Getting TWAIN SANE to work on OS X

Question

Getting TWAIN SANE to work on OS X

Hi,

I've tried a number of times over the past few months to get the TWAIN-SANE interface working on my machine, but I've never had any luck. (FYI, it's available at http://www.ellert.se/twain-sane/). My scanner is a Canon N1220U, but at this point, I'm just trying to find someone who has got TWAIN-SANE to work at all. For looking into problems, the SANE site suggests to run the sane-find-scanner command to ascertain that the scanner can be found, and then the scanimage -L command. When I did this I got the following results:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

ken$ 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=0x04a9 [Canon], product=0x2207 [CanoScan], chip=LM9832/3) at libusb:001:002-04a9-2207-00-00
# 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.
kensmacpb:~ ken$ 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).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Any help or suggestions on how to proceed would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ken

12 G4 PowerBook, Mac OS X (10.5.3), 1.125 Gb RAM

Posted on Nov 3, 2008 7:28 AM

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Answer 1

Nov 15, 2008 4:12 AM in response to Kenneth Hjulstrom

I'm having the same trouble, using a CanoScan n650u. It mentioned in the manual for libusb that it'll only work if nothing else has picked up the scanner. I'm trying to wrack my brains for any other software that might be picking it up, locking it but failing to do anything useful with it.

Will let you know if I get anywhere!

Ben

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Answer 2

Nov 16, 2008 8:57 AM in response to Ben Tuppen

Hi,

Thanks for the info, but it seems that in my case, the libusb part is working, because I'm getting a confirmation from libusb that my scanner is found. But it just isn't seen by any TWAIN-enabled apps on my system, which makes me think that the problem might be with the configuration file that contains the scanner-specific settings. I'll be happy to hear from you (or anyone else) who can get this system working with any scanner whatsoever on OS X.

Thanks again,

Ken

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Answer 3

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,240 points

Nov 16, 2008 9:21 AM in response to Kenneth Hjulstrom

Set the device option in plustek.conf to

device auto

I vaguely remember trying all the various options and it only worked with device auto. Mine is a N1240U, but same backend.

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Answer 4

Nov 16, 2008 9:44 AM in response to Barney-15E

Barney,

Thanks for the info, but I tried that and it didn't work. Would it be possible for you to post your entire working .conf file here, so I could make sure that I am using all of the same settings that you are using?

Thanks,

Ken

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Answer 5

Barney-15E

Level 10

122,240 points

Nov 16, 2008 8:24 PM in response to Kenneth Hjulstrom

# Plustek-SANE Backend configuration file
# For use with LM9831/2/3 based USB scanners
#
# each device needs at least two lines:
# - [usb] vendor-ID and product-ID
# - device devicename
# i.e. for Plustek (0x07B3) UT12/16/24 (0x0017)
# [usb] 0x07B3 0x0017
# device /dev/usbscanner
# or
# device libusb:bbb:ddd
# where bbb is the busnumber and ddd the device number
# make sure that your user has access to /proc/bus/usb/bbb/ddd
#
# additionally you can specify some options
# warmup, lOffOnEnd, lampOff
#
# For autodetection use
# [usb]
# device /dev/usbscanner
#
# or simply
# [usb]
#
# or if you want a specific device but you have no idea about the
# device node or you use libusb, simply set vendor- and product-ID
# [usb] 0x07B3 0x0017
# device auto
#
# NOTE: autodetection is safe, as it uses the info it got
# from the USB subsystem. If you're not using the
# autodetection, you MUST have attached that device
# at your USB-port, that you have specified...
#
[usb]
#
# options for the previous USB entry
#
# switch lamp off after xxx secs, 0 disables the feature
# (can also be set via frontend)
option lampOff 300
# warmup period in seconds, 0 means no warmup, -1 means auto-warmup
# (can also be set via frontend)
option warmup -1
# 0 means leave lamp-status untouched, not 0 means switch off
# on sane_close
# (can also be set via frontend)
option lOffOnEnd 1
#
# options to tweak the image start-position
# (WARNING: there's no internal range check!!!)
#
# for the normal scan area
#
option posOffX 0
option posOffY 0
# for transparencies
option tpaOffX 0
option tpaOffY 0
# for negatives
option negOffX 0
option negOffY 0
#
# for setting the calibration strip position
# (WARNING: there's no internal range check!!!)
# -1 means use built in
# (can also be set via frontend)
option posShadingY -1
option tpaShadingY -1
option negShadingY -1
#
# to invert the negatives, 0 disables the feature
#
option invertNegatives 0
#
# to disable the internal sensor speedup function, 
# 1 disables the feature
#
option disableSpeedup 0
#
# to save/restore coarse calibration data
# (can also be set via frontend)
option cacheCalData 0
#
# use alternate calibration routines
#
option altCalibration 0
#
# for skipping whole calibration step
#
option skipCalibration 0
#
# for skipping entire fine calibration step
# coarse calibration is done
#
option skipFine 0
#
# discard the result of the fine white calibration
#
option skipFineWhite 0
#
# some scanners have a dark calibration strip, in
# general this one should be used for calibration.
# As this could cause some trouble, this option
# overrides that and the dark calibration will be
# done by switching the lamp off
#
option skipDarkStrip 0
# for replacing the gain values found during coarse
# calibration
# (can also be set via frontend)
option red_gain -1
option green_gain -1
option blue_gain -1
# for replacing the offset values found during coarse
# calibration
# (can also be set via frontend)
option red_offset -1
option green_offset -1
option blue_offset -1
#
# for replacing the default lampoff settings, this
# works only for CIS devices like CanoScan LiDE20
# (can also be set via frontend)
option red_lampoff -1
option green_lampoff -1
option blue_lampoff -1
#
# for adjusting the default gamma values
# (can also be set via frontend)
option redGamma 1.0
option greenGamma 1.0
option blueGamma 1.0
option grayGamma 1.0
#
# to enable TPA (EPSON or UMAX, if autodetection fails)
# 0 means default behaviour as specified in the internal tables
# 1 means enable (needed for UMAX 3450)
option enableTPA 0
#
# model override functionality, currently only available for
# Mustek devices, using NSCs' vendor ID: 0x0400 and
# also their product ID: 0x1000 (LM9831) 0x1001 (LM9832)
#
# mov/PID | 0x1000 | 0x1001
# ---------------------------------------
# 0 (default)| BearPaw1200 | BearPaw 2400
# 1 | ignored | BearPaw 1200
#
option mov 0
#
# and of course the device-name
#
# device /dev/usbscanner
device auto
#
# to define a new device, start with a new section:
# [usb] 
#

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