[sane-devel] Fwd: NO scanner is now recognized. :(

Lance Hunt mrfairgo at gmail.com
Mon Sep 27 23:50:50 UTC 2010


 On Tue, Sep 28, 2010 at 4:58 AM, Nicolas Martin
<nicolas0martin at gmail.com>wrote:

> Could you describe a little bit more what was the issue with grayscale
> scan on MX310 ?
>

> BTW, B&W is currently not supported on this model, some more details
> about how you were proceeding would be useful to step further.


Hello Nicolas, Allan,

Thank you for stepping in.  I didn't want to bore the whole list with a
blow-by-blow description at first, but you asked for it, so here goes.  :)

I was using gscan2pdf 0.9.29 to scan, under LinuxMint 8 (Helena).  This is
built on Ubuntu.  gscan2pdf is the only Linux program I have found so far
that comes anywhere close to the Windows PaperPort I was using before
switching to Linux.  When attempting to scan, this program opens a dialog
box and looks for all scanning devices.  It found the Cannon MX310, and
presented options for scanning.

At first, it presented both Colour and Greyscale options.  I am wanting to
use the ASF to scan multiple documents into one PDF in B&W (aiming for
smaller file sizes for storage and emailing) so I would choose "Greyscale"
(as B&W was not an available option).  Then I would use the "threshold" tool
to optimise the result and then save.  Although this would not give as small
a file size as Paperport, at least it was acceptable.

After some months, when I opened the dialog to scan, the Greyscale option
would not work properly.  When selecting it, some different options
(brightness was one I can remember)  would become visible, and no matter
what values I entered, there would be an error message to the effect that
these options were not supported by the scanner.  So I had to scan in
colour, but the result even after using the threshold tool to optimise was
unacceptably large file sizes. A 20-page contract was about 10 MB instead of
0.5MB.  I resorted to waiting until I had a bunch of scanning to so, booting
into Win Vista (yawn) and using PaperPort.  Not a good solution,
particularly when there was urgent work to be scanned and emailed!

About that time LinuxMint (ver 9, Isadora) became available, so I upgraded,
hoping to fix the problem and get back to work. There was no difference,
Greyscale attempts still produced the erroneous options.

So I contacted the author of gscan2pdf, who was extremely helpful, and gave
me many tests to perform.  The results showed that the problem was not with
gscan2pdf, but with sane.  I am such a newbie I had not really twigged that
the one program was accessing the other, but I am learning fast!  Finally,
it was suggested that I join this list and put forward the problem, as the
issue seemed to be with the way sane interacted with this particular
scanner.  I joined.

But before actually asking the question I attempted one of the suggestions
of the gscan2pdf author, which was to upgrade sane.  Via LinuxMint, the only
way I have been installing and upgrading is via the Package Manager.  It
seems often to be a few versions behind the latest stable release.  I
understand the reasons for that, but I wanted to press on and get the
cutting-edge (but stable) version anyway.  I downloaded this file
https://alioth.debian.org/frs/download.php/3258/sane-backends-1.0.21.tar.gz

Opening the instructions contained in that package, I found this: "the shell
commands `./configure; make; make install' should configure, build, and
install this package."

I also found this...

The simplest way to compile this package is:

  1. `cd' to the directory containing the package's source code and type
     `./configure' to configure the package for your system.

     Running `configure' might take a while.  While running, it prints
     some messages telling which features it is checking for.

  2. Type `make' to compile the package.

  3. Optionally, type `make check' to run any self-tests that come with
     the package.

  4. Type `make install' to install the programs and any data files and
     documentation.


So I opened Terminal and played around with those commands until it seemed
to do something.  Took a long time and wrote a lot of (to me) arcane stuff
to Terminal, but eventually it stopped and claimed to have done the job.

However, from that moment, the machine has refused to access this or any
other scanner, claiming 'no device found'.   (I have two other flatbed
scanners, and I tried them, but no device found)

I have been watching and reading this list for a month or so, and decided
the time had come to ask my question.  (Somehow I used the wrong email
address, but thankfully the moderators allowed it through anyway)

BTW this is a dual-core Toshiba Satellite.  I have an Asus eeePC netbook
also dual-booting LinuxMint, and I have been using that to scan in the
meantime.  It's slower of course, but it works.

Re the B&W issue:  I had sort of concluded that maybe the Cannon MX310
doesn't natively scan in B&W, and that being able to select that with Win
PaperPort was because the program was doing a background conversion.  The
later gscan2pdf version has the ability to optimise to B&W, but as I have
had such "thundering success" (!) with installing programs in Linux I have
not been able to install it. (Yet: but I hope John MacGill's link to
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompileSaneFromSource will put me right
there - thanks John!)

