SANE
SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) provides a library and a command-line tool to use scanners under GNU/Linux.
Check if your scanner supports eSCL or WSD - chances are good if your device is on this Internet Printing Protocoll - IPP list of devices that support eSCL. If your device has eSCL/WSD support modern "driverless" scanning is recommended.
Installation
Install the sane-airscan package if the scanner is known to work in driverless mode. If your scanner is using USB connection, make sure to also install the ipp-usb package and start/enable ipp-usb.service
to allow using IPP protocol over USB connection.
If not, see [1] to check if SANE supports your scanner using a classic driver.
Install the sane package to use old driver-based scanning.
Verification
Now you can try to see if sane recognizes your scanner.
$ scanimage -L
If that fails, run the command again as root to check for permission problems. If that fails as well, check that your scanner is plugged into the computer. You also might have to unplug/plug your scanner for /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/49-sane.rules
to recognize your scanner.
Now you can see if it actually works
$ scanimage --format=png --output-file test.png --progress
If the scanning fails with the message scanimage: sane_start: Invalid argument
you may need to specify the device.
$ scanimage -L
device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname Video WebCam virtual device device `pixma:04A91749_247936' is a CANON Canon PIXMA MG5200 multi-function peripheral
Then you would need to run
$ scanimage --device "pixma:04A91749_247936" --format=tiff --output-file test.tiff --progress
Sane provides many special backend options for numerous scanner types. To see what these are for your device:
$ scanimage -A
Installing a scanner driver
Most scanners should work out of the box. If yours does not, see SANE/Scanner-specific problems for installation instructions.
Firmware
Firmwares usually have the .bin
extension.
Firstly you need to put the firmware someplace safe, it is recommended to put it in a subdirectory of /usr/share/sane/
.
Then you need to tell sane where the firmware is:
- Find the name of the backend for your scanner from the sane supported devices list.
- Open the file
/etc/sane.d/backend-name.conf
. - Make sure the firmware entry is uncommented and let the file-path point to where you put the firmware file for your scanner. Be sure that members of the group
scanner
can access the/etc/sane.d/backend-name.conf
file.
If the backend of your scanner is not part of the sane package (such as hpaio.conf
which is part of hplip), you need to uncomment the relevant entry in /etc/sane.d/dll.d
or in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf
.
Fujitsu fi series
For some of the Fujitsu fi series document scanners, the pfufsAUR proprietary driver offers advanced functionality over the already mature SANE default driver, such as control of an optional imprinter for stamping scanned documents or requesting accurate status of the consumables from the host.
Install a frontend
Many frontends exist for SANE, a non-exhaustive list of which can be found on the sane-project website.
- Simple Scan — Simplified GUI that is intended to be easier to use and better integrated into the GNOME desktop than XSane. It was initially written for Ubuntu and is maintained by Robert Ancell of Canonical Ltd. for GNU/Linux.
- Skanlite — Simple image scanning application that does nothing more than scan and save images, based on the KSane backend.
- XSane — Full-featured GTK-based frontend looking a bit old but providing extended functionalities.
Some OCR software are able to scan images using SANE: gImageReader, gscan2pdf, Linux-Intelligent-Ocr-Solution, OCRFeeder, Paperwork.
- Scanning directly to PDF using XSane in 16bit color depth mode is known to produces corrupted files and a note in
pacman
output warns so. 8bit mode is known to work.
- Using a frontend does not mean you do not have to apply some tricks. This is especially true with devices configured via mDNS. For example,
skanlite
needs to have additional info specified on the command line in order to detect a network scanner properly as it cannot handle mDNS. Here is an example with an HP Officejet Pro L7590:skanlite --device "hpaio:/net/Officejet_Pro_L7500?ip=192.168.0.17"
.
Network scanning
Network attached scanners
Some scanners may be network attached and already provide their own server.
Scanning over the network with Canon Pixma all-in-one printer/scanners
Find out your printer/scanner's IP address, and add it on a new line to /etc/sane.d/pixma.conf
in the format bjnp://10.0.0.20
.
Sane should now find your device. For more details refer to sane-pixma(5).
Alternative: for some Canon Pixma all-in-one printer/scanners, which are not detected over network, can be used scangearmp2AUR package from AUR.
See SANE/Scanner-specific problems for additional information.
Scanning over the network with EPSON WorkForce printer/scanners
Install imagescan and imagescan-plugin-networkscanAUR.
Edit the config file /etc/utsushi/utsushi.conf
. Find the [devices]
section and edit the template for dev2
. Replace the IP address accordingly. You can find the IP address on your printer screen. For example,
... dev2.udi = esci:networkscan://192.168.1.123:1865 dev2.model = WF-2860 dev2.vendor = EPSON ...
Meanwhile, comment out epson2
in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf
as it conflicts with ImageScan.
Once this is done you can use any SANE frontend to access this scanner.
Sharing your scanner over a network
You can share your scanner with other hosts on your network who use sane, xsane or xsane-enabled GIMP. To set up the server, first indicate which hosts on your network are allowed access.
Change the /etc/sane.d/saned.conf
file to your liking, for example:
# required localhost # allow local subnet 192.168.0.0/24
If you use iptables, insert the nf_conntrack_sane
module to let the firewall track saned
connections.
Now start/enable saned.socket
. Your scanner is now available over the network. For more information, see saned(8).
scanimage -L
on the server to see the scanner url.Accessing your scanner from a remote workstation
You can access your network-enabled scanner from a remote Arch Linux workstation.
