Epson Scanner using proprietary Epkowa driver no longer working in 12.1

rossff · November 27, 2011, 6:50am

Epson Perfection 3170 Photo scanner with Opensuse 12.1

I had my scanner working with 11.4 using the proprietary Epkowa driver and plugin but this has stopped working with the update from 11.4 to 12.1.

sane-find-scanner returns the expected results: found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x0116 [EPSON Scanner]) at libusb:001:011

scanimage -L returns “No scanners identified” unless I enable the “epson” driver, in which case I get: “device `epson:libusb:001:011’ is a Epson EE flatbed scanner”. However I expect to get the actual scanner identified correctly, which it did previously under 11.4.

lsusb gives: Bus 001 Device 011: ID 04b8:0116 Seiko Epson Corp. Perfection 3170 (GT-9400)

I uninstalled all sane and iscan packages, and re-installed sane_backends along with the proprietary iscan package and plugin from Avasys (Linux Driver | AVASYS CORPORATION). I then re-installed xsane as well.

I have edited permissions (including udev rules) and also tried forcing the vendor and productID fields in /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf (also epson and epson2 drivers).

iscan returns “Could not send command to scanner. Check the scanner’s status.”

If anyone has any additional guidance for Epson scanners please let me know.

-Frank

deano_ferrari · November 27, 2011, 7:54am

First thoughts: Check also that /etc/dane.d/dll.conf contains the uncommented ‘epkowa’ entry. Add it if necessary.

rossff · November 27, 2011, 4:55pm

Yes, /etc/sane.d/dll.conf has epson, epson2, and epkowa entries uncommented.

When I uncomment the ‘epson’ entry then I get the “device `epson:libusb:001:011’ is a Epson EE flatbed scanner” detection using ‘scanimage -L’. However, if I only have ‘epkowa’ uncommented I do not get any detection at all. This is with the proprietary driver and plug-in installed.

thanks,
Frank

deano_ferrari · November 27, 2011, 8:08pm

Does ‘scanimage -L’ or ‘sane-find-scanner’ return useful info as root?

rossff · November 28, 2011, 2:07am

Maybe… I get many “libusb requires write access to USB device nodes” when user (not root), when I try “sane-find-scanner”.

Scanimage is the same whether user or root:
~> scanimage -L
No scanners were identified. If you were expecting something different,
check that the scanner is plugged in, turned on and detected by the
sane-find-scanner tool (if appropriate). Please read the documentation
which came with this software (README, FAQ, manpages).

~> sane-find-scanner

sane-find-scanner will now attempt to detect your scanner. If the

result is different from what you expected, first make sure your

scanner is powered up and properly connected to your computer.

No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that

you have loaded a kernel SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter.

libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/001/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/001/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x0116 [EPSON Scanner]) at libusb:001:012
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/002/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/002/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/003/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/003/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/003/003: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
found USB scanner (vendor=0x045e, product=0x00f5) at libusb:003:003
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/003/004: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/003/004: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/004/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/004/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/004/002: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/004/002: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/005/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.
libusb couldn’t open USB device /dev/bus/usb/005/001: Permission denied.
libusb requires write access to USB device nodes.

Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by

SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend’s manpage.

Not checking for parallel port scanners.

Most Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports

can’t be detected by this program.

You may want to run this program as root to find all devices. Once you

found the scanner devices, be sure to adjust access permissions as

necessary.

root>sane-find-scanner

sane-find-scanner will now attempt to detect your scanner. If the

result is different from what you expected, first make sure your

scanner is powered up and properly connected to your computer.

No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that

you have loaded a kernel SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter.

found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x0116 [EPSON Scanner]) at libusb:001:012
found USB scanner (vendor=0x045e, product=0x00f5) at libusb:003:003

Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by

SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend’s manpage.

Not checking for parallel port scanners.

Most Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports

can’t be detected by this program.

-Frank

deano_ferrari · November 28, 2011, 6:57am

Make sure you’re a member of the ‘lp’ group as well.

YaST >> Security and Users >> User and Group Management >> Select the relevant user, then ‘Details’ >> Add the ‘lp’ group, then ‘OK’, ‘OK’.

Now try detecting your scanner again as regular user.

MQ · December 2, 2011, 4:47pm

Hi

I’m having exactly the same problem with my Epson V330

1.sane-find-scanner reports it as “found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x0142 [EPSON Perfection V33/V330]) at libusb:001:004”

Yast -> Scanner gives “Possibly problematic Driver: The epkowa driver may cause problems on 64 bit x86_64 architecture” and won’t configure it.

Using iscan-2.10.0-1-c2 from epson. Added myself to ‘lp’ group too.

This looks like the same problem?

MQ · December 2, 2011, 5:18pm

Well, I went to their web site [1] and it seems this is not up-to-date - latest is v2.28.

I downloaded the 3 files:

iscan-2.28.0-2.x86_64.rpm
iscan-data-1.12.0-3.noarch.rpm
esci-interpreter-perfection-v330-0.1.1-2.x86_64.rpm

and installed them as recommended by epson (pdf on download page) using “rpm --upgrade <file>”. Note that iscan-2.28.0-2.x86_64 required libltdl.so.3, but this was quickly fixed by “zypper se libltdl” → “zypper in libltdl3”

Now back to Yast -> Scanner which is much happier and configures the device for me.

xsane sees it OK & it works perfectly. I haven’t tried gimp yet which is my other key tool.

Rossff - let me know if this fixes it for you, too.

Richard

[1] Download | AVASYS CORPORATION

rossff · December 19, 2011, 2:16am

Richard,

From where did you download the 3 files that you mention?

-Frank

atroxix · December 19, 2011, 9:37am

I had the same problem with V700 and got it resolved by installing iscan-2.28.1-3.i386.rpm and iscan-data-1.13.0-1.noarch.rpm. This command did it just fine:

zypper in iscan-2.28.1-3.i386.rpm iscan-data-1.13.0-1.noarch.rpm

PS. Downloading from the site is just a matter of navigating through the questions there

rossff · December 22, 2011, 5:34pm

Thanks! For my scanner model, the website only provides the older version with the proprietary driver for my HW.

However, I now find (with no changes made other than some auto-updates) that my scanner is now detected, and working perfectly. I have no idea what change occurred that resolved the problem, but it is now just humming along.

Sorry for anyone else with the same scanner and/or same problem looking for an answer here. Hopefully the suggestions provided above will help you with your scanner issues though. I certainly appreciate everyone’s replies!

MQ · January 5, 2012, 8:09pm

Sorry Frank for not replying sooner. somehow the notify-me flag got cleared.

Anyway, the Epson scanner files have moved and are now at: EPSON Download Center
though the old site Download | AVASYS CORPORATION still seems to work…

Version is still 2.28

Cheers, Richard

wimmel · April 23, 2012, 2:19pm

Hi,

I found this thread because i’ve the same problem, but when I try to download these files I always get the iscan-2.10.0-1.c2 version to download and not the 64bit version mentioned above. This is as well for the AVASYS link as for the Epson download center. How can I reach the correct place?

Sauerland · April 23, 2012, 4:52pm

Hi,

I found this thread because i’ve the same problem, but when I try to download these files I always get the iscan-2.10.0-1.c2 version to download and not the 64bit version mentioned above. This is as well for the AVASYS link as for the Epson download center. How can I reach the correct place?

Did you try the EpsonDownload Center-Link?