Also, while writing this email I accessed LinuxMint to make sure Isadora-9
was the latest, and I see the new built-on-Debian version has been
released.  I have been waiting for this, because it's a bit of a pain
reinstalling every 6 months to keep up with current releases (which is the
way the built-on-Ubuntu versions had worked)

So in the next couple of weeks I will find the time to upgrade to this
entirely new version, and no doubt that will fix the "can't find any
scanner" issue.  A bit of a blunt force approach, but I intend to upgrade
anyway.

However, if one of you knowledgable ones, having bored yourself all the way
through to this point, still wants to assist, I would appreciate some
insight on how to get sane working again so I can scan from the faster
machine, and also increase my understanding of how these things work for
future use.

Cheers at last!

Lance
(Mr Fair Go)



> BTW, B&W is currently not supported on this model, some more details
> about how you were proceeding would be useful to step further.
>
> Nicolas
>
> Le lundi 27 septembre 2010 à 14:36 -0400, m. allan noah a écrit :
> > I don't see any indication that grayscale or binary modes have been
> > added to the MX310 (pixma) backend. It is possible that the backend
> > only exposes the actual capabilites of the scanner.- hopefully one of
> > the pixma authors can comment further.
> >
> > allan
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 1:07 AM, Mr Fair Go <mrfairgo at mrfairgo.com>
> wrote:
> > >>> I compiled and installed the latest sane-backends-1.0.21 and tried to
> > >>> use it with a Canon DR-2010C scanner,
> > >
> > > G'day!
> > >
> > > I have a Canon  MX310 which was scanning OK, but only in colour.  There
> was
> > > some sort of bug in Greyscale and B&W.  I attempted to "compile and
> install"
> > > the newer sane backends also, but as a newbie I clearly did something
> wrong,
> > > because now none of my Linux scanning software will find the Canon or
> any
> > > other scanner (I have 3).  I even uninstalled and reinstalled SANE and
> > > gscan2pdf via the Package Manager, but still "
> > >
> > > Can someone point me to a very basic Linux how-to that explains for a
> newbie
> > > exactly how to "compile and install" with Linux?  Everything I look at
> > > assumes I have more knowledge about "compiling" than I actually have.
> > >
> > > Running LinuxMint 9 (Isadora) which is built on Ubuntu, for nearly a
> year
> > > now.  Up to this point upgrading and installing packages via Package
> Manager
> > > has been adequate for my needs, but the newer version is not available
> this
> > > way, thus I attempted the more challenging route, but can not find
> > > "instructions" anywhere.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Mr Fair Go
> > >
> > >
> > > (They call me "Mr Fair Go")
> > > http://mrfairgo.com
> > > fairgohomes.com.au -->a Fair Go for aspiring homeowners, sellers,
> investors,
> > > renovators.
> > > fairgocom.net.au -->a Fair Go for Getting Your Life & Privacy Back!
> > > eservers.com.au -->Professional Internet Hosting
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, Sep 27, 2010 at 1:12 PM, Ori Koren <ori at paperact.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 8:28 PM, Simon Matter <simon.matter at invoca.ch
> >
> > >> wrote:
> > >> >> Hi,
> > >> >>
> > >> >> I compiled and installed the latest sane-backends-1.0.21 and tried
> to
> > >> >> use it with a Canon DR-2010C scanner,
> > >> >> but the scanner is not recognized (by scanadf -L, or scanimage -L).
> > >> >> sane-find-scanner and lsusb can see the device.
> > >>
> > >> <snipped>
> > >>
> > >> >> Am I missing some option in one of the config files?
> > >>
> > >> <snipped>
> > >>
> > >> >> I am using an ubuntu 8.04.3. The libusb-0.1-4, libusb-dev versions
> are
> > >> >> both 2:0.1.12-8
> > >> >
> > >> > What about permissions? Did you try as root also? And is the backend
> in
> > >> > question enabled in your sane config?
> > >> >
> > >>
> > >> OK, it's working now.
> > >> The thing that was missing was to add "canon_dr" to
> /etc/sane.d/dll.conf
> > >>
> > >> > Simon
> > >>
> > >> Thanks,
> > >> Ori
> > >>
> > >> --
> > >> sane-devel mailing list: sane-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
> > >> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/sane-devel
> > >> Unsubscribe: Send mail with subject "unsubscribe your_password"
> > >>             to sane-devel-request at lists.alioth.debian.org
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > sane-devel mailing list: sane-devel at lists.alioth.debian.org
> > > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/sane-devel
> > > Unsubscribe: Send mail with subject "unsubscribe your_password"
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> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
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