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(In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1)

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  (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> - 2014-10-03 00:46 +0000
    Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2014-10-02 22:17 -0400
    Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2014-10-03 11:41 +0100
      Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> - 2014-10-03 11:41 +0000
        Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> - 2014-10-04 06:28 +0000
          Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2014-10-04 09:39 +0100
            Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> - 2014-10-04 12:46 +0000
              Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2014-10-05 03:08 +0000
                Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> - 2014-10-05 03:36 +0000
                  Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> - 2014-10-05 03:43 +0000
                    Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> - 2014-10-05 08:48 +0000
    Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) notbob <notbob@nothome.com> - 2014-10-03 16:26 +0000
      Re: (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1) John Forkosh <forkosh@panix.com> - 2014-10-04 04:06 +0000

#12196 — (In)sane for Brother MFC-J6920DW (on slackware 14.1)

Having a bit of trouble correctly configuring scanning for
Brother MFC-J6920DW connected wirelessly to a slackware 14.1 box.
In particular, scanimage segfaults, though scanimage -L detects the
device. I've done everything as correctly as I could figure out from
  http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:brother_printer_installation
and from the instructions at
  http://support.brother.com/g/b/
which are displayed while downloading the printer/scanner/fax stuff.
  (By the way, those brother.com instructions display while downloading,
   so for anybody who wants them, I cut-and-pasted them all at
     http://www.forkosh.com/mfcinstallnotes.txt
   which are specifically for the MFC-J6920DW, though lots of those
   mfc printers are pretty similar.)
Cups immediately added the printer, and printing works fine.
And the scanner works "locally" when I plug in a (fat95-formatted)
usb stick and walk it over to the pc after scanning images onto it,
so I assume the hardware's okay.
   And the sane stuff looks okay as far as I can tell, e.g.,
brsaneconfig4 ran correctly, /etc/sane.d/dll.conf was correctly modified,
etc. But scanimage segfaults. The scanner actually begins to scan,
just barely, and then scanimage segfaults and the scanner resets itself.
And a file containing 0 bytes is placed in ~/brscan/ .
I messed around, but nothing had any effect on that behavior.
Any suggestions how to proceed? Thanks,
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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#12199

JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> writes:

> Having a bit of trouble correctly configuring scanning for
> Brother MFC-J6920DW connected wirelessly to a slackware 14.1 box.
> In particular, scanimage segfaults, though scanimage -L detects the
> device. I've done everything as correctly as I could figure out from
>   http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:brother_printer_installation
> and from the instructions at
>   http://support.brother.com/g/b/
> which are displayed while downloading the printer/scanner/fax stuff.
>   (By the way, those brother.com instructions display while downloading,
>    so for anybody who wants them, I cut-and-pasted them all at
>      http://www.forkosh.com/mfcinstallnotes.txt
>    which are specifically for the MFC-J6920DW, though lots of those
>    mfc printers are pretty similar.)
> Cups immediately added the printer, and printing works fine.
> And the scanner works "locally" when I plug in a (fat95-formatted)
> usb stick and walk it over to the pc after scanning images onto it,
> so I assume the hardware's okay.
>    And the sane stuff looks okay as far as I can tell, e.g.,
> brsaneconfig4 ran correctly, /etc/sane.d/dll.conf was correctly modified,
> etc. But scanimage segfaults. The scanner actually begins to scan,
> just barely, and then scanimage segfaults and the scanner resets itself.
> And a file containing 0 bytes is placed in ~/brscan/ .
> I messed around, but nothing had any effect on that behavior.
> Any suggestions how to proceed? Thanks,

Here:

 http://www.sane-project.org/

Don't know anything about Slackware support.
Fedora has a good support forum.

