[sane-devel] problems getting network access to scanner..
Hi list! I am attempting to set up my scanner to work over the network. the device is a HP5510 Multifunction Printer, I can print over the network without any problems and can scan when it is attached directly to my pc. when the scanner is installed on the server I can ssh into the server and see the scanner: root@eldric:~# scanimage -L device `hpoj:mlc:usb:officejet_5500_series' is a hp officejet 5500 series multi-function peripheral when I try same from client i get: zeus:/home/ben# scanimage -L No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different, check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages). my server ip is: 192.168.42.1 my ip is 192.168.42.8 in saned.conf on the server i have: + 192.168.42.8 192.168.42.1 in net.conf on server and local i have: 192.168.42.8 192.168.42.1 in inetd.conf on the server i have: sane stream tcp nowait saned.saned /usr/local/sbin/saned saned as tcpd isn't running. in /etc/services.conf on server local I have: sane 6566/tcp saned # SANE network scanner daemon in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf I have: # The HP OfficeJet backend is not part of the SANE distribution # but is provided by the hpoj Debian package hpoj telnet from client (or server) to port server 6566 gives: zeus:/home/ben# telnet eldric 6566 Trying 192.168.42.1... Connected to eldric.GTFNET. Escape character is '^]'. Connection closed by foreign host. if i tethereal my interfaces and type scanimage -L from my local machine i get: zeus:/home/ben# tethereal -i eth1 Capturing on eth1 0.00 192.168.42.8 - 192.168.42.1 TCP 32867 sane [SYN] Seq=0 Ack=0 Win=5840 Len=0 MSS=1460 WS=0 0.004592 192.168.42.1 - 192.168.42.8 TCP sane 32867 [SYN, ACK] Seq=0 Ack=1 Win=5840 Len=0 MSS=1460 WS=0 0.004636 192.168.42.8 - 192.168.42.1 TCP 32867 sane [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=5840 Len=0 0.006762 192.168.42.8 - 192.168.42.1 TCP 32867 sane [PSH, ACK] Seq=1 Ack=1 Win=5840 Len=12 0.008373 192.168.42.1 - 192.168.42.8 TCP sane 32867 [ACK] Seq=1 Ack=13 Win=5840 Len=0 0.010743 192.168.42.1 - 192.168.42.8 TCP sane 32867 [RST, ACK] Seq=1 Ack=13 Win=5840 Len=0 So the machines seem to be talking.. Have I missed something basic? Hope someone can help! Ben
[sane-devel] Support for the Plustek OpticPro ST24 (genesys-backend)
Hi Frank, would you mind if I patch the genesys_low.c file to support the Plustek OpticPro ST24? The Patch only adds the base values for this device. Afterwards it's recongnized. One question? Is there an easy way to switch off the calibration? It seems, that the scanner starts, does something and the fails, when reading a buffer. Ciao, Gerhard
[sane-devel] [fujitsu] scsi-buf-size patch
Hello,
Most Fujitsu M30xx series scanners without CMP-2 boards installed require
that all image data be read in a single SCSI read. Otherwise, a partial
page image is returned, with the rest of the page set to black.
The user should be able to work around this problem by setting the
scsi-buf-size parameter in the fujitsu.conf configuration file to the
total size of the image, and setting the SANE_SG_BUFFERSIZE environment
variable to the same value. However, a bug in sane-fujitsu currently
prevents any SCSI buffer size setting larger than the default
sanei_scsi_max_request_size from taking effect, and
sanei_scsi_max_request_size is often much smaller than what is necessary.
The enclosed patch fixes this and applies to CVS head as well as
sane-backends-1.0.14. It works well with the M3097G scanner that I've
tested it with.
(Note also that due to a quirk in sane-fujitsu's option parsing code,
the scsi-buf-size directive must appear in the configuration file
_before_ any scsi option.)
Thanks to the sane-fujitsu hackers for a very useful driver!
