How to Fix Scanners to Work on Unix
The vast majority of scanners enjoy full support on the Windows operating system, but such support is lacking when it comes to most Unix and Linux distributions. In those cases, you will not be able to use your normal Windows-based drivers for your scanner. There is a workaround solution available to add basic support for your scanner within the Unix operating system. Installing this workaround may involve some trial-and-error, due to the relative complexity of the installation process.
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Instructions
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Open a terminal console on your Unix desktop and check your scanner's USB connection with the computer. With the scanner unplugged, enter "lsusb" into the console and press "Enter." This should produce a listing of USB ports and any active devices that are plugged in. Enter "grep "S: P" /proc/bus/USB/devices" to produce a list of USB ports and devices. Enter "ls/proc/bus/USB" to produce a list of directories for each USB controller. Enter "lsusb" to produce the USB port and device list again, only this time, search for the name of your scanner in the output.
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Download the front-end and back-end packages for SANE and save them onto your computer. Install the SANE back-end by creating its own group with the command "groupadd --g 70 scanner." Enter the following commands to initiate installation of the SANE back-end:
sed -i 's/SYSFS/ATTRS/g' tools/sane-desc.c &&
./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc &&
make
Enter "make install &&" and "install -m 644 -v tools/udev/libsane.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/65-scanner.rules" to complete installation of the SANE back-end.
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Install the SANE front-end by entering "./configure --prefix=/usr &&" and "make" into the terminal console. Enter "make install &&" and "install -v -m644 doc/sane.png xscanimage-icon-48x48-2.png \ /usr/share/sane" to complete the installation.
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Enter "scanimage --list -devices" into the terminal console after the installation. The output will display a list of scanners currently plugged into the computer. Enter "xscanimage" in the terminal console or exit the terminal and access "xscanimage" from the "Applications" folder to access the scanner.
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