-- 
Dan Espen

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#12202

On 03/10/14 01:46, JohnF wrote:
> Having a bit of trouble correctly configuring scanning for
> Brother MFC-J6920DW connected wirelessly to a slackware 14.1 box.
> In particular, scanimage segfaults, though scanimage -L detects the
> device. I've done everything as correctly as I could figure out from
>    http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:brother_printer_installation
> and from the instructions at
>    http://support.brother.com/g/b/
> which are displayed while downloading the printer/scanner/fax stuff.
>    (By the way, those brother.com instructions display while downloading,
>     so for anybody who wants them, I cut-and-pasted them all at
>       http://www.forkosh.com/mfcinstallnotes.txt
>     which are specifically for the MFC-J6920DW, though lots of those
>     mfc printers are pretty similar.)
> Cups immediately added the printer, and printing works fine.
> And the scanner works "locally" when I plug in a (fat95-formatted)
> usb stick and walk it over to the pc after scanning images onto it,
> so I assume the hardware's okay.
>     And the sane stuff looks okay as far as I can tell, e.g.,
> brsaneconfig4 ran correctly, /etc/sane.d/dll.conf was correctly modified,
> etc. But scanimage segfaults. The scanner actually begins to scan,
> just barely, and then scanimage segfaults and the scanner resets itself.
> And a file containing 0 bytes is placed in ~/brscan/ .
> I messed around, but nothing had any effect on that behavior.
> Any suggestions how to proceed? Thanks,
>

Mmm. There's a gui scanner that uses very conservative defaults and 
tends to work better for me. SimpleScan is it?

I've seen stuff segfault on *certain* scan settings.


-- 
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the 
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. – Erwin Knoll

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#12203

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 03/10/14 01:46, JohnF wrote:
>> Having a bit of trouble correctly configuring scanning for
>> Brother MFC-J6920DW connected wirelessly to a slackware 14.1 box.
>> In particular, scanimage segfaults, though scanimage -L detects the
>> device. I've done everything as correctly as I could figure out from
>>    http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:brother_printer_installation
>> and from the instructions at
>>    http://support.brother.com/g/b/
>> which are displayed while downloading the printer/scanner/fax stuff.
>>    (By the way, those brother.com instructions display while downloading,
>>     so for anybody who wants them, I cut-and-pasted them all at
>>       http://www.forkosh.com/mfcinstallnotes.txt
>>     which are specifically for the MFC-J6920DW, though lots of those
>>     mfc printers are pretty similar.)
>> Cups immediately added the printer, and printing works fine.
>> And the scanner works "locally" when I plug in a (fat95-formatted)
>> usb stick and walk it over to the pc after scanning images onto it,
>> so I assume the hardware's okay.
>>     And the sane stuff looks okay as far as I can tell, e.g.,
>> brsaneconfig4 ran correctly, /etc/sane.d/dll.conf was correctly modified,
>> etc. But scanimage segfaults. The scanner actually begins to scan,
>> just barely, and then scanimage segfaults and the scanner resets itself.
>> And a file containing 0 bytes is placed in ~/brscan/ .
>> I messed around, but nothing had any effect on that behavior.
>> Any suggestions how to proceed? Thanks,
>>
> 
> Mmm. There's a gui scanner that uses very conservative defaults and 
> tends to work better for me. SimpleScan is it?
> I've seen stuff segfault on certain scan settings.

Googling  linux brother "simple-scan"  gets hits suggesting
users are having similar problems with that package.
Sane says brother scanners are "unsupported", but the above
brother.com url lets you download drivers that they say will
get the sane stuff working. But I'll give that simple-scan
package a try if I can't get Brother's documented procedures
working after a little more twiddling. If nothing else,
maybe simple-scan will fail in some way that better hints
at what's going wrong. Thanks,
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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#12208

JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> On 03/10/14 01:46, JohnF wrote:
>>> Having a bit of trouble correctly configuring scanning for
>>> Brother MFC-J6920DW connected wirelessly to a slackware 14.1 box.
>>> In particular, scanimage segfaults, though scanimage -L detects the
>>> device. I've done everything as correctly as I could figure out from
>>>    http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:hardware:brother_printer_installation
>>> and from the instructions at
>>>    http://support.brother.com/g/b/
>>> which are displayed while downloading the printer/scanner/fax stuff.
>>>    (By the way, those brother.com instructions display while downloading,
>>>     so for anybody who wants them, I cut-and-pasted them all at
>>>       http://www.forkosh.com/mfcinstallnotes.txt
>>>     which are specifically for the MFC-J6920DW, though lots of those
>>>     mfc printers are pretty similar.)
>>> Cups immediately added the printer, and printing works fine.
>>> And the scanner works "locally" when I plug in a (fat95-formatted)
>>> usb stick and walk it over to the pc after scanning images onto it,
>>> so I assume the hardware's okay.
>>>     And the sane stuff looks okay as far as I can tell, e.g.,
>>> brsaneconfig4 ran correctly, /etc/sane.d/dll.conf was correctly modified,
>>> etc. But scanimage segfaults. The scanner actually begins to scan,
>>> just barely, and then scanimage segfaults and the scanner resets itself.
>>> And a file containing 0 bytes is placed in ~/brscan/ .
>>> I messed around, but nothing had any effect on that behavior.
>>> Any suggestions how to proceed? Thanks,
>>>
>> 
>> Mmm. There's a gui scanner that uses very conservative defaults and 
>> tends to work better for me. SimpleScan is it?
>> I've seen stuff segfault on certain scan settings.
> 
> Googling  linux brother "simple-scan"  gets hits suggesting
> users are having similar problems with that package.
> Sane says brother scanners are "unsupported", but the above
> brother.com url lets you download drivers that they say will
> get the sane stuff working. But I'll give that simple-scan
> package a try if I can't get Brother's documented procedures
> working after a little more twiddling. If nothing else,
> maybe simple-scan will fail in some way that better hints
> at what's going wrong. Thanks,

Sorry for following myself up, but wanted to report that:
  o xsane actually "just works",
  o whereas  scanimage > out.pdf  continues to segfault.
Hadn't tried xsane previously, but figured I'd try it now,
before installing simple-scan, since xsane is already installed.

So what kind of resources/whatever could scanimage
be using/accessing/whatever that's causing it to segfault
(presumably because I configured something it needs wrong,
which xsane either doesn't need or can recover from gracefully)?

If you/anybody are familiar with Brother MFC-J6920DW, or similar,
other things that continue to fail, and hopefully provide
additional clues, are...
  o I ran brscan-skey, and set up profiles through the mfc's
    browser interface, but "scan to network" from printer's panel
    just sits there for ~60secs and then reports "Sending error".
    Not very informative.
  o When setting up profiles, printer asks if you want a
    "Test Scan to Network". It also sits there for ~60secs
    and then reports, "Test Error Sending Error, This message
    will appear when you cannot access the destination folder.
    Make sure that. *Directory name is correct. *Directory is write-enabled."
That suggests an obvious error. I chmod'ed all paths/directories to 777,
and ultimately gave the printer a directory name of just  tmp  and
mkdir'ed a ~/tmp under my own ~/home, so there'd be a /tmp and a ~/tmp
regardless of where the printer wanted to look for one. But no luck.
So I'm thinking maybe it needs some kind of backslashed C:\windows\path\
(which is why I just gave it  tmp  with no / or \), or maybe the diagnostic
message is wrong and the printer's not correctly reporting why the
test scan is failing.
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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#12209

On 04/10/14 07:28, JohnF wrote:
> Sorry for following myself up, but wanted to report that:
>    o xsane actually "just works",
>    o whereas  scanimage > out.pdf  continues to segfault.
> Hadn't tried xsane previously, but figured I'd try it now,
> before installing simple-scan, since xsane is already installed.
>

Well that shows that its nothing particularly to do with the scanner, 
more an issue with scanimage.

