[sane-devel] MFP - Samsung SCX-4521F

[abel deuring]

Heiko Freundel wrote:
> abel deuring schrieb:
>> But if you ask google for "mfpport.ko", you'll get a lot
>> of error reports, often in conjunction with Samsung devices, but no
>> hint for useful patches, at least on the first 5 result pages.
> Yes, there are many questions, but no helpful answers.

Actually, I found a page that might help you, if your machine does
not use the parallel port, bu has a USB interface, because this
mfpport.ko module seems to be required only for parport devices:

http://hathawaymix.org/Weblog/2005-07-15


>> This
>> is an indication that mfpport.ko is a Samsung-specific kernel
>> module, for which no source code is available. You could try to find
>> this file somewhere in the Samsung driver package, and try to load
>> it manually, but if there is any incompatibility with the Ubuntu
>> kernel, this will not work.
>>   
> It is not in, there is just an libMFPPortPlugin.so

So the install package is even not complete -- weird.

>>   
>>> Samsung told me, the driver was not testet with Ubuntu.
>>>     
>> ...which they should state clearly on their website, in README files
>> and in other places where people might check, if a device is
>> supported under a specific operating system. Binary-only kernel
>> modules are a really bad idea.
>>   
> You are right. Now I found it in the user manual. Who reads an user
> manual BEFORE buying an product. Even if they right something from linux
> support.  They just support Redhat, Mandrake, SuSe, Caldera, TurboLinux,
> Slackware.

Providing this information in the "wrong place" is even more weird...

>> And we (the Sane project) should tell more clearly in the *desc
>> files for external backends, if source code is available (at least
>> partially), if the backend works only under Linux, or even only with
>> very specific kernel versions...
>>   
> Maybe it's an stuppid question, but: If the Samsung-drivers work with
> the above mentioned distributions, isn't then the source code
> available?  I just phoned to Samsung, there I can't anticipate any help.**

Well, some persons at Samsung, or at some contractor company,
probably have the source code. But the question is, if they are
willing to release it. The Sane license does not require the free
distribution of the source code of external backends; moreover, a
kernel module is missing in your case, which is "license-wise" more
a question of "legal compatibility" with the Linux kernel, and AFAIK
 there is also no requirement to freely release the source code of
external kernel modules.

Abel