Hi,
I was given a canoscan N640P scanner and simply cannot get this thing to work in Fedora core 6. I've googled until my mind turned to mush. I found considerable info on configuring sane with this unit, and followed everything step-by-step, but to no avail. The unit definitely works in XP. Any clues, pointers, rain dances, astrological forecasts, or even Nostradamus quotes regarding a solution would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks!
Gary
Gary Waters wrote:
Hi,
I was given a canoscan N640P scanner and simply cannot get this thing to work in Fedora core 6. I've googled until my mind turned to mush. I found considerable info on configuring sane with this unit, and followed everything step-by-step, but to no avail. The unit definitely works in XP. Any clues, pointers, rain dances, astrological forecasts, or even Nostradamus quotes regarding a solution would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks!
Gary
A couple of things to look at...
First, make sure you have the parallel port modules. (ppdev, lp, parport, parport_pc) I don't remember if all of htem are needed, or if you can get by with just the parport and lp modules.
The second thing is that the default permissions for the parallel port does not allow access by a normal user.
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 Sep 19 23:35 /dev/lp0
You can modify the console.perms configuration to change the permissions to allow the user logged into the console to have access, or you can add the users you want to have access to the scanner to the lp group. The first involves creating a file in /etc/security/console.perms.d to add the rule, or having udev make a scanner symlink pointing to the correct lp device and the second involves opening up the Users and Groups tool, and the user(s).
As a tempary fix, that should add until you reboot, you can change the ownership of the port. If your user is gary, you can run, as root, something like:
chown gary /dev/lp0
or
ln -s /dev/lp0 /dev/scanner
If you create the symlink, then the ownership change will not take affect until you log out, and log back in, and will only work if you are logged in locally.
The reason it is complicated is that Linux does not know what is plugged into the parallel port, so you end up telling it. A USB scanner would usually be automatically detected. It is possible to ask a device plugged into the parallel port what it is. But the device has to be powered up. I have not looked, but I think this is still done at boot if kudzu runs at boot time.
Remember, the changes made by chown or ln in the /dev/directory are lost when you reboot!
Mikkel
On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 09:30 -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
A couple of things to look at...
First, make sure you have the parallel port modules. (ppdev, lp, parport, parport_pc) I don't remember if all of htem are needed, or if you can get by with just the parport and lp modules.
The second thing is that the default permissions for the parallel port does not allow access by a normal user.
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 Sep 19 23:35 /dev/lp0
Thanks... I will look into this as soon as I have a spare moment. I appreciate the information!
Gary
On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 06:44 -0500, Gary Waters wrote:
Hi,
I was given a canoscan N640P scanner and simply cannot get this thing to work in Fedora core 6. I've googled until my mind turned to mush. I found considerable info on configuring sane with this unit, and followed everything step-by-step, but to no avail. The unit definitely works in XP. Any clues, pointers, rain dances, astrological forecasts, or even Nostradamus quotes regarding a solution would be greatly appreciated...
Nostrodamus asks, "Is it SCSI, Parallel or USB?" Since I already channel Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Hunter Thompson, ole Nostros grabbed a piece of my brain too, to ask for clarification.
What you may not have done is open the lid after invoking sane. It'll go lurch-lurch and be ready to scan. My HP refuses to scan unless I open and shut the lid at times, especially if I put the picture in, then crank up sane after. I did all that you did, beat myself up, brain turned to mush, etc. Then discovered this "feature". A grown man crying is a pitiful thing to see. :) Ric
Ric Moore wrote:
On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 06:44 -0500, Gary Waters wrote:
Hi,
I was given a canoscan N640P scanner and simply cannot get this thing to work in Fedora core 6. I've googled until my mind turned to mush. I found considerable info on configuring sane with this unit, and followed everything step-by-step, but to no avail. The unit definitely works in XP. Any clues, pointers, rain dances, astrological forecasts, or even Nostradamus quotes regarding a solution would be greatly appreciated...
Nostrodamus asks, "Is it SCSI, Parallel or USB?" Since I already channel Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Hunter Thompson, ole Nostros grabbed a piece of my brain too, to ask for clarification.
This is a parallel scanner according to the SANE compatibility list. With the default permissions, a normal user does not have access to a parallel port. I do not have a parallel scanner handy to test, so I don't know what happens if you boot the system with the scanner turned on. I know some parallel devices are effectively plug and play, but most of that experience is with printers. I think it also works on scanners, but I have not had a parallel scanner is a few years.
What you may not have done is open the lid after invoking sane. It'll go lurch-lurch and be ready to scan. My HP refuses to scan unless I open and shut the lid at times, especially if I put the picture in, then crank up sane after. I did all that you did, beat myself up, brain turned to mush, etc. Then discovered this "feature". A grown man crying is a pitiful thing to see. :) Ric
You have to love it when the people writing the firmware decide they know better then you do. I guess they want to make sure you don't scan the cover, so they don't start scanning until you lift the cover, and hopefully put something in to scan. Maybe it saves tech support calls about blank scans...
Mikkel
On Tue, 2007-11-06 at 07:12 -0500, Gary Waters wrote:
On Mon, 2007-11-05 at 09:30 -0600, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
A couple of things to look at...
First, make sure you have the parallel port modules. (ppdev, lp, parport, parport_pc) I don't remember if all of htem are needed, or if you can get by with just the parport and lp modules.
The second thing is that the default permissions for the parallel port does not allow access by a normal user.
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 Sep 19 23:35 /dev/lp0
FWIW I had a Canoscan FB320P. I would have to change permissions on /dev/lp0 for each session I used it. I used scanimage -L as root and then as user to check if it was found. That model had too many I/O errors which caused it to stop mid scan requiring a power off/on cycle. Replaced it with a USB scanner. Much less hassles.
Simon Slater wrote:
FWIW I had a Canoscan FB320P. I would have to change permissions on /dev/lp0 for each session I used it. I used scanimage -L as root and then as user to check if it was found. That model had too many I/O errors which caused it to stop mid scan requiring a power off/on cycle. Replaced it with a USB scanner. Much less hassles.
You can have console.perms change the permissions for you. You can add a console.perms rule file to manage lp0 directly, or have udev create a scanner symlink to lp0, and the scanner rules of console.perms will take care of it for you.
Mikkel