SANE vs USB scanner on 8.0

[Warren Block]

On Sun, 24 Jan 2010, Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:

> Another question about scanners and FreeBSD 8.0-stable: what happened
> to uscanner(4)?

uscanner didn't provide much (uscanner0 rather than ugenX.Y) and was 
actually functionality of some scanners with front panel buttons.  It 
only recognized scanners through a built-in list, which had to be 
maintained as part of the FreeBSD source and was always incomplete. 
It's not needed any more.

> The man page is there, but the module is not?

The man page is probably a leftover from a build of FreeBSD 7.  It 
should go away if you do check-old/delete-old in src.

...
> Yes, I am still trying to get my Agfa Snapscan 1212u to work under
> FreeBSD 8.0-stable.

Don't know about the firmware upload for that scanner, but I've recently 
found the easier way to set up USB scanners for SANE. Just use the USB 
vendor/product IDs in the SANE config file as they are shown (but didn't 
work way back when on FreeBSD, AFAIR).  So epson.conf has

usb 0x04b8 0x010a

for my Epson 1640SU.  Then scanimage only needs -d and the backend name 
to work:

scanimage -d epson --mode gray ...

(Actually, I think that'd work without the -d spec but epson is 
commented in SANE's dll.conf.)  Note how that doesn't care about USB 
unit and address.

Maybe using the USB vendor/product IDs won't trigger the problem with 
the snapscan backend?

Just to add: due to the popularity of all-in-one inkjet/scanner/coffee 
machine/clock radio units, flatbed scanners are getting really cheap at 
thrift stores.  I bought an HP 2300C for the princely sum of $2 last 
week.  It's not much of a scanner, but it works fine with FreeBSD and 
doesn't need a firmware download.  The Epsons are better (IMO), but not 
as common.

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA