SCSI scanner

[David Stevenson_1]

I have HP2p scanner connected to Adaptec scsi card. Scanner is only device on card. No terminator is fitted as I do not think it needs one. Is this right.? I am using Linux Mandrake 8, SANE 1.0.4 ?, and XSANE frontend as well as running scanner from batch file. The scanner works OK in B&W mode, but as soon as you try color scan, the scanner light moves about an inch and thens returns an I/O error. Does anyone have any idea to the cause of this? Is it something to do with the amount of data, or the cabling arrangment? The machine has 160ish Meg ram, are there other settings that affect the config that I am not aware of/do not understand? Also, if I try to query the setting of the scanner using 'scanimage' the scanner also returns an I/O error.

If you need more info, let me know where I can get it and I will post it to the forum.

Look forward to your replies...many thanks.

[Charles Harris]

Hi David, this is only a guess but it might help.

It may be worth compiling your scsi support in with the kernal if it isn't already, you could also try starting an X server session without the window manager and then running the app to see if it's a resource problem.

Sorry if this isn't much use, it maybe worth a try?!

Later,


-ChaZ-

[David Stevenson_1]

Recompiling the kernel sounds scary as I have not done it before. I have read some text on xconfig, this appears to be the most common method. Having looked at xconfig, are the settings there the ones currently set up on the host system, or are they the defaults that all users would see. If they are not the current settings, how do you find out what your settings are? I don't know if my scsi support is modular or compiled in to the kernel. Thanks.

[David Stevenson_1]

I have enclosed the scanimage test results. You will see that the grey scan is fine, color...failure. I have included the dmesg output which appears to deal with scsi init. I do not profess to understand all of it, but it may help you to see something obvious. Thanks to you all.

[Sachin Patel]

Hi David,
Compiling kernel is not that hard or not scare as long as you don't mess your originall kernel and keep that in /etc/lilo.conf file. Also do not delete or overright original files on /boot.
You are using Adaptac SCSI card. you need some extra module for that. We run on that problem couple days ago. I will find out information tomorrow. attached is my .config file

Sachin

[Charles Harris]

David,

I had a quick look at your config, it looks like your scanner is using some generic scsi module. You might be better getting a specif module and adding it to the kernel. I know this sound a little harsh, but re-compiling the kernel isn't that much of a biggie once you get your hands dirty! the xconfg gui style menu helps alot! - and if your running on mandrake, the standard system util let you find and install a new compiled kernel without any effort at all.

Good luck!

-ChaZ-

[David Stevenson_1]

Thanks for all your help. I have found some other users on another forum which points to a SANE problem. It appears that the sane_scsi source file has a scsi timeout value hard coded into the binary, this value has changed from revision < 1.0.4. The timeout has been set to one second which for a flatbed scanner is far too short. Mandrake cooker has a version 1.0.5 which is supposed to cure this problem. I think I may give this a go before attacking the kernel, although I will read up on kernel HOWTO's. Just out of interest, what is the best way to un-install a program that was installed by the 'make install' process. Do you just delete files manually, or is there some automated method?

Thanks again,

Dave.

[David Stevenson_1]

Hi All,

I have solved the scanner problem. It appears that the aic7xxx driver may have a problem. I have downloaded the latest SG driver and installed this, along with the aic7xxx_old driver. I don't understand why I need both. The latest pre 1.0.5 SANE version has also been installed. All works perfectly, grayscale, color, and previews.

One thing I don't know, is how I set my machine up to automatically insert the drivers. Before I user the scanner I have to 'rmmod aic7xxx' and 'insmod aic7xxx_old'. I tried to edit the /etc/modules.conf but the box failed to boot past 'checking for new hardware'. Does anyone have any ideas.

I wanted to let you all know of my solution, but also to thank you for your time.

Dave.