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Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

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Yuhan
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Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#1 Post by Yuhan »

Hello! I have a new Gigabyte computer with Debian 8 installed. I am having a rough time getting my Canon Lide 110 scanner to work with Debian. Ideally, I'd like to use simple-scan because it's easy and most of what I scan are simple text documents. According to the "preferences" on simple-scan my scanner is recognized and there are no problems. When I hit "scan" the scanner seems to run for a ridiculously long time and then a sign comes up that says: "Failed to scan. Unable to start scan." Very frustrating. I realize scanning in Linux can be a bit tricky but I need to be able to scan and forward text files quite often. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

Yuhan
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#2 Post by Yuhan »

I should add that my scanner does work using xsane. The problem is xsane is really more than I need and simple-scan is actually better for multiple page documents. With xsane I can only scan pages individually. What's weird about this is that both xsane and simple-scan have (as I understand it) the same "sane" back-end settings, so if one works the other should as well. Thanks.

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FreewheelinFrank
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#3 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Try simple-scan as root in a terminal and see what the output is.

A few suggestions here to try: shorter cable, no hub, USB2 instead of USB3.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/668318/ ... on-lide-25

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#4 Post by Yuhan »

Thanks for this. Can you tell me exactly what I need to put in the terminal to run simple-scan? Actually I do use a hub (Anker) and it is usb3! Why would usb2 work more effectively?? That seems strange.

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#5 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Yuhan wrote:Thanks for this. Can you tell me exactly what I need to put in the terminal to run simple-scan? Actually I do use a hub (Anker) and it is usb3! Why would usb2 work more effectively?? That seems strange.
Get root by entering

Code: Select all

$ su -
and then your password and then enter

Code: Select all

# simple-scan
It is possible simple-scan has an issue communicating over USB3: to find out, plug the scanner directly into a USB2 port if you have one.

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#6 Post by Yuhan »

Tried getting scanner to work from root...still no go. Not sure what else to try. My computer is new and probably has usb3 ports, not sure. Is there a way to get updated drivers for simple-scan?

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#7 Post by Yuhan »

Also tried plugging scanner directly into computer...no difference at all. Is this likely a sane issue or a Debian issue? There is probably a simple solution to this...very often that's the case with these issues!

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#8 Post by aplistir »

Interesting...

I have canon lide 110 scanner too, and it just works with debian. Worked in Jessie and now it works in Stretch. I never installed any drivers for it.
And I use simple scan.

One thing that comes to mind is that are you sure, that the scanner is not locked for transportation? From the switch that is under the scanner.

And are you sure your scanner gets enough electricity? You could try an usb-hub with its own power.

Really strange, that your scanner works (or was it worked? ) with a different program. Obviously if it does work, then my suggestions are not possible..

Yuhan
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#9 Post by Yuhan »

Yes, xsane works just fine on my scanner. And it is attached to a usb hub with it's own power. This makes it even more strange that someone else has had positive results with the same operating system and scanner. Anything anyone can suggest will be welcomed!

What are the steps that you take when scanning with simple-scan? Maybe there's something I'm overlooking in the setup. But I can't imagine what that would be. Thanks again.

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#10 Post by Yuhan »

Okay! Some results...finally! When I hit the icon "start a new document," the page scanned just fine! I printed it out and it looked okay. When I hit "scan," however, the scanner is not recognized. Can anyone explain this? If all you have to do is hit "start a new document," why is there a "scan" button at all? I think I figured out how to make this work....but I'm not exactly sure why it works.

Yuhan
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#11 Post by Yuhan »

I spoke to soon! I tried again today to scan with "open new document" and absolutely nothing happened! I guess what happened last night was a fluke. Basically the scanner is not responding at all, unless I hit "scan" and that does nothing but cause the scanner to make noises! I've been reading that sane can actually be dangerous for scanners. Is this true? It can send bad signals which will lead a scanner to break down. Sometimes when I attempt to run simple-scan or xsane the scanner will make long protracted sounds like it's being overworked. Scanning appears to be a weak link in Linux. Not sure what to do as I have a lot of scanning I have to do for business purposes.