PS try NOT using pdf output but pnm or whatever so you get a raw image


xsane has some sensible defaults, scanimage is probably asking the 
printer to do what it cannot do, and not handling the errors its getting 
back properly.

segfault is in the end the last ditch attempt to 'report an error' that 
the program itself fails to do :-)

> So what kind of resources/whatever could scanimage
> be using/accessing/whatever that's causing it to segfault
> (presumably because I configured something it needs wrong,
> which xsane either doesn't need or can recover from gracefully)?
>

Moe likely that you didn't configure it RIGHT.  and scanimage is badly 
written.

Most linux scanner software IS. Its the worst area of linux that I have 
come across.

It used to be printing, but when Apple got ahold of CUPS and put some 
effort in that got a lot better.


> If you/anybody are familiar with Brother MFC-J6920DW, or similar,
> other things that continue to fail, and hopefully provide
> additional clues, are...
>    o I ran brscan-skey, and set up profiles through the mfc's
>      browser interface, but "scan to network" from printer's panel
>      just sits there for ~60secs and then reports "Sending error".
>      Not very informative.
>    o When setting up profiles, printer asks if you want a
>      "Test Scan to Network". It also sits there for ~60secs
>      and then reports, "Test Error Sending Error, This message
>      will appear when you cannot access the destination folder.

One assumes that a scan to network' involves some actual destination 
server being ready to receive the data.

Not sure that this is relevant to the real issue which is getting that 
scanner to work when directly and locally connected.

Look I am guessing here, but I have been through similar pin with 
scanners on older linux. anyway my scanners have all died so I don't 
currently have this problem BUT.. certainly Xsane would work on default 
settings but would go apeshit on others on the scanners I had. And 
scanimage would often segfault on attempting to use drivers for other 
scanners that were not present. When I had success, it was by using 
simple-scan which simply doesn't invoke any cleverness at all.


The second thing is cured - or worked around - by removing all scanners 
from the configuration files except the ones you need ..comment them out.

The bad news is that scanning on Linux is a complete mess. IF you get 
the right scanner and use the right program, it works flawlessly. If you 
don't, it is well nigh impossible to get things working except in a 
specific case for a specific setting.

The problem is that no two manufacturers use exactly the same 
communication protocol to the actual chipsets, and the chipsets 
themselves may be capable of trying to do things to the scanner hardware 
that the hardware itself cannot support.

I suspect you have got over the first hurdle with the brother drivers, 
but are falling at the second.

Which is why Xsane is at least working.

Why no one has taken SANE and shaken it up and put time and effort into 
it I do not know.

http://www.sane-project.org/man/scanimage.1.html

list some useful command line options which you should explore.

However. If all you want is to scan a few documents and you are happy 
with xsane or simple-scan my advice is to simply use them and forget all 
the clever stuff. Likely as not it will still be buggy when the scanner 
has died a natural death.

Personally I use simple-scan as I think its easier to use and does 
things in the way I like.




-- 
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the 
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. – Erwin Knoll

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#12211

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 04/10/14 07:28, JohnF wrote:
>> Sorry for following myself up, but wanted to report that:
>>    o xsane actually "just works",
>>    o whereas  scanimage > out.pdf  continues to segfault.
>> Hadn't tried xsane previously, but figured I'd try it now,
>> before installing simple-scan, since xsane is already installed.

> Well that shows that its nothing particularly to do with the scanner, 
> more an issue with scanimage.
Yeah, maybe I outsmarted myself. I tried the command-line tool first,
figuring it would be simpler/more-straightforward/more-robust.
So it goes and segfaults, while the gui tool works like a charm.

> PS try NOT using pdf output but pnm or whatever so you get a raw image
Not an option, at least apparently not an option.
The printer's browser-based configuration screens give you
an option of either pdf or tiff. That's it. Seems a bit weird,
but I just tell `em, I don't explain `em:).

