Re: [Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: [opensuse] USB Scanner recommendation?]]

2007-11-27 Thread Johannes Meixner

Hello,

On Nov 27 09:05 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (shortened):
> Is there a list of all Epson scanners that require this propriety
> binary-only i386-only module?

$ grep -B4 '^:comment.*non-free' \
  /usr/share/sane/descriptions-external/epkowa.desc \
  | grep '^:model' | grep -o '".*"'
"GT-7200U"
"GT-7300U"
"GT-9400UF"
"GT-F500"
"GT-F520"
"GT-F550"
"GT-F570"
"GT-F600"
"GT-F650"
"GT-F670"
"GT-F700"
"GT-S600"
"GT-X750"
"Perfection 1250"
"Perfection 1250 PHOTO"
"Perfection 1260"
"Perfection 1260 PHOTO"
"Perfection 2480 PHOTO"
"Perfection 2580 PHOTO"
"Perfection 3170 PHOTO"
"Perfection 3490 PHOTO"
"Perfection 3590 PHOTO"
"Perfection 4180 PHOTO"
"Perfection 4490 PHOTO"
"Perfection V10"
"Perfection V100 PHOTO"
"Perfection V200 PHOTO"
"Perfection V350 PHOTO"

See what I wrote:

I think the simplest way to check which scanner is supported to
which extent by the packages which we provide in a particular
product, run the YaST scanner setup, read the comments in its
model list, and "fake" to set up the model which you intend to buy.
In case of known possible problems, the YaST scanner setup shows
a popup message.


For the newest list of known models search for 'non-free'
in the comments on
http://www.sane-project.org/lists/sane-backends-external.html#S-EPKOWA
or search on
http://avasys.jp/
(click on "English" at the top right corner)


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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Re: [Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: [opensuse] USB Scanner recommendation?]]

2007-11-27 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> > Fred A. Miller wrote:
>   
>> >> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> >>   
>> 
>>> >>> Torsdag 22 november 2007 11:14 skrev Lenz Grimmer:
>>> >>> 
>>>   
  Hi,
 
  it's rare that I am soliciting this list for help, but maybe someone
  could share his experiences with me.
 
  I have browsed the hardware compatibility list at
  http://www.sane-project.org/sane-backends.html to find a suitable USB
  scanner model. However, it seems as if most of the models listed on
  there are no longer available (except as used devices on eBay).
 
  Does anybody have a recommendation for a flatbed scanner, connected 
  via
  USB2 that works flawlessly with Linux (openSUSE 10.3 in particular) 
  and
  is still on sale (especially in Europe/Germany)?
 
    
 
>>> >>> Most Epson scanners and printers work. I use the Perfection V100 Photo 
>>> >>> Scanner with the C1100 colour laser with the avasys drivers quite 
>>> >>> successfully on OpenSUSE 10.3. 
>>> >>> The V100 is available at Media-Markt and Amazon.de. The price (incl. 
>>> >>> transport) at Amazon.de is about the same as Media-Markt.
>>> >>>
>>> >>> RPM Drivers at:
>>> >>> http://www.avasys.jp/english/linux_e/dl_scan.html
>>> >>> 
>>>   
>> >> You have Iscan working natively with SUSE 10.3 64-bit?!! I dumped the
>> >> 64-bit install and installed 32-bit because my Iscan wouldn't work with
>> >> it! Further, I was told many times that it won't work! I have the
>> >> Perfection 4490 Photo. 'Wish Iscan supported it better.
>> >>
>> >> Fred
>> >>
>> >>   
>> 
> > Hi Fred,
> > 
> > I don't use Iscan. I got the V100 scanner with Xsane on a 32 Bit system
> > now.
> > But here is what Johannes Meixner of SUSE says about his RPM on OpenSUSE
> > 10.3 and 64 Bit.
> > It should work natively then I presume:
>   

No, it won't.  :(  The problem is that MANY Epson scanners, like the 4490
and 4990 use an Iscan firmware driver. I when back and reread what
Johannes wrote, and realized that I'm stuck with a 32-bit SLOWER running
system because of the scanner. IF Epson, HP, and other OEMs did what
they should, we'd have 64-bit drivers or at least the 32-bit drivers and
32-bit software would all work properly together. As long as 64-bit
systems have been available, you'd think there'd be 64-bit drivers for
ALL hardware AND 64-bit applications.