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Zjho
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#12 Post by Zjho »

To follow up on FreewheelinFrank's suggestion re. usb2, have a look at Gigabyte manual as will probably show which usb sockets are usb2 and which are usb3. Likely has a mixture of both. Can't use usb sockets intended for mouse / keyboard though. I put a small cheap expansion card hosting 4 usb2 sockets in a Gigabyte board although there should be board headers for usb to save using an expansion slot. This was a result of my destroying the mobo's own usbs, probably from using unsafe powered usb hubs. If there are no onboard usb2 sockets, before considering furthering usb2 sockets, check what other slots and headers are on the mobo. Incidentally i have noticed similar problems in the past on another distro (not Debian) that 'scan' button didn't work but 'start a new document' did.

Edited 13 July 017 to correct errors in descriptions
Last edited by Zjho on 2017-07-13 08:01, edited 7 times in total.

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#13 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Yuhan wrote:I spoke to soon! I tried again today to scan with "open new document" and absolutely nothing happened! I guess what happened last night was a fluke. Basically the scanner is not responding at all, unless I hit "scan" and that does nothing but cause the scanner to make noises! I've been reading that sane can actually be dangerous for scanners. Is this true? It can send bad signals which will lead a scanner to break down. Sometimes when I attempt to run simple-scan or xsane the scanner will make long protracted sounds like it's being overworked. Scanning appears to be a weak link in Linux. Not sure what to do as I have a lot of scanning I have to do for business purposes.
I'd be interested to know where you read that Sane is dangerous for scanners.

Scanners make noises- don't let that put you off.

aplistir has said that your scanner works in Debian; Sane says support is complete.

http://www.sane-project.org/sane-backends.html

Xsane maybe a bit ugly, but it does work.

simple-scan doesn't work for you, but that may be an issue with your install or your hardware.

Looking through your previous posts, it seems you installed from a live USB; I wonder if USB may have been wrongly configured somehow. Just guessing here. I hope somebody else can help you.

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Zjho
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#14 Post by Zjho »

Another thought, following on from my recognizing similar bugginess with past usage of simple-scan on another distro. Problem could be to do with 3.14 version of Gnome in Debian 8, if you're running Gnome IDE. May find upgrading to Debian 9, which offers Gnome 3.22 solves it.

Yuhan
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#15 Post by Yuhan »

Before upgrading to Debian 9 here is another possibility. There is a more recent version of simple-scan than the one installed on my computer. The newer version is 3.25.1. I downloaded the tar.xz package and opened it on my desktop. I now have a folder for 3.25.1 on my desktop. What do I need to do to integrate that folder into my system? Is it handled through a terminal or is there something I can do directly with the folder itself? I want to try this to see if perhaps it will resolve the problem. Given the comments about the general "bugginess" of simple-scan I kind of doubt it. Still, it's worth a try.

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#16 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

The latest version will very likely depend on the latest version of other libraries and not work.

As we have a report that simple-scan can work on your system and with your scanner, a better idea is to work out why it isn't.

You could post the output of

Code: Select all

$ simple-scan -d
with the scanner connected and on.

Yuhan
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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#17 Post by Yuhan »

Okay...how's this?

[+0.00s] DEBUG: simple-scan.vala:596: Starting Simple Scan 3.14.0, PID=7468
[+0.00s] DEBUG: Connecting to session manager
[+0.05s] DEBUG: ui.vala:1878: Loading state from /home/yuhan/.cache/simple-scan/state
[+0.05s] DEBUG: ui.vala:1859: Restoring window to 2560x1360 pixels
[+0.05s] DEBUG: autosave-manager.vala:64: Loading autosave information
[+0.05s] DEBUG: autosave-manager.vala:259: Waiting to autosave...
[+0.12s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:1446: sane_init () -> SANE_STATUS_GOOD
[+0.12s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:1452: SANE version 1.0.24
[+0.12s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:1513: Requesting redetection of scan devices
[+0.12s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:802: Processing request
[+0.18s] DEBUG: autosave-manager.vala:281: Autosaving book information
[+0.23s] DEBUG: ui.vala:1969: Saving state to /home/yuhan/.cache/simple-scan/state
[+4.03s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:338: sane_get_devices () -> SANE_STATUS_GOOD
[+4.03s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:350: Device: name="genesys:libusb:001:008" vendor="Canon" model="LiDE 110" type="flatbed scanner"
[+4.26s] DEBUG: autosave-manager.vala:195: Deleting autosave records
[+4.26s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:1586: Stopping scan thread
[+4.26s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:802: Processing request
[+4.26s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:1597: sane_exit ()

This was the result of simple-scan -d

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#18 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Did you click on the 'scan' button before closing the program?