> xsane has some sensible defaults, scanimage is probably asking the 
> printer to do what it cannot do, and not handling the errors its getting 
> back properly.
> segfault is in the end the last ditch attempt to 'report an error' that 
> the program itself fails to do :-)
> 
>> So what kind of resources/whatever could scanimage
>> be using/accessing/whatever that's causing it to segfault
>> (presumably because I configured something it needs wrong,
>> which xsane either doesn't need or can recover from gracefully)?
> 
> More likely that you didn't configure it RIGHT.

I take it there's a subtle difference between "configured it wrong"
and "didn't configure it right"? :)

> and scanimage is badly written.
> Most linux scanner software IS. Its the worst area of linux that I have 
> come across.
> It used to be printing, but when Apple got ahold of CUPS and put some 
> effort in that got a lot better.

This was my "first experience" with a scanner.
And it was indeed pretty awful!

>> If you/anybody are familiar with Brother MFC-J6920DW, or similar,
>> other things that continue to fail, and hopefully provide
>> additional clues, are...
>>    o I ran brscan-skey, and set up profiles through the mfc's
>>      browser interface, but "scan to network" from printer's panel
>>      just sits there for ~60secs and then reports "Sending error".
>>      Not very informative.
>>    o When setting up profiles, printer asks if you want a
>>      "Test Scan to Network". It also sits there for ~60secs
>>      and then reports, "Test Error Sending Error, This message
>>      will appear when you cannot access the destination folder.
> 
> One assumes that a scan to network' involves some actual destination 
> server being ready to receive the data.

It seems to be the only viable option from the browser menus.
  o There's "local" (to a usb stick), and that worked when I tested it.
  o There's "ftp" which I didn't try.
  o And then there's "test scan to network", which I assumed would
    be the one to use when connected wirelessly, especially since the
    scanner was indeed detected by sane-find-scanner and scanimage -L.

> Not sure that this is relevant to the real issue which is getting that 
> scanner to work when directly and locally connected.
I don't know either. I was just trying to put together all the
info I could generate, hoping it would add up to something
suggesting an underlying problem.

> Look I am guessing here, but I have been through similar pain with 
> scanners on older linux. anyway my scanners have all died so I don't 
> currently have this problem BUT.. certainly Xsane would work on default 
> settings but would go apeshit on others on the scanners I had. And 
> scanimage would often segfault on attempting to use drivers for other 
> scanners that were not present. When I had success, it was by using 
> simple-scan which simply doesn't invoke any cleverness at all.
> 
> The second thing is cured - or worked around - by removing all scanners 
> from the configuration files except the ones you need...comment them out.

I looked at that at some point, but not too carefully.
I'll remember to do that rigorously when I get back to
messing with scanimage (see below).

> The bad news is that scanning on Linux is a complete mess. IF you get 
> the right scanner and use the right program, it works flawlessly. If you 
> don't, it is well nigh impossible to get things working except in a 
> specific case for a specific setting.
>    The problem is that no two manufacturers use exactly the same 
> communication protocol to the actual chipsets, and the chipsets 
> themselves may be capable of trying to do things to the scanner hardware 
> that the hardware itself cannot support.
>    I suspect you have got over the first hurdle with the brother drivers, 
> but are failing at the second. Which is why Xsane is at least working.

If I understand you, I don't think it's the second.
That (if I understand you) would also be a problem under Windows.
But I couldn't google any analogous (as best I could define
"analogous" in this situation) Windows problems.

> Why no one has taken SANE and shaken it up and put time and effort into 
> it I do not know.
>    http://www.sane-project.org/man/scanimage.1.html
> lists some useful command line options which you should explore.

I'll do that when I get back to messing with scanimage (see below).

> However. If all you want is to scan a few documents and you are happy 
> with xsane or simple-scan my advice is to simply use them and forget all 
> the clever stuff.

