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Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

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Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Mon Oct 19, 2015 3:12 pm

Due to Linux Mint 17 being based on such an old Ubuntu, the sane scanner driver database is quite old. I searched on the sane website but couldn’t find a way to install new drivers without compiling and installing a completely new version of sane.

Does anyone know if there is an easier way to install new scanner drivers so that Linux Mint users won’t be waiting for support for newer scanners for two years? Obviously to make Linux Mint more user-friendly, getting new hardware drivers into stable Linux Mint would be great!

In my particular case, it’s the Canon Canoscan LiDE 220 scanner that is now supported in sane and has been for months, but that support hasn’t landed in Linux Mint 17.2.

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daveinuk Level 7
Posts: 1559 Joined: Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:52 pm Location: Manchester, England. Contact:

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by daveinuk » Mon Oct 19, 2015 3:15 pm

Have you had a look on canons website to see if they have a scangear package available for your model?

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Mon Oct 19, 2015 3:39 pm

daveinuk wrote: Have you had a look on canons website to see if they have a scangear package available for your model?

There was no Linux in the list of OSes for the drivers for the 220, so apparently they don’t have it for it?

Either way it’d be great to package the open source drivers for easy user installation provided that the sane framework is modular enough with the drivers instead of being monolithic.

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Bolle1961 » Mon Oct 19, 2015 3:46 pm

Ubuntu 15.10 has a newer version of sane, you can download it and try if it installs in Mint
http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywo . chon=names
http://packages.ubuntu.com/wily/sane

jimallyn Level 19
Posts: 9075 Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:34 pm Location: Wenatchee, WA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by jimallyn » Mon Oct 19, 2015 6:17 pm

There’s a PPA with a much newer SANE. Look here:

“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you’d be upset. But, as it is, they’re only coming for your sons.” — Daniel Berrigan

lexon Level 6
Posts: 1143 Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:53 pm Location: MA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by lexon » Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:56 pm

I downloaded Sane but cannot find it in my PC. Even did a reinstall. Does Sane work with 64 bit machines? I use Mint 17.0.

Lindows, Linspire, Freespire, Ubuntu, Mint 15 Cinnamon, Mint 16 XFCE, Mint 17 Cinnamon 64 bit. MInt 18 64 bit Cinnamon.

jimallyn Level 19
Posts: 9075 Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:34 pm Location: Wenatchee, WA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by jimallyn » Mon Oct 19, 2015 10:11 pm

Yes, SANE works with 64 bit machines. Ordinarily, one doesn’t download software to install on Linux, one uses the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager. I believe SANE comes installed in Mint by default. The only reason to download software is if you need a newer version than is provided in the Mint software repositories.

“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you’d be upset. But, as it is, they’re only coming for your sons.” — Daniel Berrigan

lexon Level 6
Posts: 1143 Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:53 pm Location: MA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by lexon » Mon Oct 19, 2015 10:37 pm

Yes, SANE works with 64 bit machines. Ordinarily, one doesn’t download software to install on Linux, one uses the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager. I believe SANE comes installed in Mint by default. The only reason to download software is if you need a newer version than is provided in the Mint software repositories.

That is what I did. I used Synaptic Package Manager. Ok, not a download.
Cannot find Sane on my PC.
I use to use Sane very well in the past with Mint.

My new wireless Canon PIXMA does not work with Simple Scan wireless or USB cable.. Printer works on USB cable but not wireless. My HP printer scanners did very well on USB cable.
I tried a question in Hardware but no response so I deleted the question. Hate to hijack a thread.
L

Lindows, Linspire, Freespire, Ubuntu, Mint 15 Cinnamon, Mint 16 XFCE, Mint 17 Cinnamon 64 bit. MInt 18 64 bit Cinnamon.

jimallyn Level 19
Posts: 9075 Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:34 pm Location: Wenatchee, WA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by jimallyn » Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:46 am

Here’s what I get on this computer:

$ whereis sane
sane: /etc/sane.d /usr/lib/sane /usr/share/sane /usr/share/man/man7/sane.7.gz

Did you try installing the PPA I suggested? That will install a newer version of SANE that should work with your scanner.

“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you’d be upset. But, as it is, they’re only coming for your sons.” — Daniel Berrigan

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:52 am

jimallyn wrote: There’s a PPA with a much newer SANE. Look here:

Thanks! I looked for a PPA but didn’t find this. It’d be nice if there was a non-PPA option so that you can solve the issue for all Linux distros, downloading and installing SANE drivers directly from the SANE website, but sadly this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:57 am

sudo apt-get install xsane xsane

Anyway, if your scanner isn’t detected by xsane after you install it, or by Simple Scan, you also probably need new SANE/drivers, so check on the SANE website for your scanner model to see if it’s supported in the stable and development versions. If it’s in the dev version but not in the stable, you know you have to either compile from git, use a PPA that has it, or wait, since there doesn’t seem to be an easy driver download/install option.

jimallyn Level 19
Posts: 9075 Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2014 7:34 pm Location: Wenatchee, WA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by jimallyn » Tue Oct 20, 2015 3:57 am

“If the government were coming for your TVs and cars, then you’d be upset. But, as it is, they’re only coming for your sons.” — Daniel Berrigan

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Tue Oct 20, 2015 4:00 am

jimallyn wrote: You can download the source code and compile it. Not the answer you were looking for, I’m sure.

Were you addressing me? You already gave me the PPA link, that’s all I need, but as I said it’s other users on other distros that would benefit from a modular SANE driver model so anyone could download the newest drivers without compiling or using a PPA.

lexon Level 6
Posts: 1143 Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:53 pm Location: MA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by lexon » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:10 pm

Thanks for the replay. Xsane is in the PC but still does not find the Canon scanner. Even 9if it did work, when I do a fresh install of Mint again, have to do that all over again.

I keep an older laptop in the back room with the HP printer/scanner that does not print so I can still scan stuff.

Annoying because at one time Mint did use Sane very well.

Going to have W7 put on a spare hard drive and dual boot with Mint for my main laptop. Need to use iTunes anyway for Apple devices I have now.

Not happy with how Mint is evolving. Getting more techkie ish anyway.

Lindows, Linspire, Freespire, Ubuntu, Mint 15 Cinnamon, Mint 16 XFCE, Mint 17 Cinnamon 64 bit. MInt 18 64 bit Cinnamon.

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:39 pm

lexon wrote: Thanks for the replay. Xsane is in the PC but still does not find the Canon scanner. Even 9if it did work, when I do a fresh install of Mint again, have to do that all over again.

I keep an older laptop in the back room with the HP printer/scanner that does not print so I can still scan stuff.

Annoying because at one time Mint did use Sane very well.

Going to have W7 put on a spare hard drive and dual boot with Mint for my main laptop. Need to use iTunes anyway for Apple devices I have now.

Not happy with how Mint is evolving. Getting more techkie ish anyway.

Did you do anything I suggested? Check the SANE website to see if your scanner is supported in the stable or development version of SANE? If you want to quickly find out if newer versions of SANE work you can either use the PPA that was given here and use it to update to the newest SANE version, or you could probably try a Ubunntu 15.10 live environment because that should have a newer SANE version. If one works, the other should work as well though, and you should be able to stick with Mint + SANE PPA.

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Tue Oct 20, 2015 1:51 pm

Tried out https://launchpad.net/~rolfbensch/+arch . u/sane-git and now my scanner is working great! Thanks for the PPA link and for the help!

As I said I hope they find a way to make their driver system modular so that it’s easier for users to get updated drivers no matter the distro they are using. That, or distros need to keep SANE updated.

lexon Level 6
Posts: 1143 Joined: Sat Jan 31, 2009 10:53 pm Location: MA USA

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by lexon » Tue Oct 20, 2015 7:03 pm

I use the xsane suggestion in Terminal.
Not doing anymore.
Tired of messing with something that use to work out of the box.

When I do a fresh install of the latest XFCE, I will have to do these things all over again. I have an external HD for backups because I always do fresh installs. Hate using Terminal. Too many hours of using DOS many years ago.

Mint just not as good as it once was. Still the most secure OS is the only consolation.
My stepson is a Windows guru. so I have good backup when I will be using W7 on occasion.

Lindows, Linspire, Freespire, Ubuntu, Mint 15 Cinnamon, Mint 16 XFCE, Mint 17 Cinnamon 64 bit. MInt 18 64 bit Cinnamon.

Re: Easy way to install new scanner/sane drivers?

Post by Yfrwlf » Wed Oct 21, 2015 1:07 pm

lexon wrote: I use the xsane suggestion in Terminal.
Not doing anymore.
Tired of messing with something that use to work out of the box.

When I do a fresh install of the latest XFCE, I will have to do these things all over again. I have an external HD for backups because I always do fresh installs. Hate using Terminal. Too many hours of using DOS many years ago.

Mint just not as good as it once was. Still the most secure OS is the only consolation.
My stepson is a Windows guru. so I have good backup when I will be using W7 on occasion.

If your scanner used to work before then what did you do to make it not work? Sounds like you need to STOP using the terminal and perhaps reinstall, lol. Mint is one of the easiest-to-use distros with one of the only remaining issues being new hardware support for things sometimes lag due to it being based on the older LTS Ubuntu.

You should try buying Linux-compatible hardware, and return stuff that doesn’t work out-of-the-box in Linux unless you know it WILL soon work in a later distro release, which is why I said check the SANE development supported products section of the SANE website which I guess you refuse to do.

Whatever bro, just trying to help, but you’re sounding kind of cantankerous/trollish.

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