Epson scanner driver

[rcrsn51]

Do these same problems occur in Kali?

[Edit] Now that you have sorted out the USB problem, it would be interesting to try the epkowa driver again in Xenial.

Just out of curiosity, here is something to try that might work with epkowa.

1. Open the file /usr/share/iscan-data/usb
2. Add the line: usb 0x04b8:0x111c
3. Run: scanimage -L

Run it with Xsane.

[dcung]

Do these same problems occur in Kali?

Only has imagescan installed in Kali.
No problem there, preview and scan OK.

Now that you have sorted out the USB problem, it would be interesting to try the epkowa driver again in Xenial.

Just out of curiosity, here is something to try that might work with epkowa.

1. Open the file /usr/share/iscan-data/usb
2. Add the line: usb 0x04b8:0x111c
3. Run: scanimage -L
Run it with Xsane.

I have not installed epkowa driver yet.
My understanding, these 3 files come with epkowa bundled (see attached pic). The 64bit is outdated, looking at their filenames. Do you have any newer one, else I'll install that 64bit one I have (from you previously).

Also, I found, imagescan reads (in addition) from a config file (attached). I put real and dummy entries (mimic their examples) and they appear in imagescan dropdown device selection. I can select and use my real scanner from there too. The dummy ones, errors out of course.

[dcung]

xsane also picked scanner that is in imagescan.conf

[rcrsn51]

Install the 64bit epkowa PET I posted for you on Page 4. Ignore the version number - it refers to the SANE version.

Do NOT install anything else from that group of three PETS.

The objective here is to determine if your scanner is backwards compatible with epkowa, and whether the preview function would work with it.

[dcung]

Install the 64bit epkowa PET I posted for you on Page 4. Ignore the version number - it refers to the SANE version.

Do NOT install anything else from that group of three PETS.

The objective here is to determine if your scanner is backwards compatible with epkowa, and whether the preview function would work with it.

0. Install 64 bit epkowa
1. Open the file /usr/share/iscan-data/usb
2. Add the line: usb 0x04b8:0x111c
3. Run: scanimage -L
Run it with Xsane.
Done.

Does not look like it is compatible.
scanimage -L did not show additional entry.
xsane also did not pause to let you select devices (when you have multiple).

I run xsane. Error, no preview.

[rcrsn51]

Too bad. It looks like the imagescan driver is the only game in town for future Epson models.

Hopefully, the preview bug can eventually be sorted out.

[dcung]

Since I did already fresh install Precise, XenPup75_32, and XenPup75_64 earlier, I thought I use it before I wipe the disk and move on to other tinkering stuff.

I did all we went thru with XenPup64, using 32bit stuff instead.
Same result, both imagescan and xsane can scan, but no preview.
No luck on epkowa either.

OK.
Thank you Bill...

[Mike Walsh]

Curious, indeed.

I'm running my old SX218 printer/copier/scanner 'all-in-one' in (amongst many others) peebee's Upup Bionic.....one of the newest Pups there is.

I'm using elderly iScan data + driver packages from the time when I bought the thing.....around 6-7 years ago. Preview works perfectly for me, and always has done. P'raps I've just been lucky....

This same pair of packages enable the old Epson's scanner unit to work with every other Pup I use. The SX series were the immediate fore-runners to the WorkForce series, and used very similar firmware. In fact, my printer/scanner drivers are named as WorkForce ones, anyway.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is yet another stark illustration that 'newest is not always the best'. The entire greater community of computer users around the world have been conditioned to believe that you must always have the very newest of everything.....for 'safety's sake'. Hah!

(Admittedly, with Windoze you take your life in your hands with updates anyway. Do you run the risk of hackers getting into your system, or that of the updates themselves 'bricking it'? )

So; how come I've been using what's considered an insecure , out-of-date system, running as root (ouch!), for years now.....and never had the slightest problem with it?

Something doesn't 'gel' there, somewhere.....


Mike.

[rcrsn51]

@Mike: You are looking at this from the perspective of a Puppy user who has come to assume that anything that works in the mainstream Linux world will also work in Puppy. Or will eventually work if someone takes the time/effort to make it work.

It's not clear what is causing this preview bug in the new Epson imagescan backend. It may be a conflict with JWM. It may work correctly in newer Puppies like Bionic if you get the matching driver package.

It would require a community member who was willing to purchase a new Epson unit and do a whole lot of testing.

Who knows why Epson built a new driver. Maybe their new units have a different scanning engine that doesn't work with epkowa. Maybe they want their Linux driver to provide more features. Their iscan app has already stopped working fully in some platforms and needs to be updated.

The point of the Stretch-live Starter Kit is to provide a light-weight platform similar to Puppy but be compatible with mainstream software like this Epson driver.

Pining for the "good old days" of epkowa is a waste of time.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Bill.

Agreed; I take your point.

My point was that the driver packages I use were new at the same time the SX218 was purchased. I'm willing to accept that Epson have finally started to use more up-to-date firmware; it's certainly overdue. AFAIK the vast majority of models released by Epson over the years have, till very recently, been served by less than a dozen driver packages.....indicating (to me at least) that the firmware had till that point been common to most models.


Mike.

[dcung]

Too bad. It looks like the imagescan driver is the only game in town for future Epson models.
Hopefully, the preview bug can eventually be sorted out.

There's hope.
I had time to kill yesterday, so I explored UpupBB.
My limited testing, found variety of ways to hook up the scanner.
Epkowa/Epson2 driver and xsane -> preview and scan OK. But spitted out warning/error.
If you don't do from command line, you don't see these warning/error.

Imagescan won't play with those 2 drivers above, only its own driver.
Preview and scan OK. No errors at all.

Noticable difference at a glance, the libboost pkgs are newer in UpupBB than XenPup.

[dcung]

@Mike
Thanks for 'introducing' me to UpupBB.
While no stranger to IT, my 'Puppy Linux' exposure is just 2 weeks old.
Given time, someone will iron out those 'bugs' hopefully.

'newest is not always the best' but sometimes one 'reluctantly' has to get 'newer' one.
For example, I had a TX650 and gave to a family member, thinking I can get another one since it was not that old then.
And I already was familiar with TX650 tricks/traps. It was like looking for hen's teeth.
No shops sell them anymore, hence I ended up with WF-2760.

[Mike Walsh]

@ dcung:-

Ah, well; glad to be able to help. We got you there, it seems.....even if it was by a roundabout route.

Nice one. BTW, you really don't want to know about the shenanigans that went on between Epson & Avasys over the whole saga of their Linux drivers.....despite the fact of Epson being a founder member of the Linux Foundation, their stock answer has always been, 'We don't do Linux drivers...' (even though they do!)

They're definitely available.....but you do have to hunt 'em down yourself.


Mike.