Well, if "a few" = about five thousand, then you've hit the nail
on the head. I never wanted to turn configuring the scanner into
a research project; just wanted to use the thing.
   I'll probably eventually get back to messing with scanimage,
but for the time being I'm just going to sacrifice a few chickens
to acknowledge my thanks to the scanner gods, and hope I can get
some actual work done without displeasing them again.

> Likely as not it will still be buggy when the scanner 
> has died a natural death.
> Personally I use simple-scan as I think it's easier to use and does 
> things in the way I like.

xsane has what seems to me a marvelous way of letting you specify
the desired scan area by dragging your mouse over a full scan preview.
I've got 10"x12" originals, so I needed the tabloid-size MFC-J6920DW,
which seems to be the smallest common size large enough for 10"x12".
But I was afraid I'd have to crop the pdf's afterwards, as there's
no standard 10"x12" papersize. But xsane does it perfectly.
In fact, the scanner even stops before scanning the entire 17" length
of its flatbed. So xsane must really know how to talk to it.
Thanks for all your help, np,
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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#12212

On 2014-10-04, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
>...
>
> xsane has what seems to me a marvelous way of letting you specify
> the desired scan area by dragging your mouse over a full scan preview.
> I've got 10"x12" originals, so I needed the tabloid-size MFC-J6920DW,
> which seems to be the smallest common size large enough for 10"x12".
> But I was afraid I'd have to crop the pdf's afterwards, as there's
> no standard 10"x12" papersize. But xsane does it perfectly.
> In fact, the scanner even stops before scanning the entire 17" length
> of its flatbed. So xsane must really know how to talk to it.
> Thanks for all your help, np,

If/when you get the command-line tool working without
segfaulting, scanimage lets you choose the scan area.  For
example, I have the following C-shell script to scan an image so
that piping the output through pnmtops to lpr gives an 8.5x11"
copy on my particular laser printer that is as close to exact
size and location as I could get.

    if ( $?color ) then
      set mode = '--mode Color'
    else if ( $?gray ) then
      set mode = '--mode Gray'
    else
      set mode = ''
    endif

    scanimage -d hp $mode -l 8 -t 4 -x 203 -y 267 > $outfile

HTH

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

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#12213

Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:
> On 2014-10-04, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
>>...
>> xsane has what seems to me a marvelous way of letting you specify
>> the desired scan area by dragging your mouse over a full scan preview.
>> I've got 10"x12" originals, so I needed the tabloid-size MFC-J6920DW,
>> which seems to be the smallest common size large enough for 10"x12".
>> But I was afraid I'd have to crop the pdf's afterwards, as there's
>> no standard 10"x12" papersize. But xsane does it perfectly.
>> In fact, the scanner even stops before scanning the entire 17" length
>> of its flatbed. So xsane must really know how to talk to it.
>> Thanks for all your help, np,
> 
> If/when you get the command-line tool working without
> segfaulting, scanimage lets you choose the scan area.  For
> example, I have the following C-shell script to scan an image so
> that piping the output through pnmtops to lpr gives an 8.5x11"
> copy on my particular laser printer that is as close to exact
> size and location as I could get.
>    if ( $?color ) then
>      set mode = '--mode Color'
>    else if ( $?gray ) then
>      set mode = '--mode Gray'
>    else
>      set mode = ''
>    endif
> 
>    scanimage -d hp $mode -l 8 -t 4 -x 203 -y 267 > $outfile
> HTH

Thanks, Robert. That'll definitely help if/when I can get it
working. I take it you have. Just curious -- what make/model
scanner are you using? And what linux distribution (I doubt
that's relevant, but just in case...)?
   I'd looked at the man scanimage page, but just carefully
enough to test it, and missed those -x and -y options, which,
on second look, they seem to have hidden underneath the examples
and -l option, with no separate paragraph of their own.
Thanks for the info,
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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#12214