- Paul
--- sane-backends-1.0.14/backend/fujitsu.c 2004-03-04 13:09:56.0
-0700
+++ sane-backends-1.0.14-patched/backend/fujitsu.c 2004-07-05
23:25:15.241452840 -0600
@@ -501,20 +501,19 @@
{
int buf;
lp += 16;
lp = sanei_config_skip_whitespace (lp);
buf = atoi (lp);
- if ((buf = 4096) (buf = sanei_scsi_max_request_size))
+ if (buf = 4096)
{
scsiBuffer = buf;
}
else
{
DBG (MSG_ERR,
sane_init: configuration option \scsi-buffer-
- size\ is outside allowable range of 4096..%d,
- sanei_scsi_max_request_size);
+ size\ must be larger than 4096);
}
}
else
{
DBG (MSG_ERR,
@@ -2503,10 +2502,19 @@
if (NULL == (dev = malloc (sizeof (*dev
return SANE_STATUS_NO_MEM;
memset(dev,0,sizeof(*dev));
+ if (scsiBuffer sanei_scsi_max_request_size) {
+scsiBuffer = sanei_scsi_max_request_size;
+DBG (MSG_ERR,
+sane_init: configuration option \scsi-buffer-
+size\ is larger than allowable maximum %d,
+sanei_scsi_max_request_size);
+ };
+
+ DBG (15, attach_scanner: setting scsi_buf_size to %d\n, scsiBuffer);
dev-scsi_buf_size = scsiBuffer;
if ((dev-buffer = malloc (dev-scsi_buf_size)) == NULL)
return SANE_STATUS_NO_MEM;
[sane-devel] [fujitsu] Documentation patch: M3097G works
This documentation patch just adds the M3097G to the list of working Fujitsu scanners. - Paul --- sane-backends/doc/sane-fujitsu.man Thu Feb 20 06:33:07 2003 +++ sane-backends-patched/doc/sane-fujitsu.man Mon Jul 5 23:41:59 2004 @@ -23,10 +23,12 @@ .br FUJITSU M3093GX .br FUJITSU M3093GD .br +FUJITSU M3097G +.br FUJITSU M4097 .br FUJITSU fi-4220C .br FUJITSU fi-4340C
[sane-devel] [fujitsu] scsi-buf-size patch
Paul,
first a disclaimer: I'm not the maintainer of the Fujitsu backend, but I
know a bit about sanei_scsi.c ;)
The user should be able to work around this problem by setting the
scsi-buf-size parameter in the fujitsu.conf configuration file to the
total size of the image, and setting the SANE_SG_BUFFERSIZE environment
variable to the same value. However, a bug in sane-fujitsu currently
prevents any SCSI buffer size setting larger than the default
sanei_scsi_max_request_size from taking effect, and
sanei_scsi_max_request_size is often much smaller than what is necessary.
--- sane-backends-1.0.14/backend/fujitsu.c2004-03-04 13:09:56.0
-0700
+++ sane-backends-1.0.14-patched/backend/fujitsu.c2004-07-05
23:25:15.241452840 -0600
@@ -501,20 +501,19 @@
{
int buf;
lp += 16;
lp = sanei_config_skip_whitespace (lp);
buf = atoi (lp);
- if ((buf = 4096) (buf = sanei_scsi_max_request_size))
+ if (buf = 4096)
This patch works only with a bit of luck ;) The value of
sanei_scsi_max_request_size tells the backend the maximum data block
size that can be safely transferred with a single SCSI command. There
are situations where this is also a hard limit. An example: Most ISA
SCSI adapters can only transfer up to 64 kB with one SCSI command, due
to limitations of ISA DMA architecture. (OK, anybody who is using a fast
and relatively expensive Fujitsu scanner with cheap and old ISA SCSI
adapter is probably a bit crazy, but it is possible to do that.) The
SCSI subsystems of some operating systems supported by Sane may have
some hard coded limits for the maximum data size of a single SCSI
command, and this limit could well be as low as 64 kB or 128 kB.
The Linux SG driver is quite smart with its attempts to deal with huge
data block sizes, so your patch may work in most cases for Linux, but it
can also lead to situations where a scan may fail in a mysterious way.
When an SG device file is opened, the SG driver allocates a data buffer
for the SCSI commands, and the size of this buffer can be adjusted. If a
SCSI command needs a larger buffer, the driver tries to allocate more
memory for this single command, but if the machine is for some reason
short on memory, the command will simply fail.
Generally, I'd recommend the following:
(1) replace the sanei_scsi_open calls with sanei_scsi_open_extended; the
latter function allows to set the buffer size for each device file
separately. This avoids the bureaucracy to deal with the
SANE_SG_BUFFERSSIZE enviroment variable.
(2) If sanei_scsi_open_extended does not return the required buffer
size, the backend should simply return an error by default. If some
environment variable or some option in the configuration file is set,
the backend may alternatively print a warning, via a DBG message.