That is pretty much the output I get (different scanner name) running simple-scan -d and closing simple scan when it appears, rather than clicking the scan button when simple-scan appears.

Run simple-scan -d again but be sure to click the scan button, then post the output, if you didn't before.

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#19 Post by Yuhan »

Okay...I did simple-scan -d and hit scan (it still said "Failed to Scan") and this was the output:

'Disable interpolation' type=bool size=4 cap=,soft-select,soft-detect
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: When using high resolutions where the horizontal resolution is smaller than the vertical resolution this disables horizontal interpolation.
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (33)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 33: name='color-filter' title='Color filter' type=string size=6 values=["Red", "Green", "Blue"] cap=,soft-select,soft-detect
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: When using gray or lineart this option selects the used color.
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (34)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 34: name='calibration-file' title='Calibration file' type=string size=4096 cap=,soft-select,soft-detect,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Specify the calibration file to use
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (35)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 35: name='(null)' title='Sensors' type=group size=0 cap=,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Scanner sensors and buttons
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (36)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 36: name='scan' title='Scan button' type=bool size=4 cap=,hard-select,soft-detect,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Scan button
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (37)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 37: name='file' title='File button' type=bool size=4 cap=,hard-select,soft-detect,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: File button
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (38)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 38: name='email' title='Email button' type=bool size=4 cap=,hard-select,soft-detect,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Email button
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (39)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 39: name='copy' title='Copy button' type=bool size=4 cap=,hard-select,soft-detect,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Copy button
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (40)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 40: name='page-loaded' title='Page loaded' type=bool size=4 cap=,inactive
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Page loaded
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (41)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 41: name='ocr' title='OCR button' type=bool size=4 cap=,inactive
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: OCR button
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (42)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 42: name='power' title='Power button' type=bool size=4 cap=,inactive
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Power button
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (43)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 43: name='extra' title='Extra button' type=bool size=4 cap=,inactive
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Extra button
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (44)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 44: name='need-calibration' title='Need calibration' type=bool size=4 cap=,inactive
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: The scanner needs calibration for the current settings
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (45)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 45: name='(null)' title='Buttons' type=group size=0 cap=,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description:
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (46)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 46: name='calibrate' title='Calibrate' type=button size=4 cap=,inactive
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Start calibration using special sheet
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (47)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:734: Option 47: name='clear-calibration' title='Clear calibration' type=button size=0 cap=,soft-select,soft-detect,advanced
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:737: Description: Clear calibration cache
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:884: sane_get_option_descriptor (48)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:895: SCAN_SOURCE not available, trying alternative "doc-source"
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:546: sane_control_option (2, SANE_ACTION_SET_VALUE, "Gray") -> (SANE_STATUS_GOOD, "Gray")
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:462: sane_control_option (6, SANE_ACTION_SET_VALUE, 150) -> (SANE_STATUS_GOOD, 150)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:462: sane_control_option (5, SANE_ACTION_SET_VALUE, 2) -> (SANE_STATUS_GOOD, 8)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:530: sane_control_option (10, SANE_ACTION_SET_VALUE, option.range.max) -> (SANE_STATUS_GOOD)
[+6.05s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:530: sane_control_option (11, SANE_ACTION_SET_VALUE, option.range.max) -> (SANE_STATUS_GOOD)
[+11.22s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:1212: sane_start (page=0, pass=0) -> SANE_STATUS_INVAL
[+11.22s] WARNING: scanner.vala:1219: Unable to start device: Invalid argument
[+41.52s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:764: sane_cancel ()
[+47.08s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:767: sane_close ()

I can't make any sense out of this...I hope someone else can! Thanks.

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Re: Difficulty getting scanner to work with Debian

#20 Post by FreewheelinFrank »

Code: Select all

[+11.22s] DEBUG: scanner.vala:1212: sane_start (page=0, pass=0) -> SANE_STATUS_INVAL
That is the critical line, obviously.

We seem to be back to the USB3 thing: that message is associated with a bug in the Sane backends from a few years ago that affected communication with your scanner over USB3.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1184699

This issue could very likely exist in Jessie too.

The options you seem to have are:

1. Experiment with USB settings in the BIOS.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1247371

https://communities.intel.com/thread/104177

2. See if the problem still exists in the updated sane-backend package in Stetch.

Maybe try a LiveCD or LiveUSB of Stretch and see if your scanner (and everything else) works in Stretch before updating.

Unless anybody else can suggest otherwise.

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