On 2014-10-05, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:
>> On 2014-10-04, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
>>>...
>>> xsane has what seems to me a marvelous way of letting you specify
>>> the desired scan area by dragging your mouse over a full scan preview.
>>> I've got 10"x12" originals, so I needed the tabloid-size MFC-J6920DW,
>>> which seems to be the smallest common size large enough for 10"x12".
>>> But I was afraid I'd have to crop the pdf's afterwards, as there's
>>> no standard 10"x12" papersize. But xsane does it perfectly.
>>> In fact, the scanner even stops before scanning the entire 17" length
>>> of its flatbed. So xsane must really know how to talk to it.
>>> Thanks for all your help, np,
>> 
>> If/when you get the command-line tool working without
>> segfaulting, scanimage lets you choose the scan area.  For
>> example, I have the following C-shell script to scan an image so
>> that piping the output through pnmtops to lpr gives an 8.5x11"
>> copy on my particular laser printer that is as close to exact
>> size and location as I could get.
>>    if ( $?color ) then
>>      set mode = '--mode Color'
>>    else if ( $?gray ) then
>>      set mode = '--mode Gray'
>>    else
>>      set mode = ''
>>    endif
>> 
>>    scanimage -d hp $mode -l 8 -t 4 -x 203 -y 267 > $outfile
>> HTH
>
> Thanks, Robert. That'll definitely help if/when I can get it
> working. I take it you have. Just curious -- what make/model
> scanner are you using? And what linux distribution (I doubt
> that's relevant, but just in case...)?
>    I'd looked at the man scanimage page, but just carefully
> enough to test it, and missed those -x and -y options, which,
> on second look, they seem to have hidden underneath the examples
> and -l option, with no separate paragraph of their own.
> Thanks for the info,

Yes, the -l, -t, -x, and -y options are the key to controlling
the scan area.

To answer the question, my scanner is an HP ScanJet 6300C
(purchased in 2000-2001 because it has SCSI).  The printer is a
Brother HL-5140.  Distro is Debian Wheezy, but IIRC the script
worked okay on Mageia 1 or 2 and maybe Mandriva.  To calibrate
the numbers, I drew a V with the point near the middle of edge
edge of the paper, made a copy, compared the copy vs. original,
and adjusted numbers to improve the alignment.

HTH

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@jacob21819.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

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#12215

Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:
> On 2014-10-05, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
>> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@jacob21819.net> wrote:
>>> On 2014-10-04, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
>>>>...
>>>> xsane has what seems to me a marvelous way of letting you specify
>>>> the desired scan area by dragging your mouse over a full scan preview.
>>>> I've got 10"x12" originals, so I needed the tabloid-size MFC-J6920DW,
>>>> which seems to be the smallest common size large enough for 10"x12".
>>>> But I was afraid I'd have to crop the pdf's afterwards, as there's
>>>> no standard 10"x12" papersize. But xsane does it perfectly.
>>>> In fact, the scanner even stops before scanning the entire 17" length
>>>> of its flatbed. So xsane must really know how to talk to it.
>>>> Thanks for all your help, np,
>>> 
>>> If/when you get the command-line tool working without
>>> segfaulting, scanimage lets you choose the scan area.  For
>>> example, I have the following C-shell script to scan an image so
>>> that piping the output through pnmtops to lpr gives an 8.5x11"
>>> copy on my particular laser printer that is as close to exact
>>> size and location as I could get.
>>>    if ( $?color ) then
>>>      set mode = '--mode Color'
>>>    else if ( $?gray ) then
>>>      set mode = '--mode Gray'
>>>    else
>>>      set mode = ''
>>>    endif
>>> 
>>>    scanimage -d hp $mode -l 8 -t 4 -x 203 -y 267 > $outfile
>>> HTH Robert Riches
>>
>> Thanks, Robert. That'll definitely help if/when I can get it
>> working. I take it you have. Just curious -- what make/model
>> scanner are you using? And what linux distribution (I doubt
>> that's relevant, but just in case...)?
>>    I'd looked at the man scanimage page, but just carefully
>> enough to test it, and missed those -x and -y options, which,
>> on second look, they seem to have hidden underneath the examples
>> and -l option, with no separate paragraph of their own.
>> Thanks for the info,
> 
> Yes, the -l, -t, -x, and -y options are the key
> to controlling the scan area.