Additionally, the function do_scsi_cmd should also check, if the call of
sanei_scsi_cmd failed with a SANE_STATUS_NO_MEM error, and if it failed
it should print a warning, that the failure may be caused by a too large
buffer size.
This way, users may try to perform a scan anyway, but in order to do
that, they have to read some documentation, where they should also get
an explanation that they must expect (perhaps random) scan errors, and
that ignoring the maximum SCSI buffer size may not work on all platforms
supported by Sane.
cheers
Abel
[sane-devel] USB-Scanner Medion 3810
Hi, I'm working with the above mentioned scanner but I can't get it running with SuSE-Linux 9.1. As I could not find support within my distribution I tried to find out which scanner it exactly is with 'sane-find-scanner'. The result was: found USB scanner (vendor=0x0461, product=0x037b) at libusb:001:002 The USB-ID-list on 'www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids' says that it seems to be a Primax sanner but the device number is not mentioned in that section. The command: scanimage -L stated 'No scanners were identified' Does anybody has any solution I could try out? Many thanks for your help -- Georg Halfas georg.hal...@gmx.net
[sane-devel] discussion: Future of SANE-project
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --_=_NextPart_001_01C46361.A29A5A7E Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable I subscribed to this developer list to monitor and hopefully contribute = to getting my lame UMAX Astra 2100U working natively on Mac OS X. = Apparently that will never happen. I then noticed lots of messages about = Epsons, and other 'big name' scanner vendors. This got me to wonder. = While the SANE project is a fascinating and honorable goal, is anyone = selling the benefits of SANE to the scanner manufacturers? My point is that this project will constantly have to be supported from = people like myself who are irritated that their scanner doesn't work on = different hardware/ OSes than what the maker originally intended (or = cares about). However, if the SANE architecture is so much better than = existing dominant TWAIN architecture, then someone should be pitching = this story to the scanner manufacturers. If Epson, HP, UMAX, Dell, = Primax, etc. agree to support this open source initiative (i.e, provide = SANE backends), the hope is that their scanners will be better supported = on more hardware, reaching more customers and improving satisfaction = with EVERY customer. And, users can freely change front-end applications = without worrying about loss of functionality. So it should be easier for = the scanner manufacturers to change what application software is bundled = with their scanner (photo scanner software, OCR software, etc.), = avoiding their own issues with vendor lock-in. Otherwise, the developers on the SANE project will always be writing = backends for 'old' scanners. In effect, they will ALWAYS be playing = catch-up with what already works on at least one OS and driver config. The other option is to get the SANE architecture to be a standard on = *nix boxes which means getting developers of the various *nix OSes to = bundle pre-compiled SANE with their OS. CUPS (Common Unix Printing = System) is the closest analogy I can think of. Printer makers that want = printers to work with *nix systems build in support for CUPS because it = is a *nix standard. Again, are the project leaders of SANE considering these options? I = don't see any 'official' support from the scanner makers which makes me = wonder if SANE will ever be supported out-of-box. Dave Paules --_=_NextPart_001_01C46361.A29A5A7E Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable !DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC -//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN HTML HEAD META HTTP-EQUIV=3DContent-Type CONTENT=3Dtext/html; = charset=3Diso-8859-1 META NAME=3DGenerator CONTENT=3DMS Exchange Server version = 6.5.6944.0 TITLEdiscussion: Future of SANE-project/TITLE /HEAD BODY !-- Converted from text/rtf format -- PFONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3DArialI subscribed to this developer list to = monitor and hopefully contribute to getting my lame UMAX Astra 2100U = working natively on Mac OS X. Apparently that will never happen. I then = noticed lots of messages about Epsons, and other 'big name' scanner = vendors. This got me to wonder. While the SANE project is a fascinating = and honorable goal, is anyone selling the benefits of SANE to the = scanner manufacturers?