Xsane tells me it cannot detect my Canon usb scanner.

The Mandrake "usbview" utility identifies it, and tells me it is at /proc/bus/usb/devices

And, cat /proc/bus/usb/devices

T: Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 3 Spd=12 MxCh= 0
D: Ver= 1.00 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
P: Vendor=04a9 ProdID=2206 Rev= 1.00
S: Manufacturer=Canon
S: Product=CanoScan

If I do dmesg, I get:

usb.c: USB disconnect on device 2
hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/2, assigned device number 3
usb.c: USB device 3 (vend/prod 0x4a9/0x2206) is not claimed by any active driver.
(the 2206 is the identification of the Canon scanner).

From my readings, Sane should at least identify the device, even if it does not support it.

Various postings suggest that all I need to do is to modified the /etc/canon/sane.d/canon650u.conf file to: usb /dev/usb/scanner0

I have tried this, but it makes no difference.

What do I need to do????

Do you have a /dev/usb/scanner0 entry or a /dev/usbscanner0 entry?

Yes, I have /dev/usb/scanner0. If I do cat /dev/usb/scanner0 I get nothing returned.

Ok, what about device permissions on the scanner? And what model CanoScan is it?

Hi Assie

The scanner is a N650U, which is similar to a N630U listed in the installed sane.d directory. The plustek site has a driver for the N650U (but that's another issue).

I have done a "chmod a+rw /dev/usb/scanner0"

The /usb is: rwxr-xr-x root root
and /scanner0 is rw john root

thanks for your interest

You'll only get it working with the correct sane backend which is the plustek backend, it dosn't matter how similar it is to the N630U it won't work unless you use the correct backend for it's chip. See this page for sane usb info.

Hi Aussie

I had the sane 1.0.8 frontend but backend RPMs installed and ran into trouble trying to install the plustek tarball for the CanoScan N659U. (I still don't know how to install the plustek tarball to a preinstalled RPM inspite of all my reading on the subject (I admit to being "thick") - the usual ./configure and/or make don't). So, I have uninstalled the 1.0.8 RPMs, and tried to install the sane 1.0.9 tarball together with the plustek tarball as per instructions pointed to in your last post.

./configure completes ok. "make" runs until an error occurs. Here are the last few lines:

make[1] : Entering directory 'xxxxxxxxxx/backend'
make[1] : Nothing to be done for 'all'
make[1] : Leaving directory 'xxxxxxxxxx/backend'
making all in backend
make[1] : Entering directory 'xxxxxxxxxx/backend'
rm -f abaton-s.c
ln ./stubs.c abaton-s.c
ln : creating hard link 'abaton-s.c' to ./stubs.c' : Operation not permitted
make[1] : *** [abaton-s.c] Error 1
make[1] : Leaving directory 'xxxxxxxxxx/backend'
make : *** [all-recursive] Error 1
[root@localhost sane-backends-1.0.90]#

May be I should restore the 1.0.8 RPMs, and try and learn how to post install the plustek??

some things just get harder and harder!!

The plustek backend should already be in sane-1.0.8, it's just a matter of configuring it according to the docs, and you don't need the sane frontend if your using Xsane.

[Edit: Found a bit of sane-usb help here.

Hi Aussie

I have re-installed the sane 1.0.8 RPM front and back ends.

The reference you gave me was excellent ( "Recipe for Setting Up a Scanner using USB" - http://www.zianet.com/k5di/usb/usb-scanner.txt ).

I followed the instructions, and sane-find-scanner found my scanner - hooray!
I added the line "modprobe scanner vendor=0x04a9 product=0x2206" to /etc/rc.d/rc.local to load the module scanner on boot. But, on rebooting the computer, sane-find-scanner does not find the scanner until I enter the command in a terminal.

Inspite off all above, xsane tells me there is no scanner (likewise Gimp acquire).

Question 1. Why is this?

The table on the plustek site shows:

CanoScan fb630u (v0.1)
CanoScan N650U/N656U plustek (v0.44)

My interpretation of is that the N650u is not in the 1.0.8 backend, and that I need to install the plustek (v0.44). And this is where I run into trouble.

Question 2. How do I add this driver to the existing sane RPM? (The plustek instructions presumes the sane-backend was installed using a tarball - http://www.gjaeger.de/scanner/usb/Plustek-USB.txt).

Again, I value your patience and help.

Oh dear, I haven't solved my problem.

- can anyone help me???

Change the entry in rc.local to "/sbin/modprobe scanner vendor=0x04a9 product=0x2206" and you might want to consider installing sane from source.

Hi Aussie

I already had that line in /etc/rc.local but without the "/sbin/". I added "/sbin/" and tried again after rebooting, and "sane-find-scanner" still does not find the scanner. If I type the command (modprobe scanner vendor=0x04a9 product=0x2206) as user, I get the same response. If I type it as su, "sane-find-scanner" finds the scanner. Is this a modprobe permissions problem?

I will remove the rpm sane install (which installed easilly) and retry the tarball install which fell over last time .....

Cheers Johng

Hi again

I have removed all sane rpm packages. ./configure tells me there is still an old sane installed - I found /etc/sane.d and removed it (./configure says there is still an old sane but does not say where). I continued, and ran "make" which proceeded until it came up with this error message:

rm -f abaton-s.c
ln ./stubs.c abaton-s.c
ln: creating hard link 'abaton-s.c' to './stubs.c' : Operation not permitted
make[1] : *** [abaton-s.c] Error 1
make[1] : Leaving directory '/win98D/0-linux/software/sane/sane-backends-1.0.9/backend'
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

what does this mean?

Do "whereis sane" and remove any old sane parts that are found.
Try untarring to /usr/src/sane-backends-1.0.9 and building as root.

Ok - this time the "make" seems to go OK, and then "make install" gets so far, and the falls over with:

installing sane-coolscan2.5 in /usr/local/man/man5/sane-coolscan2.5...
installing sane-hpsj5s.5 in /usr/local/man/man5/sane-hpsj5s.5...
installing sane.7 in /usr/local/man/man7/sane.7...
..mkinstalldirs /usr/local/doc/sane-1.0.9
mkdir /usr/local/doc/sane-1.0.9
installing README in /usr/local/doc/sane-1.0.9/README...
/usr//bin/install : cannot stat '../README' : No such file or directory
make[1] : *** [install] Error 1
make[1] : Leaving directory '/usr/src/sane-backends-1.0.9/doc'
make : *** [install-recursive] Error 1
[root@localhost sane-backends-1.0.9]#

... there is an empty directory /usr/local/doc/sane-1.0.9

There is no readme or README file in the /usr/src/sane-backends-1.0.9