This is what I see with lsusb:
Bus 005 Device 004: ID 1c4f:0003 SiGma Micro
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 04a9:1909 Canon, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 046d:080f Logitech, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The scanner is on Bus 001 Device 007.

Appreciate your help!
Thanks,
Udi.

corp769 · 05-13-2011, 12:02 PM

Hello,

I came across this thread, it would pertain to you, as you run Ubuntu - http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1595801

Cheers,

Josh

markush · 05-13-2011, 03:02 PM

First check if you can issue "scanimage -L" as root (with sudo) successfully.
Is your user member of the scanner group? Don't forget after changing the groupmembership to logout and login again as the user.
If you don't have success try the command "sane-find-scanner"

Markus

Udi · 05-14-2011, 08:45 AM

Thanks, Markush. It was really just a permissions problem.

The scanner now works, albeit not with good results... The image I get is black and white and of pretty low quality. If anyone knows how to troubleshoot that I'd be very grateful for any advice.

Regards,
Udi.

markush · 05-14-2011, 08:48 AM

Don't you use xsane? With xsane you'll have at least a previewwindow.

Markus

david1941 · 05-14-2011, 09:45 AM

I use a script to determine where my scanner is as I use an older usb Epson that changes the port when I insert other devices (a photo card or a backup flash drive). I use the environment if I can't detect it though. You'll have to change it to use your scanner. It is an old script and I suppose xsane has evolved and now handles it natively. As far as the quality goes, the script calls scanimage with the mode Color which was found by experiment to be the best for my scanner. YMMV, but at least the script is free!

Code:

#!/bin/bash
# Scans and prints image to printer. 
# Leaves pdf file of scanned image in ./scanned.pdf
# D. R. Forrest 5/19/04
# revised 6/26/05 to leave .jpg file intact
#         7/19/05 cheanged jpg to pdf
#         10/1/07 revised for FC7
#         4/6/08  added bw option for bw printer

[ "--help" = "$1" ] && echo -e "Usage: scan [bw|no|--help] (Defaults to color print)" && exit

# Determine scanning device - Epsom Prefection 640U attached (we hope)
DEVBUS=`/sbin/lsusb |grep Epson|cut -d " " -f2`
DEVDEV=`/sbin/lsusb |grep Epson|cut -d " " -f4`
DEVDEV=`echo $DEVDEV |sed s/://`
SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE="epson:libusb:$DEVBUS:$DEVDEV"
[ -z "$DEVDEV" ] && SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE=""
# The above discovers the usb device.  If power has cycled on the scanner, 
# the usb port changes, therefore using the environment doesn't always work. 

[ -n $SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE ] || (echo "Cannot find the scanner!" && exit 1)

PRINTDEST=$PRINTER # Default is system color printer
[ "bw" = "$1" ] && PRINTDEST=$PRINTER   # Alternate b/w printer
[ "no" = "$1" ] && PRINTDEST=""

echo ".....scanning on $SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE - please wait"

scanimage -d $SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE -v --mode Color --format  tiff  > /home/drf/scanned.tif 
echo -e "\nConverting to printable Postscript......."
convert -page letter+0+0 /home/drf/scanned.tif /home/drf/scanned.ps 2>/dev/null
echo 
[ -n "$PRINTDEST" ] && echo "Scanned page sent to printer ($PRINTDEST)"
echo "To print copies enter: lpr -P $PRINTDEST ~/scanned.ps"
[ -n "$PRINTDEST" ] && lpr  -P "$PRINTDEST" /home/drf/scanned.ps
ps2pdf /home/drf/scanned.ps /home/drf/scanned.pdf
echo
echo "Saved image files are: /home/drf/scanned.[pdf|ps|tif]"
exit 0
~

Udi · 05-17-2011, 02:07 PM

Thanks for the tip about xsane. I used to use OpenOffice to scan, but I followed your advice and tried xsane and indeed I got much better results. I was able to raise the dpi from the default 75 to something higher, and changed from gray to color mode.

So the scanner works satisfactorily, but I have to admit that xsane is not my scanning software of choice. I would like to use OpenOffice because that way I can lay out a multi-page document and quickly export it to pdf. Is there a way to change the defaults?

Thanks again to all those who helped.
Udi.

Geremia · 11-23-2011, 07:19 PM

It's a permissions issue for me because running xsane as root allows xsane to detect the scanner. What permissions do I fix, though?

markush · 11-24-2011, 02:58 AM

Hello Geremia,

you'd be better off to create a new thread with your problem.

Well, the user has to be member of the "scanner" group and if you have a multifunction-device, the user has to be member of both, the "scanner" and the "lp" group.

You should check this at first.

Markus