/FONT/P PFONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3DArialMy point is that this project will = constantly have to be supported from people like myself who are = irritated that their scanner doesn't work on different hardware/ OSes = than what the maker originally intended (or cares about). However, if = the SANE architecture is so much better than existing dominant TWAIN = architecture, then someone should be pitching this story to the scanner = manufacturers. If Epson, HP, UMAX, Dell, Primax, etc. agree to support = this open source initiative (i.e, provide SANE backends), the hope is = that their scanners will be better supported on more hardware, reaching = more customers and improving satisfaction with EVERY customer. And, = users can freely change front-end applications without worrying about = loss of functionality. So it should be easier for the scanner = manufacturers to change what application software is bundled with their = scanner (photo scanner software, OCR software, etc.), avoiding their own = issues with vendor lock-in./FONT/P PFONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3DArialOtherwise, the developers on the SANE = project will always be writing backends for 'old' scanners. In effect, = they will ALWAYS be playing catch-up with what already works on at least = one OS and driver config./FONT/P PFONT SIZE=3D2 FACE=3DArialThe other option is to get the SANE = architecture to be a standard on *nix boxes which means getting = developers of the various *nix OSes to bundle pre-compiled SANE with = their OS. CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) is the closest analogy I = can think of. Printer makers that want printers to work with *nix = systems build in support for CUPS because it is a *nix = standard./FONT/P PFONT
[sane-devel] [fujitsu] Documentation patch: M3097G works
Hi, On Tue, Jul 06, 2004 at 01:00:33AM -0600, Paul Walmsley wrote: This documentation patch just adds the M3097G to the list of working Fujitsu scanners. fujitsu.desc should also be updated. Bye, Henning
[sane-devel] discussion: Future of SANE-project
it is important to remember that the developers of sane are volunteers just like you. most of us got involved because we had a lame scanner too. we probably dont have time for such evangelism. that said, even if someone had the time to run around and convince vendors of the merits of sane, there would be at least two recurring sentiments: 1. sane spec is not complete, cause it does not support various LEDs,buttons or sensors that the manufacturers believe add so much value (and brand distinction) to their products. 2. they are going to want more control over the gui so they can do things like show pictures and diagrams of the scanner, which means they are going to write their own front-end half the time. then, i as a developer, and hopefully you as an open-source/free software user would have another complaint: 3. closed-source backends are much harder to debug/extend than free, even if you have the vendor to complain to. that said, there are a couple vendors who do make backends (brother comes to mind). allan On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, David N. Paules wrote: I subscribed to this developer list to monitor and hopefully contribute to getting my lame UMAX Astra 2100U working natively on Mac OS X. Apparently that will never happen. I then noticed lots of messages about Epsons, and other 'big name' scanner vendors. This got me to wonder. While the SANE project is a fascinating and honorable goal, is anyone selling the benefits of SANE to the scanner manufacturers? My point is that this project will constantly have to be supported from people like myself who are irritated that their scanner doesn't work on different hardware/ OSes than what the maker originally intended (or cares about). However, if the SANE architecture is so much better than existing dominant TWAIN architecture, then someone should be pitching this story to the scanner manufacturers. If Epson, HP, UMAX, Dell, Primax, etc. agree to support this open source initiative (i.e, provide SANE backends), the hope is that their scanners will be better supported on more hardware, reaching more customers and improving satisfaction with EVERY customer. And, users can freely change front-end applications without worrying about loss of functionality. So it should be easier for the scanner manufacturers to change what application software is bundled with their scanner (photo scanner software, OCR software, etc.), avoiding their own issues with vendor lock-in. Otherwise, the developers on the SANE project will always be writing backends for 'old' scanners. In effect, they will ALWAYS be playing catch-up with what already works on at least one OS and driver config. The other option is to get the SANE architecture to be a standard on *nix boxes which means getting developers of the various *nix OSes to bundle pre-compiled SANE with their OS. CUPS (Common Unix Printing System) is the closest analogy I can think of. Printer makers that want printers to work with *nix systems build in support for CUPS because it is a *nix standard. Again, are the project leaders of SANE considering these options? I don't see any 'official' support from the scanner makers which makes me wonder if SANE will ever be supported out-of-box. Dave Paules -- so don't tell us it can't be done, putting down what you don't know. money isn't our god, integrity will free our souls - Max Cavalera