Fred



Johannes Meixner wrote:
> Hello,
>
> On Nov 22 14:17 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (shortened):
>   
>> ... did not know of the OpenSUSE RPM's 
>> (iscan, iscan-proprietary and iscan-firmware)
>>
>> My next system is a 64 bit, then I will use your RPM's.
>> 
>
> A warning regarding 64-bit:
>
>   
. snip 
> Summary:
> It should work if you install a 64-bit system except the scanning
> software so that only the scanning software is full 32-bit
> (i.e. you must manually install 32-bit scanning packages).
> Alternatively use only the 32-bit Iscan packages (iscan,
> iscan-proprietary-drivers, and iscan-firmware) and use only
> its included scanning frontend "iscan" on your 64-bit system
> (i.e. you cannot use the 64-bit versions of scanimage,
> xscanimage, xsane , or kooka).
>
>
> See also
> https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=337816
>
>
> The above described mess is the reason why I recommend to avoid
> any scanner which requires firmware upload and/or which requires
> a proprietary binary-only i386-only module.
>
>
> Kind Regards
> Johannes Meixner
>   


OK. Is there a list of all Epson scanners that require this propriety
binary-only i386-only module?

:-)
Al
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[Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: [opensuse] USB Scanner recommendation?]]

2007-11-23 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Hi,

On Nov 23 09:09 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (shortened):
> My experience has been bad with HP scanners under Linux actually.
...
> 
> Now an all-in-one package exists for Linux, but I don't know how good it is.
>

On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 09:36:46 +0100 (CET) Johannes Meixner wrote:
Do not mix up HP flatbed scanners with scanners in HP all-in-one
devices. Linux support for HP flatbed scanners is poor.
Linux support for scanners in HP all-in-one devices is good, see
http://hplip.sourceforge.net/supported_devices/index.html


Thanx Johannes for the info. 
I was not sure of how good it is now. My last experienced was about 2-3 years 
ago.

:-)
Al

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Re: [Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: [opensuse] USB Scanner recommendation?]]

2007-11-23 Thread Johannes Meixner

Hello,

On Nov 22 14:17 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (shortened):
> ... did not know of the OpenSUSE RPM's 
> (iscan, iscan-proprietary and iscan-firmware)
> 
> My next system is a 64 bit, then I will use your RPM's.

A warning regarding 64-bit:

A scanner which requires a proprietary binary-only i386-only
module from iscan-proprietary-drivers works only in a
32-bit environment.

For example the "Epson Perfection 4990 Photo" is shown in YaST
with driver "epkowa" and the info shows "requires DFSG non-free
iscan-plugin-gt-x750" and when you try to set it up in YaST,
it shows this message:
---
The package iscan should be installed but it contains
proprietary binary-only i386-only software.
Therefore it is only available for i386-compatible
architectures and it may cause problems on AMD 64-bit
(x86_64) systems.
---

The "DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-x750" is provided in the
package iscan-proprietary-drivers and the RPM info is
---
Proprietary Driver Libraries for Image Scan for Epson Scanners
The proprietary binary-only i386-only libraries are provided
(in object code form only) ...
---

This means that the iscan-plugin-gt-x750 doesn't work on
a plain 64-bit system.
It might work if all required 32-bit libraries are installed
(in particular sane-backends-32bit.rpm) and if you use a 
32-bit scanning frontend on your 64-bit system (i.e. the
scanning frontend "iscan" from the 32-bit iscan package).
It should work without problems if you install a 32-bit
openSUSE on your 64-bit hardware.


