SCSI Scanner usage within LINUX?

You're out of luck. No one has been successful in getting enough information
from HP (or really any other flatbed scanner manufacturer except for maybe
EPSON) to develop a scanner driver. Take a read of the Scanner Info Sheet
below.

BAJ

­
LINUX SCANNER INFO SHEET (Last updated October 1, 1994)

[This is an editorial comment. I'll have a scattering of these in the document.
These are my own personal comments - BAJ ]

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Scanner drivers for Linux seem to be few and far between. In addition
documentation for the software is non existant. This document attemps to
describe the available information about scanners for Linux and propose some
directions for future development.

The current editor of this document is Byron A. Jeff. I can be reached at


1.1 The misconception of TWAIN compliancy

One of the comments I often see is "If we write a TWAIN driver then all
scanners will work..." Unfortunately this is an incorrect assertion. TWAIN
is a standard that the scanner manufacurers came up with to provide a
common, standard interface between their scanners and the DOS/Windows
applications that use them. Quick Picture:


# DOS/WINDOWS APP #
# PhotoShop or # This is the application. it can function
# PhotoStylers or # with different manufacturers scanners
# OCR. # because of the TWAIN interface on the
bottom edge.
# TWAIN interface #
# Application #
# Side #

# TWAIN interface # This is the software driver that comes
# Driver Side # with the scanner. It has a TWAIN interface
on the top end so that it can mate with
# Hardware Driver # different applications. Each hardware driver is different.

# Scanner Card #
This is the scanner hardware.
# Scanner #


The problem for us Linux folks is twofold:

1) We really don't have any DOS/Windows applications we can run.
2) For each scanner a different Hardware Driver must be written
and the hard specifications for that scanner must be available to
accomplish this task.

So TWAIN doesn't buy us anything in terms of getting a single driver to
run all scanners.

Anyway TWAIN is just a hack that the Unix/Linux driver interface already
solves. So there's no joy here.

2.0 CURRENTLY AVAILABLE

[ Instead of writing about currently available stuff I'll just put the
post where I've seen it. If anyone has updated information, let me know.]

2.1 GS4500 Scanner

From: (Jonathan Magid)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: [Q] Scanner software ?
Date: 9 Dec 1993 05:34:36 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

There is a driver for scanners built on the GS4500 chip-set.. It can be
found at:

<file://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/kernel/misc-patches/scanner-1.0.tar.gz
Here is the lsm:

Begin2
Title = Scanner driver for GS4500 and lookalikes
Version = 1.0
Desc1 = Provides support for using GS4500 class hand
Desc2 = scanners with Linux.
Author = Richard Lyons
AuthorEmail =
Maintainer = Richard Lyons
MaintEmail =
Site1 =
Path1 =
File1 = scanner-1.0.tar.gz
FileSize1 = 4426
Required1 = GS4500 B&W hand scanner or workalike.
CopyPolicy1 = Freely distributable with acknowledgement of author.
Keywords = scanner GS4500
Comment1 = Suggestions welcome. Support for other scanners
Comment2 = particularly welcome.
Entered = 25OCT93
EnteredBy = Richard Lyons
CheckedEmail =
End

[ I need to know exactly the brand names of scanners that work with this
driver. Also I need to know the type (flattop/handheld), resolution, speed,
and #of colors for each. One section of this will have a list of available
scanners. Prices and places selling them might also be useful. ]

2.2 Mustek Scanners

Subject: ANNOUNCE: scan-driver-0.1.4 available!

Hi Linuxers!

The subject says it all:

scan-driver-0.1.4.tar.gz is available!

[ I just checked sunsite (6/25/94) and it's up to 0.1.8.
All drivers can be found in /pub/Linux/kernel/patches/scanner ]

It's a Linux device driver for Mustek M-105 handheld halftone scanners
and lookalikes. Included in the package is a simple (S)VGAlib-based demo
and a 5-line-script to create a portable bitmap file from the scanned
image. I hope you enjoy it!