[sane-devel] discussion: Future of SANE-project
David N. Paules wrote: I subscribed to this developer list to monitor and hopefully contribute to getting my lame UMAX Astra 2100U working natively on Mac OS X. Apparently that will never happen. I then noticed lots of messages about Epsons, and other 'big name' scanner vendors. This got me to wonder. While the SANE project is a fascinating and honorable goal, is anyone selling the benefits of SANE to the scanner manufacturers? The reason you'll read the name Epson pretty often might be, that they make scanner/printer which do a good job for the money and even better, they support Linux and SANE, the libs coming with iscan the scanner package installs into /usr/lib/sane/. The software (pips-sprx600_610-cups-2.6.2 iscan-1.9.0) I downloaded to get Epson Stylus Photo RX600 running, came with source and contains a file COPYING where it says GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. So at least, it looks like Epson is already doing what you ask for.;) Michael Heiming
[sane-devel] [fujitsu] Documentation patch: M3097G works
On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, Henning Meier-Geinitz wrote: On Tue, Jul 06, 2004 at 01:00:33AM -0600, Paul Walmsley wrote: This documentation patch just adds the M3097G to the list of working Fujitsu scanners. fujitsu.desc should also be updated. Thanks Henning, here's a patch against fujitsu.desc. - Paul --- sane-backends/doc/descriptions/fujitsu.desc Tue Apr 6 07:04:35 2004 +++ sane-backends-patched/doc/descriptions/fujitsu.desc Tue Jul 6 11:09:30 2004 @@ -43,10 +43,14 @@ :model M3093GDim :interface SCSI :status :good +:model M3097G +:interface SCSI +:status :good + :model M4097 :interface SCSI :status :good :model ScanPartner 93GX
[sane-devel] [fujitsu] scsi-buf-size patch
On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, abel deuring wrote: Hi Abel, Thanks for the good suggestions - I will implement them and send a new patch. One quick comment: (2) If sanei_scsi_open_extended does not return the required buffer size, the backend should simply return an error by default. If some environment variable or some option in the configuration file is set, the backend may alternatively print a warning, via a DBG message. Additionally, the function do_scsi_cmd should also check, if the call of sanei_scsi_cmd failed with a SANE_STATUS_NO_MEM error, and if it failed it should print a warning, that the failure may be caused by a too large buffer size. Just for the record, the second portion of the patch that I sent does check to see whether the SG driver did not accept the larger buffer size, and does at least emit a warning and reset the buffer size. The patch just moves that test from the configuration file parsing section, where it was useless, to after the backend tries to set the SG buffer to the requested size. Anyway, I agree that it is better for the backend to stop and emit an error message. - Paul
[sane-devel] discussion: Future of SANE-project
m. allan noah wrote: it is important to remember that the developers of sane are volunteers just like you. most of us got involved because we had a lame scanner too. we probably dont have time for such evangelism. But if someone was offering that said, even if someone had the time to run around and convince vendors of the merits of sane, there would be at least two recurring sentiments: 1. sane spec is not complete, cause it does not support various LEDs,buttons or sensors that the manufacturers believe add so much value (and brand distinction) to their products. Proposals to include this have been discussed, possibly input from a manufacture would help. 2. they are going to want more control over the gui so they can do things like show pictures and diagrams of the scanner, which means they are going to write their own front-end half the time. Or repackage existing - under GPL - is this a problem. then, i as a developer, and hopefully you as an open-source/free software user would have another complaint: 3. closed-source backends are much harder to debug/extend than free, even if you have the vendor to complain to. This is looking for problems, why assume they will be closed source. that said, there are a couple vendors who do make backends (brother comes to mind).
