Canoscan N640P in FC6

[Gary Waters]

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

[Simon Slater]

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.

-- 
Regards
Simon

[Mikkel]

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
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

[Gary Waters]

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

[Ric Moore]

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

-- 
================================================
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
Linux user# 44256 Sign up at: http://counter.li.org/
http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/oar
http://www.wayward4now.net  <---down4now too
================================================

[Mikkel]

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
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

[Mikkel]

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
-- 

  Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!