cannot install Epson scanner

[oldhack]

I have the following setup:

Toshiba Laptop with AMD x64 2.2GHz. cpu and HD2400 graphics card.
I have a multi-boot system with PCLinuxOS and Mint - all with 32bit config.

I have previously also been using openSUSE and downloaded the Avisys (Epson) .rpm firmware which worked fine. I decided to try Kubuntu and so far I have had few problems.
I would like to keep and continue with Kubuntu 12.04 which is working fine, EXCEPT for the fact I have been unable to download .DEB files for the EPSON Perfection 4180 flat bed scanner, only the .RPM files are available (even when I click -OS Ubuntu!)
My many efforts to fix this issue included installing the .rpm files with 'Alien' and shows the files installed OK. 'Sane-find-scanner' does recognise and show the USB identity correctly.
I have also followed another 'poster', and placed the scanner ID into /etc/sane.d/snapscan. The only thing I have not done is try to use the tar.gz source file yet.

I would hope that some knowledgeable member can give some further advice and suggestions on solving this, I would appreciate that.

Thanks, oldhack

[ardvark71]

I would hope that some knowledgeable member can give some further advice and suggestions on solving this, I would appreciate that.

Hi...

I'll try, although I certainly don't claim to know everything about Linux. :)

In case you haven't tried this option with alien, you can try converting the .rpm file you mentioned into a .deb. See the instructions here. (http://www.howtoforge.com/converting_rpm_to_deb_with_alien) If that doesn't work you can try the options listed here, (https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/simple-scan/+question/168184) namely this (http://community.linuxmint.com/hardware/view/1450) one.

Welcome to the forum. :)

[oldhack]

ardvark71 - thanks for the help. I am going to try again using the suggestions in the links.
The last link was particularly helpful - I noticed I did not have all the libsane files installed!!

oldhack

[ardvark71]

Hi....

You're welcome, let us know how it goes. :)

Regards...

[oldhack]

Hi....

You're welcome, let us know how it goes. :)

Regards...

Hi ardvark71, .....I installed the additional (missing) libsane files, used Alien to convert the Iscan .rpm's and reiinstalled these. Unfortunately, it has not worked.

I have found that Kubuntu (Ubuntu) 12.04 locates the Iscan drivers in a different file location to PCLinux and openSuSe, and, although the Epkowa and Epson sane files are the same,
the udev rules.d files are now different and located elseware. This may (- or may not) make a difference, so I will now have to try some additional 'hacks' which inevitably take time!
Incidently, I use Xsane which now takes at least 40+ seconds 'looking for hardware' before reporting 'No scanner found'.
I will let you know how I get on and if I succeed.
Thanks again for taking the trouble to respond.
oldhack

[ardvark71]

Thanks again for taking the trouble to respond.

Hi...

You're more than welcome, I hope you get it working. :)

EDIT: You could try using Vuescan. (http://www.hamrick.com/) Back when I was using Windows Vista on my laptop, I acquired a scanner that Windows did not have a driver for nor could I seem to find one online. Vuescan already had a driver ready to use and installed it successfully. Instant working scanner! :)

I later purchased a license for the program and keep it on hand if I should ever use it again.

Regards...

[Pajoe]

I have not used our Epson 3490 Photo scanner for a long time and can not
say with any certainty it will work with 12.04 but previously the trick to
getting that Epson scanner working was finding the file esfw52.bin and
I think windows uses that same file.

In /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf add a line :
firmware /usr/share/sane/esfw52.bin
so sane knows where esfw52.bin is located finally
chmod 777 /usr/share/sane/esfw52.bin so normal users
can access the scanner.

good luck, I hope this has been helpful

[oldhack]

I have not used our Epson 3490 Photo scanner for a long time and can not
say with any certainty it will work with 12.04 but previously the trick to
getting that Epson scanner working was finding the file esfw52.bin and
I think windows uses that same file.

In /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf add a line :
firmware /usr/share/sane/esfw52.bin
so sane knows where esfw52.bin is located finally
chmod 777 /usr/share/sane/esfw52.bin so normal users
can access the scanner.

good luck, I hope this has been helpful

Thank you Pajoe, I am willing to try any suggestions! I regret that I have been unable to locate esfw52.bin anywhere on my system and neither can I locate it on my Win 'Vista' os.
I have noticed that Fedora, OpenSUSE and PCLinux ( which do operate the Epson scanner ok!) also do not have or use, the file esfw52!
I am not knowlegeable enough to know if these other OS's operate in a different way to make the scanner work, certainly they need the two 'iscan' firmware drivers which install OK as .rpm's.
Another helpful poster' suggested an alternative solution - namely a program called 'Vuescan' and unless I can find the solution to this issue soon, I will buy a license for this.

Thanks again for your help
oldhack

[ardvark71]

Hi guys...

I wonder if the difference in models, however slight, would account for the missing file in question. ???

Regards...

[Pajoe]

Hi guys...

I wonder if the difference in models, however slight, would account for the missing file in question. ???

Regards...


I would guess a different model could use a different named file but the procedure should be the same. You should be able to find the installer at the Espon Avasys? web site. I keep a copy of esfw52.bin (used by the Epson 3490) stored in my home directory along with a short note concerning /etc/sane.d/snapscanf.conf as I sometimes go a year without using the scanner and forget how to install it because the installation some times gets lost over various version upgrades.

