xsane....help needed

[alanl]

Xsane says it can`t see my scanner.  I went to the sane web site
and it says my scanner is supported.  I read the man page and
set up /etc as stated.  Does something have to be done with
tinycore to make it see the scanner?  Does it have to be mounted
and how?  The computer sees the scanner with w98.

[Juanito]

a few points:

1. What make/model scanner is it?
2. Does it use usb, parallel, scsi or?
3. If it's a stand-alone scanner, is sane-backends loaded?
4. If it's a hp all-in-one scanner, is hplip loaded?
5. If it's a stand-alone scanner, do you see it mentioned in http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/tinycorelinux/2.x/tcz/sane-backends.tcz.list?
6. What does "scanimage -L" give?

[alanl]

It`s a stand-alone parallel connected to the printer port.
I just checked and it is in the tcz-list(plustek_pp).
Scanimage -L says...no scanners were identified.
System stats says the back-ends are installed.

[Juanito]

I'm not totally sure this is required, but is libieee1284 installed?

Does "lsmod" show the parallel port driver(s) installed

[alanl]

lsmod shows the ports and libieee is installed.  I`ve added
/etc/sane.d/plustek.conf with device 0x378.  I`ve been reading
the back-end man page but I can`t make much of it.  It seems
it should be working.  I booted w98 before getting on here and
tested the scanner.  It works.

[Juanito]

I guess you're referring to the man page http://www.sane-project.org/man/sane-plustek_pp.5.html

CONFIGURATION

       This section describes the backends' configuration file  entries.   The
       file is located at: /etc/sane.d/plustek_pp.conf

       For a proper setup, you will need at least two entries:
              [direct]
              device 0x378

       or
              [kernel]
              device /dev/pt_drv

       direct  tells  the  backend, that the following devicename (here 0x378)
       has to be interpreted as parallel port scanner device. In  fact  it  is
       the  address  to  use,  alternatively  you can use /dev/parport0 if the
       backend has been compiled with libieee1284 support.  kernel should only
       be  used,  when  a  kernel-module  has  been  built  out of the backend
       sources. See below for more instructions about this.

From this, it looks like you need to be editing /etc/sane.d/plustek_pp.conf (or perhaps /usr/local/etc/sane.d/plustek_pp.conf?

..and you might need:

[direct]
device 0x378
or
[direct]
device /dev/parport0
or
[direct]
/dev/parport0

..or maybe something other than 0x378 - does "dmesg | grep parallel" give any clues?

[alanl]

I copied  /sane.d to /usr/local/etc and followed your suggestions
but no workie.  Dmesg says this:
parport_pc 00:09: reported by plug and play ACPI
parport0: pc-style at 0x378 (0x778) , irq7, dma3 [PCSPP, Tristate, Compat, ECP, DMA]I
I tried using parport_pc and 0x788 with no result.  From what I have read I feel
that /etc/sane.d should have been made by the program but I had
to make my own copy?  I wonder about this.

[Juanito]

I'll need to check, but I recall sane-backends was compiled so that it should look in /usr/local/etc/sane.d for conf files - this being said, I know that hplip still insists on looking in /etc rather than /usr/local/etc.

For the sake of removing one variable from the testing, I would recommend putting the conf file in /usr/local/etc/sane.d and making a symlink /etc/sane.d -> /usr/local/etc/sane.d just in case

From your dmesg output, it looks as though 0x378 is the correct address for your parallel port, the following in /usr/local/etc/sane.d/plustek_pp.conf should work:

[direct]
device 0x378

Edit: I checked sane-backends and it does not appear to be compiled against libieee1284, so putting /dev/parport0 in the conf file would probably not work

Edit1: if you start xsane from a terminal window, do you get any error messages?

[alanl]

No I just get a graphic box saying "no devices available".
I downloaded xsane and the backends for my Slackware system...
doesn`t work there either.  With slackware the /etc/sane.d directory
is automatically made and it contains the backends.  This is not
happenning with tc.

[Juanito]

With slackware the /etc/sane.d directory
is automatically made and it contains the backends.  This is not
happenning with tc.

OK, but do you have/did you create a file /usr/local/etc/sane.d/plustek_pp.conf and create the symlink "sudo ln -s /usr/local/etc/sane.d /etc/sane.d"?

[alanl]

Yes I have the sane.d directory in both locations(as stated above)
and it has been setup with the plustek_pp file.

[Juanito]

Sorry, but I can't think of anything else to suggest...

I only have access to a couple of hp all-in-one printer/fax/scanners that use usb rather than parallel port, so I'm not able to test anything even close to your setup.

Edit: It's a long shot, but does "sudo xsane" from a terminal window give anything different?

[alanl]

Thank you very much for your help Juanito.  Although the
website says my scanner moder number is supported
maybe it`s not.  Anyway i`m getting tired of this, I want to
use my computer not fight with programs.