A reboot did not help. Nor has pulling the plug on the scanner, moving it to a different port, a search for the possible existence of a lock file, changing the libusbscanner script to assign 0666 permissions to the device.

It is odd though that the scanner scans somewhat when I use scanimage. I say "somewhat" because it is only scanning the left upper 1/8th of the image. I am beginning to think the problem is with xsane, and not necessarily the scanner or the hotplug system.

UPDATE: I fixed the image size problem by using the device specific settings I got from `scanimage --help --device-name plustek:libusb:002:002` to set the image size to 216mm by 297mm. That worked and I got the image into a file that I can work with in gimp. So, it is looking like my "Device busy" problem is an xsane problem.

I have a similar problem using a similar scanner but I cannot get it to work at all. The scanner is a Mustek Scan Express 1200 UB Plus
Scanner will not work under 2.6.8.13 kernel although was perfectly OK under the 2.4 kernel. (Suse9.0)
Does not work either as root or user.
I am wondering why this was changed in this kernel as it appears to be a retrograde step.
I have taken the following action to try to resolve the problem.

Actions
1.Configured in Yast, told download is needed
2.Have downloaded both ps1fw.usb and sbfw.usb files ans installed them in gt86xx folder
3.Sane, Xsane and Kooka installed, neither will work
4.Scanimage -L does not find any scanners
5.Sane-find-scanner acknowledges the presence of a usb scanner
(vendor=0x05d8, product=0x4002, chip=gt-6801, libusb: 001: 002)
6.Usbview sees a scanner installed
7.Info centre also sees a scanner installed
8.Amended config.gt86xx to override Mustek Scan Express 1200 UB Plus
9.Copied libsane.usermap and libusbscanner files to /etc/hotplug/usb/
10.Created scanner group to which all have access.

The problem appears to be with Sane as the scanner is seen to be installed by the OS.
I am now at a loss.

grabro

My suggestion would be to double check all rights to each file the scanner requires. Rights is a big problem with scanners. Make sure all the files that scanner needs access to are given rights. Sometimes, even as root, this is a problem to access the scanner.

Now, you said you can't access it as root, so maybe the scanner did not compile with the kernel. My suggestion would be to remove any other scanners from the scanner list. Make sure that just yours in there (I can't remember the file). Then rebuild to kernel with just your scanner drivers.

This introduces another problem though, if you do this and then you decide to get another scanner, you will have to run through the same process of rebuilding your kernel.

I recommend the Epson scanners because they are fully functional under Gimp and Fedora Core / SuSE. I have tested several Epsons on both distros and they work wonderfully. The only problems I had was access to the scanner as a user other than root.

You most likely have a udev /devfs conflict. Make sure you DON'T have devfs running, then look in /etc/udev at the rules and permissions files, some editing may be needed. Read up the post and enverything you need is there.