[CentOS] Problems getting scanner to work from xsane (from Gnome Menu or GIMP)

[Roger K. Wells]

Robert Heller wrote:
> We have a networked HP OfficeJet All-In-One.  I have the scanner working
> with the CentOS 5.3, except xsane is ignoring SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE. 
> scanimage does however take this environment variable just fine:
>
> server1.wendellfreelibrary.org% 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).
> default device is `hpaio:/net/Officejet_Pro_L7700?ip=192.168.1.253'
> server1.wendellfreelibrary.org% scanimage -T
> scanimage: scanning image of size 638x1125 pixels at 24 bits/pixel
> scanimage: acquiring RGB frame, 8 bits/sample
> scanimage: reading one scanline, 1914 bytes...  PASS
> scanimage: reading one byte...          PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 2 bytes...     PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 4 bytes...     PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 8 bytes...     PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 16 bytes...    PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 32 bytes...    PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 64 bytes...    PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 128 bytes...   PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 256 bytes...   PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 512 bytes...   PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 1024 bytes...  PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 2048 bytes...  PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 2047 bytes...  PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 1023 bytes...  PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 511 bytes...   PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 255 bytes...   PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 127 bytes...   PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 63 bytes...    PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 31 bytes...    PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 15 bytes...    PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 7 bytes...     PASS
> scanimage: stepped read, 3 bytes...     PASS
> server1.wendellfreelibrary.org% echo "$SANE_DEFAULT_DEVICE"
> hpaio:/net/Officejet_Pro_L7700?ip=192.168.1.253
>
> xsane just pops up a little window "scanning for devices", the "no
> devices available".
>
> I believe I have things properly setup with cups:
>
> In /etc/cups/printers.conf:
>
> <Printer Officejet_Color>
> Info 
> Location Printer Area
> #DeviceURI socket://192.168.1.253:9100
> DeviceURI hp:/net/Officejet_Pro_L7700?ip=192.168.1.253
> State Idle
> StateTime 1211313246
> Accepting Yes
> Shared Yes
> JobSheets none none
> QuotaPeriod 0
> PageLimit 0
> KLimit 0
> OpPolicy default
> ErrorPolicy retry-job
> </Printer>
>
>
>   
I am very interested in this problem as I seem to have it myself.  My 
Printer/Scanner is HPc6180.
Do you have HPLIP installed? 
The version that comes with CentOS is so old that (1.67, I think) that 
if you have a printer newer than
about four years old it won't be supported.  I seem to be able to fake 
the printing part by selecting another
printer that should be similar.  The scanning part however is not so 
simple it seems.  I installed HPLIP
version 3.9.8 and after a grueling effort to satisfy the dependencies, 
except for dbus-python or python-dbus,
it seems to be referred to both ways.  HPLIP still claims that it is not 
installed even though it is.  Perhaps my version,
although up to date according to yum, is too old.  In any case my 
printer is supported and I was able to scan
one frame and then it never worked again.  On any attempt to scan xsane 
puts up a dialog that says "Failed to open device 'v4l:/dev/video': 
Invalid argument" and then quits.  That device I think is the camera 
which was there and working fine when the single scan succeeded.  My 
Windows XP computer is able to scan so I am confident that the printer 
hardware is
not at fault.

Every time I install a newer version of CentOS (now Linux rwells-cts 
2.6.18-128.7.1.el5.centos.plus #1 SMP Mon Aug 24 10:03:38 EDT 2009 
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux) on a Lenovo X200 Thinkpad this scanner 
setup is a real
PITA.
Any way I am looking forward to anything you learn as we go forward.

cheers,
roger wells

-- 
Roger Wells, P.E.
SAIC
221 Third St
Newport, RI 02840
401-847-4210 (voice)
401-849-1585 (fax)
roger.k.wells at saic.com