May 26, 2003

Scanner on Linux, Anyone

And, speaking of things which annoy me, I'm about to return the third scanner that I have bought, brought home, and discovered is not supported. Two of these scanners are listed as supported, but SANE doesn't find them when I plug them in.

Yes, I expect I could spend 5 hours tinkering and get it to work, but I don't have the patience for that sort of nonsense, and, besides, that would probably result in something that sort-of worked, most of the time. And I *really* don't have the patience for that.

Can someone please tell me what scanner I should buy, if I just want to plug it in and have it work? Am I really going to be tied into the $200+ range to get something that will work out of the box? That would suck, but I'd rather know that now than go through the entire inventory at CompUSless one at a time.

It would probably be faster to write down their inventory, and bring it home to compare against the supported list, since the list is 31 pages printed, and I don't particularly want to print it all out.

I look forward to the day when hardware manufacturers are aware of Linux to a sufficient degree to mention it on the box, ship drivers, and mention it on their web site.

Posted by rbowen at May 26, 2003 09:21 AM | TrackBack
Comments

Try one of the older SCSI-based Microtek Scanmaker series (X6/X6EL, replaced by X12). I began using Microteks (300, 600, etc.) on Macintosh years ago when I worked in a graphics lab and they have been reliable and reasonably easy to get working under Linux/FreeBSD. What they are not is inexpensive- the lower end ones currently retail for about $225 and they go up from there.

Posted by: technik on May 26, 2003 11:36 AM

I guess I should have specified that I'm looking for serial or USB. I don't really want to have to buy a scsi card to use my scanner.

Posted by: DrBacchus on May 26, 2003 11:46 AM

I got an Epson Photo Perfection a while ago because it works with linux. It was a hassle to get the Linux USB drivers to detect it (I think it was) but when that was done it was smooth sailing.

Of course I forgot all the details as I've since migrated my desktop to OS X.

- ask

Posted by: Ask Bjoern Hansen on June 4, 2003 06:19 AM
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