[sane-devel] Epson Perfection 3170 PHOTO and Linux (with iscan)

[Raphael Langerhorst]

On Saturday 17 September 2005 20:57, Raphael Langerhorst wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have an Epson Perfection 3170 PHOTO scanner, but I fail to get it
> to work with iscan (provided by epkowa). I installed the iscan
> source package on a ROCK Linux 2.0 (http://www.rocklinux.org).
> Today I installed kubuntu to serve as another base for iscan, but
> there are a couple of development packages missing, and I am
> really(!!) tired of doing anything more. I have the scanner for
> half a year now without being able to use it. I usually don't even
> use Linux (I use NetBSD and FreeBSD basically) and it's just
> frustrating that Epkowa provides a driver, but it doesn't work...
>
> So if anyone knows the setup procedure (including which Linux
> Distribution, I use a spare PC for that) for an Epson Perfection
> 3170 PHOTO scanner, let me know. And no, Windows is not an option
> (I'm tired of that as well).
>
> Status:
>
> With 2.4 kernel, inserting the scanner module with the vendor and
> product parameters works - sane-find-scanner detects the scanner as
> an Epson flatbed scanner, Kooka can select the scanner, but can't
> use it (clicking on preview or scan silently fails). If I start
> iscan it tells me that it can't send commands to the scanner
> (scanner is appararently turned on and connected, as reported by
> sane-find-scanner). I adapted the epkowa.conf (or maybe epson.conf)
> file to list the "usb /dev/usb/scanner0" entry. I basically
> followed the install instructions provided by Epkowa (for iscan
> 1.14).
>
> There are some non-free firmware binaries included with iscan, is
> there anything I need to do with these? I know that the Epson 3170
> needs one of these, but it's nowhere written HOW to use them, so I
> guess iscan does it all by itself(?).
>
> Please, if ANYONE out there actually uses this scanner and/or knows
> how to install it, let me know (there must be someone that made the
> "supported" entry on the sane website, which made me buy the
> product in the first place - I didn't see it's a binary external
> driver, which makes it USELESS for *BSD and AMD64 (= all non i386),
> which is stupid anyway).
>
> THANKS,
> --
> Raphael Langerhorst
> http://raphael.g-system.at/blog

Now, this is the deal:

Install SuSE Linux 9.2 with the suggested package selection (I removed 
the office software), do NOT install the iscan package provided by 
SuSE 9.2 (too old).

After installation, download the iscan package from 
http://www.avasys.jp/english/linux_e/dl_scan.html

I have version 1.14

install the rpm, ignore the sane-backends dependency (SuSE only has a 
"sane" package that includes both, frontends and backends). Then 
you're set - just start "iscan" and it actually... works. Surprise 
surprise. Finally a working recipe.

Regards,
-- 
Raphael Langerhorst
http://raphael.g-system.at/blog