[sane-devel] [fujitsu] scsi-buf-size patch
Paul, Just for the record, the second portion of the patch that I sent does check to see whether the SG driver did not accept the larger buffer size, and does at least emit a warning and reset the buffer size. The patch Ouch, yes, you are right. Sorry that I missed that. Again a proof that I should read mails a bit more carefully before responding ;) just moves that test from the configuration file parsing section, where it was useless, to after the backend tries to set the SG buffer to the requested size. Anyway, I agree that it is better for the backend to stop and emit an error message. Abel
[sane-devel] discussion: Future of SANE-project
Julien BLACHE wrote: Michael Heiming mich...@heiming.de wrote: The software (pips-sprx600_610-cups-2.6.2 iscan-1.9.0) I downloaded to get Epson Stylus Photo RX600 running, came with source and contains a file COPYING where it says GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. So at least, it looks like Epson is already doing what you ask for.;) Did they suddenly relicense the entire iscan code under GPL ? That'd be a really good news. Last time I had a look at the iscan software, the backend relied on 2 binary libraries for some of the scanners. iscan itself was licensed under an open license specific to Epson, but it was quite a good license. Yep, that was the pips-sprx600_610-cups-2.6.2 package which has the GPL/LGPL and after a closer check, COPYING.KOWA, for one binary only lib, just an additional look at the iscan src.rpm and it does contain a non-free part, with the libs you mentioned.;( That's what they probably mean with: Drivers for LinuxX - We provide the open source as much as possible. [http://www.epkowa.co.jp/english/index_e.html] However, that's more then most other large hw maker provide, looking at consumer related hw.;) Michael Heiming
[sane-devel] Problems with SANE 1.0.13 and HP ScanJet 5300C
Hello Guys, I installed Suse Linux 9.1 with SANE 1.0.13 two weeks ago and I am now trying to get my scanner HP ScanJet 5300C to work, but unfortunately without any success up to now. I searched with Google and found many hints how to get a HP ScanJet 5300C to work with SANE, but I was either too stupid to apply the hints or they did not work at all. Because I am quite new in the Linux business, I probably do not know where to look and which information you might need to help me, but I try my best. As I have said, I am using Suse Linux 9.1 (kernel 2.6.5) SANE 1.0.13 SANE-FIND-SCANNER as root: found SCSI scanner HP ScanJet 5300C 6.00 at /dev/sg0 # Your SCSI scanner was detected. It may or may not be supported by SANE. Try # scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage. found USB scanner (vendor=0x03f0, product=0x0701) at libusb:003:002 # Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage. # Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports can't be # detected by this program. SCANIMAGE -L as root: device `avision:/dev/sg0' is a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 5300C flatbed scanner * SANE-FIND-SCANNER as user: # No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that # you have loaded a SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter. found USB scanner (vendor=0x03f0, product=0x0701) at libusb:003:002 # Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage. # Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports can't be # detected by this program. # You may want to run this program as root to find all devices. Once you # found the scanner devices, be sure to adjust access permissions as # necessary. SCANIMAGE -L as user: No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different, check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages). ** Obviously, SCANIMAGE does only detect a SCSI scanner, but I connected my scanner with USB and I even do not have a SCSI port in my PC. Also as a normal user SCANIMAGE does not find any scanner which seems to be an authorization problem. But when I start e. g. XSANE (0.92) I receive the message no devices available and the program closes again (it does not matter if I run it as root or as normal user). It seems to me, that SCANIMAGE does not really detect my scanner even if it displays that it has found one (avision:/dev/sg0). Does anyone know what I can do to force SCANIMAGE to detect my scanner? If you need further information about my setup, please feel free to contact me and tell me what information you need. I would appreciate your help very much as I do not want to go back to Windows only to get my scanner to work. ;-) With best regards, Thomas
[sane-devel] discussion: Future of SANE-project
On Tue, 6 Jul 2004, David Stevenson wrote: m. allan noah wrote: it is important to remember that the developers of sane are volunteers just like you. most of us got involved because we had a lame scanner too. we probably dont have time for such evangelism. But if someone was offering sure, sure. i got no problem with someone acting as a liason to hardware vendors. i do this myself with fujitsu. that said, even if someone had the time to run around and convince vendors of the merits of sane, there would be at least two recurring sentiments: 1. sane spec is not complete, cause it does not support various LEDs,buttons or sensors that the manufacturers believe add so much value (and brand distinction) to their products. Proposals to include this have been discussed, possibly input from a manufacture would help. sure, and none of us ever had the time to actually formallize the proposal, let alone get input from manuf. 2. they are going to want more control over the gui so they can do things like show pictures and diagrams of the scanner, which means they are going to write their own front-end half the time. Or repackage existing - under GPL - is this a problem. a plethora of front-ends is not a problem, but it does defeat some of the point for the vendor who is also making a backend. then, i as a developer, and hopefully you as an open-source/free software user would have another complaint: 3. closed-source backends are much harder to debug/extend than free, even if you have the vendor to complain to. This is looking for problems, why assume they will be closed source. because experience shows that they will be, esp. in the cheaper hardware segments, where the vendors are likely to cross-license tech from each other (think winmodems). that said, there are a couple vendors who do make backends (brother comes to mind). i can say that some vendors, (fujitsu) have been quite talkative about their products, and i have specs for many of them, without signing NDA, and whatever code i write is at no cost to them or you, and under the GPL. seeing more of that would be great. allan -- so don't tell us it can't be done, putting down what you don't know. money isn't our god, integrity will free our souls - Max Cavalera