I just wished I could figure out the trick to getting my wife's wireless scanner working as a normal user, that is a tough one becasue it works OK with my system but not hers and I have not been able to find my mistake.

[oldhack]

I would guess a different model could use a different named file but the procedure should be the same. You should be able to find the installer at the Espon Avasys? web site. I keep a copy of esfw52.bin (used by the Epson 3490) stored in my home directory along with a short note concerning /etc/sane.d/snapscanf.conf as I sometimes go a year without using the scanner and forget how to install it because the installation some times gets lost over various version upgrades.

I just wished I could figure out the trick to getting my wife's wireless scanner working as a normal user, that is a tough one becasue it works OK with my system but not hers and I have not been able to find my mistake.

I have found that the file used by my scanner is esfw43. It is the file that comes with the Iscan files from Avasys. BTW these Epson driver files are now located with Epson!
I am (slowly) 'hacking' my way through the changes that Ubuntu (Kubuntu) have made to the location of these 'associated' files and I suspect this may be part of the problem.
When downloading the Iscan drivers in openSUSE and PCLinux, the files end up in identicle locations,for instance the Epkowa files are in /usr/lib/sane, whereas in Ubuntu they are located in
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/sane.
I will continue to move some of these files around to see if this will solve the issue. I will let you know when (...IF) I get it working!
Thanks for your continued help and suggestions.
oldhack

BTW .... I don't understand why you would need a "wireless" scanner?

[Pajoe]

I have found that the file used by my scanner is esfw43. It is the file that comes with the Iscan files from Avasys. BTW these Epson driver files are now located with Epson!
I am (slowly) 'hacking' my way through the changes that Ubuntu (Kubuntu) have made to the location of these 'associated' files and I suspect this may be part of the problem.
When downloading the Iscan drivers in openSUSE and PCLinux, the files end up in identicle locations,for instance the Epkowa files are in /usr/lib/sane, whereas in Ubuntu they are located in
/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/sane.
I will continue to move some of these files around to see if this will solve the issue. I will let you know when (...IF) I get it working!
Thanks for your continued help and suggestions.
oldhack

BTW .... I don't understand why you would need a "wireless" scanner?


I do not use the Epson installer and software with my 3490 Epson scanner, just the .bin file.
Basically install everything for sane and change /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf and it works.


On Edit: My wife's wireless HP photo printer died so we purchased a cheaper, Brother wireless "all-in-one" printer for my wife and it's located downstairs, wireless has less clutter than having a network cable and can be easily moved.

[claydoh]

As the scanner in question i9s totally unsupported by any native Sane drivers, the avasys stuff is the only way to go.

BUT a little web digging brought me here:
http://linux.avasys.jp/drivers/ which seems to have possibly newer versions.

I do not see any iscan-plugins package, but there are these files that can be tried:
64 bit packages for iscan:
http://linux.avasys.jp/drivers/iscan/2.28.1/iscan-2.28.1-3.ltdl7.x86_64.rpm << note the ltdl7 here, this i9s the one you need for newer Ubuntu versions. If you need 32 bit, just poke around for the correct one :)

Iscan-data:
http://linux.avasys.jp/drivers/iscan-data/1.13.0/iscan-data_1.13.0-1_all.deb
Install this first, but a better way is to open a terminal in the directory where the files are and enter:

sudo dpkg -i iscan*.deb
The gui deb installer didn't like to install these. They installed fine, and ran, but as I have no Epson scanner I can't say if it works for scanning :)

[doctordruidphd]

Don't know if this will help, but I did a little digging through the files.

1. Downloaded the driver from the Epson/Seiko site: iscan-plugin-gt-f600-1.0.0-1.c2.i386.rpm

2. alien -t iscan-plugin-gt-f600-1.0.0-1.c2.i386.rpm (makes a .tar.gz file)

3. tar -xvf iscan-plugin-gt-f600-1.0.0.tgz

makes this:

./
./usr/
./usr/lib/
./usr/lib/iscan/
./usr/lib/iscan/libesint43.so.2
./usr/lib/iscan/libesint43.so.2.0.0
./usr/lib/iscan/libesint43.so
./usr/share/
./usr/share/iscan/
./usr/share/iscan/esfw43.bin
./usr/share/doc/
./usr/share/doc/iscan-plugin-gt-f600-1.0.0/
./usr/share/doc/iscan-plugin-gt-f600-1.0.0/EAPL.ja.txt
./usr/share/doc/iscan-plugin-gt-f600-1.0.0/EAPL.en.txt

I don't have your scanner, so I can't go much further, but you should be able to manually copy the relevant files (using sudo).

4. I also notice this is 32-bit software; if you are using a 64-bit OS, you may need to install ia32-libs-multiarch to make it work at all.

[oldhack]

'claydoh', - thanks for the info' - I have tried the new files from Avasys and located the 32bit Iscan files. I have taken quite a bit of time trying these and regrettably was
still unable to get the scanner to work.
I also did do what 'doctordruidphd' suggested. In addition, I not only tracked the individual files, I made a direct comparison with the same Iscan files in my PCLinux and openSUSE OS's.
I have also checked the location of these files with their location in Kubuntu and so far, I am finding that this is where there ARE differences - and this is where it will get tricky!!
(I am not sure I want to go any further with this - mainly because I don't have the time right now.)

There are a few more things I am going to try later however.

BTW, I am very impressed and pleased with the prompt,helpful responses in this forum. (I will be staying with Kubuntu!!)

Thanks, oldhack