Thanks for your prompt reply ReaperX7, I think the problem lies on my end. After modifying BIOS settings, It seems that my mobo won't change parport modes effectively into EPP, EPP or ECP+EPP and since the EPP is required in order to work with this scanner then I'll need to try It on an older mobo.
After checking with a script from:
http://umax1220p.sourceforge.net/trouble.html
Code:
# /home/bert/Downloads/parport/ppdiag2
S01: parport built as module
S02: parport0:
S02: modes:PCSPP,TRISTATE
S02: ADDR :0x378
S02: IRQ :5
S02: DMA :1
S03: parport parameters are: /sbin/modprobe -q parport_pc 2> /dev/null
S10: ppdev built as module
S12: /dev/parport0 exists ...
S12: /dev/parport0 is readable ...
S12: /dev/parport0 is writable ...
S12: do you want to allow any user to access ppdev ? (yes/no)
yes
S12: mode changed ...
successfull end ....
#rmmod parport_pc
#modprobe parport_pc io=0x378 irq=5 io_hi=0x400 dma=none
#dmesg
[ 2402.208168] parport 0x378 (WARNING): CTR: wrote 0x0c, read 0xff
[ 2402.208177] parport 0x378 (WARNING): DATA: wrote 0xaa, read 0xff
[ 2402.208178] parport 0x378: You gave this address, but there is probably no parallel port there!
[ 2402.208196] parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 5 [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
[ 2402.210651] ppdev: user-space parallel port driver
The available options on the BIOS setup are Default,EPP,ECP, EPP+ECP, and won't let change them from IO=378h, IRQ=5, DMA=1