The reason is that 64-bit software and 32-bit software are
totally separated (except the kernel level).

Some details if you have an AMD 64-bit "x86_64" system:
On the one hand on x86_64 hardware 32-bit i386 software can work.
But on the other hand 32-bit software requires 32-bit libraries.
Only the kernel on x86_64 has a special interface to accept both
64-bit and 32-bit system calls.
On x86_64 from user application down to the kernel interface
(but excluding the actual kernel which is of course the same)
64-bit software and 32-bit software are totally seperated:

64-bit application -> 64-bit library -> 64-bit kernel interface

32-bit application -> 32-bit library -> 32-bit kernel interface


There is the following sequence of used libraries, see
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configuring_Scanners_from_SUSE_LINUX_9.2
"SANE Backends":

1.
A scanning frontend links with the SANE library libsane.so
which is in fact the dll pseudo-driver.

2.
The dll pseudo-driver dlopen()s the other drivers which
is in your case the epkowa driver.

3.
In your particular case the epkowa driver needs a proprietary
32-bit-only library to operate your model.

Therefore on a 64-bit system:
If you run a 64-bit scanning frontend (e.g. the 64-bit version
of scanimage, xscanimage, xsane, or kooka) then it links with
the 64-bit version of libsane.so.1 which again could link with
the 64-bit version of the epkowa driver which then cannot link
at all with a 64-bit version of the proprietary library because
there is only a 32-bit version of these library.
More precisely:
If the 32-bit Iscan packages are installed (which conflict with
the 64-bit iscan-free package), the linking breaks when the 64-bit
version of libsane.so.1 tries to link with a 64-bit version of
the epkowa driver because only a 32-bit version is installed.

In contrast on a 32-bit system:
If you run a 32-bit scanning frontend (e.g. the 32-bit versions
of scanimage, xscanimage, xsane , or kooka) then it links with
the 32-bit version of libsane.so.1 which again links with the
32-bit version of the epkowa driver which then can link with
the 32-bit version of the proprietary library so that
your scanner works.


Summary:
It should work if you install a 64-bit system except the scanning
software so that only the scanning software is full 32-bit
(i.e. you must manually install 32-bit scanning packages).
Alternatively use only the 32-bit Iscan packages (iscan,
iscan-proprietary-drivers, and iscan-firmware) and use only
its included scanning frontend "iscan" on your 64-bit system
(i.e. you cannot use the 64-bit versions of scanimage,
xscanimage, xsane , or kooka).


See also
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=337816


The above described mess is the reason why I recommend to avoid
any scanner which requires firmware upload and/or which requires
a proprietary binary-only i386-only module.


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, 90409 Nuernberg, Germany
AG Nuernberg, HRB 16746, GF: Markus Rex
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[Fwd: Re: [Fwd: Re: [opensuse] USB Scanner recommendation?]]

2007-11-22 Thread [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Hello,

On Nov 22 12:55 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote (shortened):
> RPM Drivers at:
> http://www.avasys.jp/english/linux_e/dl_scan.html


* Why don't you use our RPMs of their software?
* I keep them as up-to-date as possible (i.e. I check in the
* current version a short time before package version freeze).
* I provide their proprietary stuff in the packages
* iscan, iscan-proprietary-drivers, and iscan-firmware.
* Additionally I provide their free software in the package
* iscan-free so that it works natively on 64-bit systems
* for those scanners which don't need their proprietary
* binary-only i386-only modules.
* For details read the RPM package infos.

Thanx a lot Johannes. I used their drivers in previous OpenSUSE versions, 
because none were then available and did not know of the OpenSUSE RPM's 
(iscan, iscan-proprietary and iscan-firmware)

My next system is a 64 bit, then I will use your RPM's.

Great work. I will replace their RPM's with yours.

:-)
Al

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