First, specify the server's host name or IP address in the /etc/sane.d/net.conf
file:
# static IP address 192.168.0.1 # or host name stratus
Now test your workstation's connection:
$ scanimage -L
The network scanner should now also show up in any front-end.
Windows clients
Since the Windows port of SANE seems to be unsupported, outdated and difficult to get[dead link 2020-04-02 ⓘ], you can try SANEWinDS or SaneTwain (old).
Troubleshooting
- See also: SANE/Scanner-specific problems
Invalid argument
If you get an "Invalid argument" error with xsane or another sane front-end, this could be caused by one of the following reasons:
Missing firmware file
No firmware file was provided for the used scanner (see #Firmware for details).
Wrong firmware file permissions
The permissions for the used firmware file are wrong. Correct them using
# chown root:scanner /usr/share/sane/SCANNER_MODEL/FIRMWARE_FILE # chmod ug+r /usr/share/sane/SCANNER_MODEL/FIRMWARE_FILE
Multiple backends claim scanner
It may happen, that multiple backends support (or pretend to support) your scanner, and sane chooses one that does not do after all (the scanner will not be displayed by scanimage -L
then). This has happened with older Epson scanners and the epson2
resp. epson
backends. In this case, the solution is to comment out the unwanted backend in /etc/sane.d/dll.conf
. In the Epson case, that would be to change
epson2 #epson
to
#epson2 epson
It may also be possible that the independent iscan epkowa
backend interferes with your snapscan
backend (epson scanners). You may get this error right after using the scanimage -L
command. Starting the scanner app (like xsane) twice can also solve the problem. Otherwise check your /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf
for wrong configurations or remove the iscan package.
Communication via xHCI not working (older scanner models)
Some older scanner models do not work when connected via an USB3 port. If you experience this issue, try setting the SANE_USB_WORKAROUND=1
environment variable before starting your frontend.[2][3][dead link 2020-04-02 ⓘ]
If that does not work, try one of the following workarounds:
- Use an USB2 port instead of an USB3 port, if available.
- Disable xHCI via BIOS/EFI. eHCI will consequently be used and communication with the scanner will work. On the downside, USB3 speed can not be reached on any port.
- On (some) intel chipsets the
setpci
command can be used to route specific usb ports to either the xHCI or the eHCI controller. See here and here (scroll down to where it says "setpci") for further information. With this it is possible to toggle single USB ports with a simple shell script. - Connect the scanner over the network instead if it is supported.
Firewall
When network scanning scanner hangs, then invalid argument error occured.
saned uses data port range, so you must enable connections to 6566/tcp and data_portrange from /etc/sane.d/saned.conf or use conntrack firewall module for sane to enable data ports as described above.
Slow startup
If you encounter slow startup issue (e.g. xsane
or scanimage -L
take a lot to find scanner) it may be that more than one driver supporting it is available.
Have a look at /etc/sane.d/dll.conf
and try commenting out one (e.g. you may have epson
, epson2
and epkowa
enabled at the same time, try leaving only epson
or epkowa
uncommented).
You can also try to comment out net
driver, if there are no network scanners.
Your webcam might also be listed as scanning device and slow down detection at startup. To blacklist webcam, try commenting out all the lines in /etc/sane.d/v4l.conf
.
Device busy
If your USB device is listed with scanimage -L
but launching the test scanimage pixma:04A9173E_11DAD1 --format=tiff --output-file test.tiff
always return the 'Device busy' error, you might try to add your username to the scanner group usermod -a -G scanner yourusername
then blacklist the usblp
kernel module by writing blacklist usblp
in /etc/modprobe.d/no-usblp.conf
(it prevents usblp
from loading to support scanning, not needed by xsane and related tools, might also conflict with CUPS). Reboot to finish. [4]
In addition to this, some Cannon printers return "device busy" if the scan mode is set to "Computer". Setting this to the "Remote Scanner" mode should fix the issue.[5]
Permission problem
With systemd, the scanner
and lp
groups are deprecated. No need to add your user to those groups. See Users and groups#Pre-systemd groups for detail.
You can also try to change permissions of usb device but this is not recommended, a better solution is to fix the Udev rules so that your scanner is recognized.
First check connected usb devices with lsusb
:
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 003 Device 003: ID 04d9:1603 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04fc:0538 Sunplus Technology Co., Ltd Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub Bus 001 Device 006: ID 03f0:2504 Hewlett-Packard Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:0802 Logitech, Inc. Webcam C200 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
In our example we see the scanner: Bus 001 Device 006: ID 03f0:2504 Hewlett-Packard
. Here 03f0
is the vendorID and 2504
is the productID.
Now open /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/49-sane.rules
and see if there is there is a line with the vendorID and productID of your scanner. If there is not any, create the new file /etc/udev/rules.d/49-sane-missing-scanner.rules
, with the following contents:
ATTRS{idVendor}=="vendorID", ATTRS{idProduct}=="productID", MODE="0664", GROUP="scanner", ENV{libsane_matched}="yes"
Save the file, plug out and back in your scanner and the file permissions should be now correct.
Another tip, is that you can add your device (scanner) in backend file:
Add usb 0x03f0 0x2504
to /etc/sane.d/hp4200.conf
so it looks like this:
# # Configuration file for the hp4200 backend # # # HP4200 #usb 0x03f0 0x0105 usb 0x03f0 0x2504
Parallel port scanners
All devices attached to a parallel port are assumed to be printers, and are given a lp
group. Either create a udev rule to mark the relevant parallel port as libsane_matched
, or add your user to the lp
user group. CUPS also uses the lp
group for read-only access to configuration files, so there are potential security implications to adding users to the lp
group - see CUPS#Connection Interfaces for more information.