Yes, now if I can only figure out the key
to that --nosegfault option :)

> To answer the question, my scanner is an HP ScanJet 6300C
> (purchased in 2000-2001 because it has SCSI). The printer is a
> Brother HL-5140. Distro is Debian Wheezy, but IIRC the script
> worked okay on Mageia 1 or 2 and maybe Mandriva.  To calibrate
> the numbers, I drew a V with the point near the middle of edge
> edge of the paper, made a copy, compared the copy vs. original,
> and adjusted numbers to improve the alignment.
> HTH Robert Riches

Interesting. The hplip stuff
  http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html
is supposed to provide excellent linux support,
though I suppose there was none of that in 2001.
Judging from what np was saying about scanners and
linux, I'm guessing you must have had (lots?) more
trouble in 2001 than I had recently. But that's
probably not relevant to diagnosing installation
problems today.
  I'd been thinking of getting a tabloid-sized
HP-7610, figuring its hplip support would make
installation a snap. But I like Brother stuff
better (have HL-5050 and HL-5370DW printers),
like I'm inferring you do from your HL-5140,
and ended up going with the MFC-J6920DW.
Not sure I'd do it again if I had to do it over.
Thanks for your help, Robert,
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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#12206

On 2014-10-03, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
> Having a bit of trouble correctly configuring scanning for
> Brother MFC-J6920DW connected wirelessly to a slackware 14.1 box.

Here are all the Brother drivers for both printer and scanner:

<http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?c=us&lang=en&prod=mfcj6920dw_us_eu_as&os=127>

I run Slackware 14.1 and have a new Brother laser printer/copy/fax
machine.  I downloaded the .rpm drivers, then changed them to Slack
pkgs with:

rpm2txz -c -S -n -d  

....then installed them as root using pkgtool.  Install the LPR pkg
first.  I can't say about the scanner drivers, as my scanner is a
separate Epson.  Good luck.

nb

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#12207

notbob <notbob@nothome.com> wrote:
> On 2014-10-03, JohnF <john@please.see.sig.for.email.com> wrote:
>> Having a bit of trouble correctly configuring scanning for
>> Brother MFC-J6920DW connected wirelessly to a slackware 14.1 box.
> 
> Here are all the Brother drivers for both printer and scanner:
>   http://support.brother.com/g/b/downloadlist.aspx?
>   c=us&lang=en&prod=mfcj6920dw_us_eu_as&os=127
> I run Slackware 14.1 and have a new Brother laser printer/copy/fax
> machine.  I downloaded the .rpm drivers, then changed them to Slack
> pkgs with:
>   rpm2txz -c -S -n -d  
> ....then installed them as root using pkgtool. Install the LPR pkg
> first. I can't say about the scanner drivers, as my scanner is a
> separate Epson. Good luck. nb

Thanks, nb. Already did all that (except I used rpm2tgz),
as per snipped part of original post. And printer functionality
already works fine. But not scanner. Similar kind of brother
scan problem described at
   http://askubuntu.com/questions/486699/brother-dcp-7065dn-ubuntu-14-04-64bit-can-print-to-network-printer-but-cannot
   That's ubuntu, but I don't think it's a distribution-specific
problem, except maybe for slackware's rpm difficulties (which I
think I already know how to deal with). But the solution discussed
there ("restart the computer") didn't work for me.
-- 
John Forkosh  ( mailto:  j@f.com  where j=john and f=forkosh )

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