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Supporting Epson scanners that are currently not supported by Mageia
Several Epson scanners do not work with out-of-the-box Mageia systems. Although there is no generally valid approach for creating support for such scanners, there exist some approaches that help in specific cases. This note documents methods that can be used as a workaround with current SANE software to make Epson scanners work.
Please note: wherever information in this document is release-specific, it refers to Mageia-3, resp. the package sane-backends-iscan-1.0.23-7.mga3.
Adapting the file /etc/sane.d/dll.conf
The file /etc/sane.d/dll.conf contains a list of modules that the SANE dynamic loader should consider. In Mageia-2 and Mageia-3 there exists redundancy between scanner support provided by the modules epson, epson2 and epkowa - the modules epson and epson2 are therefore "commented away" in order to avoid the loader to fetch conflicting modules.
However, it appears that the two epson modules contain support for scanners that are not supported in the epkowa module - users have reported that some scanners can become supported just by removing the "#" characters that disable an "epson" line.
As a first step for dealing with lacking support for a given scanner, try therefore to enable the lines for epson modules: drop - one by one - the "#" characters and verify whether that makes your scanner work.
Substituting Mageia SANE software by software from Epson
The Epson Download Center (http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC) contains Epson-specific packages that can be used as an alternative to the "standard" software that is installed with the SANE packages distributed by the SANE project and packaged into Mageia.
In case the download center contains software for a scanner that does not work with out-of-the-box Mageia, such a scanner can be made to work by simply substituting this software to the SANE software installed from Mageia packages.
How this is done is best illustrated by an example - the support of the Epson Perfection V370 scanner - see the next Section.
Epson software for the Epson Perfection V370 scanner
Mageia does not support the Epson Perfection V370 scanner - the reason is lacking upstream support in the Sane Project (http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-EPSON); software for this scanner is available in the Epson Download Center.
Downloading packages from the EPSON Download Center
Go to the download center (http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC) and fetch the following package-files
- for 32bits architecture:
- iscan-2.29.1-5.usb0.1.ltdl7.i386.rpm
- iscan-data-1.22.0-1.noarch.rpm
- iscan-plugin-perfection-v370-1.0.0-2.i386.rpm
- for 64bits architecture:
- iscan-2.29.1-5.usb0.1.ltdl7.x86_64.rpm
- iscan-data-1.22.0-1.noarch.rpm
- iscan-plugin-perfection-v370-1.0.0-2.x86_64.rpm
In the small dialogue proposed by the Epson site, specify "core package&data package" as module name for obtaining the first 2 packages, "iscan plugin package" for the plugin module.
Installing the packages
The iscan package fetched from the EPSON site replaces programs provided by the standard Mageia packages - therefore, you must first un-install the package sane-backends-iscan and, only then, install the new packages just fetched from the Epson site.
Registering the installed software as a plugin for the iscan interpreter
Make sure that the scanner is connected and switched on; open a root console and run
iscan-registry interpreter usb --add 0x04b8 0x014a /usr/lib64/iscan/libiscan-plugin-perfection-v370.so.0.0.0
Please note:
- That command is for use on a 64-bit system; on a 32-bit system, use /usr/lib/iscan/... ;
- 0x04b8 and 0x014a are the usb "vendor-id" and "product-id" of the V370 scanner - they should be the same for each individual V370 scanner - you can simply copy / paste that command.
In case you want to verify that these identifiers are correct:
- make sure that your scanner is connected and its power is switched on
- open a console (no need to be root) and type
lsusb - in the output of that command, find the line that ends with something like "Seiko Epson Corp": the colon-separated pair of 4-digit hex numbers is what you are looking for.
The lsusb command becomes essential if this procedure of using Epson packages in substitution to the sane-backend-iscan package is used for driving some other Epson printer.
Finally, you need to reboot
Afterwords, you can verify that the scanner is correctly configured and ready for use:
Open a console (no need to be root) and type
scanimage -L
Scanimage is a command-line interface to the scanner. The -L option will produce (standard output) a list of available devices - the V370 scanner should appear in that list
Once the installation is completed, the scanner works perfectly for Mageia-2 and Mageia-3 with both command-line iscan and the xsane GUI.
Generalization to other Epson scanners
- The list of packages to be downloaded and installed must be modified to reflect the specific scanner rather than the V370 scanner.
The dialogue proposed by the Epson site when you start downloading asks you for the name of the specific scanner you want to support and will tell you which packages are required.
(All Epson software I have seen includes an iscan package: therefore the first step of un-installing the Mageia package sane-backends-iscan is always required.) - Modify the iscan-registry command to specify the name of the specific plugin module installed rather than the V370 plugin module.
Summary, caveat
It is important to apply this installation procedure during the initial customization process after system-install or, at least, before Linux has searched for a scanner device. Otherwise, the scanner will not correctly recognized - in that case, repeating the steps described above will not help. This approach being rather empirical, I do not know the reason why the only way to get things right again is a complete re-install.