Here is the LSM entry:

Begin2
Title = M105 handheld scanner driver
Version = 0.1.4
Desc1 = Character device driver for M105 handheld scanner
Desc2 = and lookalikes.
Author = Thomas Faehnle
AuthorEmail = s_-ulm.de
Maintainer = Thomas Faehnle
MaintEmail = s_-ulm.de
Site1 = oracle.rz.uni-ulm.de
Path1 = /pub/linux/ulm
File1 = scan-driver-0.1.4.tar.gz
FileSize1 = 10378
Site2 = sunsite.unc.edu
Path2 = /pub/Linux/Incoming
File2 = scan-driver-0.1.4.tar.gz
FileSize2 = 10378
Site3 = tsx-11.mit.edu
Path3 = /pub/linux/ALPHA/scanner
File3 = scan-driver-0.1.4.tar.gz
FileSize3 = 10378
Required1 = M105 scanner or clone with GI1904 interface
CopyPolicy1 = GPL
Keywords = M105 scanner device driver GI1904 interface
RelFiles2 = scandemo -- a (S)VGAlib-based demo
RelFiles3 = scan.sh -- script to scan into a pbm file
Entered = 11.03.1994
EnteredBy = Thomas Faehnle
CheckedEmail = s_-ulm.de
End

2.3 AC4096 0.1 - a scanner driver for the A4 Tech AC4096 color scanner

Article: 2608 of comp.os.linux.announce
From: Michael Beck <-berlin.de Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Subject: scanner driver for the A4 Tech AC 4096
Followup-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Date: 30 Jul 1994 02:07:19 +0300
Organization: ?
Lines: 44
Sender:
Approved: (Lars Wirzenius)
Message-ID: <31c237$@kruuna.Helsinki.FI NNTP-Posting-Host: kruuna.helsinki.fi
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Keywords: scanner, driver

AC4096 0.1 - a scanner driver for the A4 Tech AC4096 color scanner

This is the 1st release of a scanner driver for the A4 Tech AC4096
scanner. It's now avaible at

ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de pub/os/linux/hu-contrib/ac4096.tgz

This driver is compatible with the logi32 and m105 scanner drivers,
ie it uses the same ioctl interface.

It is accompanied by a small demo program called gifscan which will
enable you to save your scannings in the popular gif-format.

If you find any bugs in there, please report them to me.

Here is the lsm file

Begin2
Title =Driver for the A4 Tech handheld color scanner AC4096
Version =0.1
Desc1 =DMA driven scanner driver, supports true color and
Desc2 =emulated grey and mono modes
Author =Michael Beck
AuthorEmail =@informatik.hu-berlin.de
Maintainer =Michael Beck
MaintEmail =@informatik.hu-berlin.de
Site1 =ftp.informatik.hu-berlin.de
Path1 =pub/os/linux/hu-contrib/
File1 =ac4096.tgz
FileSize1 =26653
Required1 =modutils, A4 Tech AC4096 scanner
CopyPolicy1 =GNU copyleft
Keywords =scanner AC4096
Comment1 =compatible with the logi32 and m105 scanner drivers
Comment2 =
EnteredBy =Michael Beck
End

--
Michael Beck -berlin.de

3.0 CURRENT DEVELOPMENT

[Again for now I'll just copy the posts I've seen. This is primarily Dr.
G.W. Wettstein's work. He posted something recently about continuing
development on SCSI scanners. Hope to see something concrete soon.
(Sept 19, 1994)]

Article: 2674 of comp.os.linux.development
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 09:25:07 CST
From: Greg Wettstein
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development
Subject: Re: Scaner ?

I am embroiled in the middle of such a project right now. My current
work is to develop an image processing/storage system for our corporate
Linux network. I vended a Fujitsu scanner for this project and it is
sitting at home right now, connected to my Linux box there.

The Fujitsu scanner conforms to the SCSI-2 standard for scanners. I
bought the technical documentation for it and it too is sitting at
home. I currently have the basics of a driver for it built on top
of 0.99.13. The driver currently only implements some selected ioctl's
and the basic framework for read etc. It is not currently capable
of really scanning a document. Finishing this is on an absolutely
high priority so the next month or so should bring this to fruition.

I would like to donate the driver back to the Linus for inclusion into
the official kernel sources. I do not know how much appetite there is
for this type of thing but rumor has it that scanners are not well
supported (at least SCSI-2) in the desktop UNIX market. Perhaps Linux
can be a leader there as well.

I am not sure what type of interface that the HP machine uses. We
considered vending one of their scanners but the technical support people
were a little bit baucky about giving out interface and programming
details. We chose the Fujitsu because it was one of the few that
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