Prev: [Fedora 12] Throw out my parallel port flatbed scanner?
Next: gimp cannot read multi-byte pgm files?
From: philo on 13 Feb 2010 13:04
Ohmster wrote:
> I have an Adara Slimstar flatbed scanner that I have had and took
> excellent care of since I got it with a new, top of the line Win98
> computer. I used the flatbed with XP Pro by using Mustek drivers for a
> Slimscan scanner with the twain 32 drivers, swiss knife program, and it
> came with some sort of "fake" scssi driver that would put a fake scssi
> device in the device manager. This worked fine, other than if you tried
> to scan in line art mode, the computer would lock up. No big deal, can
> always drop the color pallet depth later. Now that I have Windows 7, NO
> driver anywhere will work with this scanner.
>
> Since Linux has always supported flatbed scanners, I decided to give it a
> try and hook it up to the parallel port of my Fedora 12 machine. xsane
> finds no available scanners. I do have the kernel module loaded for
> parport-pc:
>
> [ohmster(a)ohmster ~]$ lsmod |grep parport
> parport_pc 22748 0
> parport 29300 2 ppdev,parport_pc
> [ohmster(a)ohmster ~]$
>
> I do not have a link to any kind of scanner in /dev
>
> I also uncommented mustek_pp in my /etc/sane.d/dll.conf file. But I
> cannot find a scanner on the system at all. Any kind of HOW-TO is very
> vague on this subject of parallel port scanners with sane. Most of them
> tell to use a modern USB scanner and be done with it.
>
> So the question is, do I have any hope of ever using this wonderful
> scanner ever again or using it in Linux? It seems that no one will write
> drivers for an old product and the existing drivers do not work with a
> modern OS. What to do, throw out the scanner or is there a way to make it
> work in Fedora 12?
>
> Help please. Thank you.
>



There is rather limited support for parallel port scanners...
as much as I like keeping old hardware alive...
I'd say it's time to move on.



Heck I bet you could go down to your local second hand shop
and pick up a newer USB scanner for $2
From: Baron on 13 Feb 2010 13:57
Ohmster Inscribed thus:

>
> I have an Adara Slimstar flatbed scanner that I have had and took
> excellent care of since I got it with a new, top of the line Win98
> computer. I used the flatbed with XP Pro by using Mustek drivers for a
> Slimscan scanner with the twain 32 drivers, swiss knife program, and
> it came with some sort of "fake" scssi driver that would put a fake
> scssi device in the device manager. This worked fine, other than if
> you tried to scan in line art mode, the computer would lock up. No big
> deal, can always drop the color pallet depth later. Now that I have
> Windows 7, NO driver anywhere will work with this scanner.

I have two different, new still in the box parallel port scanners.
So I have some sympathy with you. Both scanners had some difficulties
running with W98/2K and were really SCSI devices in disguise.

I did buy a 25pin SCSI adaptor card which improved the behavior, but by
that time I had lost interest in them, boxed them back up and put them
away. As far as I recall they are still in the loft somewhere.

> Since Linux has always supported flatbed scanners, I decided to give
> it a try and hook it up to the parallel port of my Fedora 12 machine.
> xsane finds no available scanners. I do have the kernel module loaded
> for parport-pc:
>
> [ohmster(a)ohmster ~]$ lsmod |grep parport
> parport_pc 22748 0
> parport 29300 2 ppdev,parport_pc
> [ohmster(a)ohmster ~]$
>
> I do not have a link to any kind of scanner in /dev

Part of the problem is that there is no way for the scanner to be probed
to identify it. Also the parallel port has to be programmed to behave
as a SCSI port. It should be possible to write something to do this if
it hasn't been done already. Or if you can get or use a SCSI card and
25pin adaptor.

> I also uncommented mustek_pp in my /etc/sane.d/dll.conf file. But I
> cannot find a scanner on the system at all. Any kind of HOW-TO is very
> vague on this subject of parallel port scanners with sane. Most of
> them tell to use a modern USB scanner and be done with it.

I suppose the actual scanning software would work if it could see
something to send the output to. I think that I would investigate the
requirements of the 25pin SCSI and compare those to the parallel port.
I do recall that they were supposed to be able to "pass through" the
normal printer signals, though I never got that to work.

> So the question is, do I have any hope of ever using this wonderful
> scanner ever again or using it in Linux? It seems that no one will
> write drivers for an old product and the existing drivers do not work
> with a modern OS. What to do, throw out the scanner or is there a way
> to make it work in Fedora 12?
>
> Help please. Thank you.

I confess that I have never bothered with any form of scanning since I
dumped windows and moved to Linux. I bought a Samsung MCX4200 all in
one laser printer scanner recently, which is admittedly a USB device.
It was literally plug it in and use it with almost no configuration.
It also cost a lot less than I originally paid for the first scanner.

M2P.

--
Best Regards:
Baron.
From: J G Miller on 13 Feb 2010 15:06
On Sat, 13 Feb 2010 11:17:31 -0600, Ohmster asked:

> So the question is, do I have any hope of ever using this wonderful
> scanner ever again or using it in Linux?

Have you bothered to look at the Scanner HOWTO, specifically

2.3. Parallel Port Scanners

Parallel-port scanners on the whole can be made to work if there is a
backend that supports them, however if your device also has a USB port
(which the vast majority of new scanners released nowadays do) and a
working USB backend you are strongly encouraged to use that instead, as
it may be more easily configured.

If your model has only a parallel-port interface and a proprietary or
non-standard controller you could be out of luck. If you have found
there is a supported backend for the parallel-port interface of your
scanner, then you should see Section 2.8.

> is there a way to make it work in Fedora 12?


You should be aware that Fedora is a bleeding edge distribution and
in keeping with Red Hat policy drops support for old hardware.

If you want to get old hardware working under GNU/Linux, Fedora 12
is not the best distribution to have any hope of it working.
From: Ohmster on 13 Feb 2010 17:29
philo <philo(a)privacy.net> wrote in
news:qbednS5IEYJVdOvWnZ2dnUVZ_uednZ2d(a)ntd.net:

> There is rather limited support for parallel port scanners...
> as much as I like keeping old hardware alive...
> I'd say it's time to move on.

Thanks!

--
~Ohmster | ohmster59 /a/t/ gmail dot com
Put "messageforohmster" in message body
(That is Message Body, not Subject!)
to pass my spam filter.
From: Ohmster on 13 Feb 2010 17:29
Baron <baron.nospam(a)linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote in news:hl6sm5$qo1$1
@news.eternal-september.org:

[..]
> I confess that I have never bothered with any form of scanning since I
> dumped windows and moved to Linux. I bought a Samsung MCX4200 all in
> one laser printer scanner recently, which is admittedly a USB device.
> It was literally plug it in and use it with almost no configuration.
> It also cost a lot less than I originally paid for the first scanner.
>
> M2P.

That is what I though. Thanks for the info.

--
~Ohmster | ohmster59 /a/t/ gmail dot com
Put "messageforohmster" in message body
(That is Message Body, not Subject!)
to pass my spam filter.
 |  Next  |  Last
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5
Prev: [Fedora 12] Throw out my parallel port flatbed scanner?
Next: gimp cannot read multi-byte pgm files?