links for 2007-01-31

links for 2007-01-29

MOI

j’adore l’escalade et je joue du violon .je suis dans un tres bon college ou les professeurs sont tres gentils .

Daily Links

Wrestling a Canoscan N670U / N676U / LiDE20 scanner in Edgy

My Canoscan N670U scanner, stopped working sometime between Hoary and Dapper (that was some moons ago, paleface). Last souvenir was an horrible screeching noise coming out of the said scanner. But it did used to scan under Windows (98 SE, if you really need to know).
After moving office, installing broadband & Edgy, I decided I would teach this equipment to work, or chuck it.

  • Receipes for Canoscan N670U are valid for N676U and LiDE20
  • Canoscan N670U scanner is really a Plustek
  • Scan with ubuntu is made via xsane, a frontend for sane (Scanner Access Now Easy), shipped with ubuntu dapper (xsane 0.9.9.1, with sane 1.0.18 libraries)
  • CANOSCAN N670U scanner works ok with sane as shown here
  • they are many ways to configurate plustek backend for use with xsane, but the easiest is to go to this page
  • edit /etc/sane.d/plustek.conf this way
    • $ sudo nano /etc/sane.d/plustek.conf),
    • copy & paste code from « Fichier de configuration« 
    • save («ctrl +X» then «y» then «enter»)
  • edit /etc/sane.d/dll.d/dll.conf (because ubuntu is a debian flavor, the correct directory is not /etc/sane.d/dll.conf)
    • $ sudo nano /etc/sane.d/dll.d/dll.conf),
    • copy & paste code from « Fichier dll.conf« 
    • save («ctrl +X» then «y» then «enter»)
  • Check if the usb scanner recognized by ubuntu (use $ lsusb to scan your usb ports. Canoscan should appear in the list
    Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
    Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0084 Microsoft Corp.
    Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
    Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04a9:262b Canon, Inc. LaserShot LBP-1120 Printer
    Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

    I was worried 2 minutes, then changed the usb cable, redid a $ lsusb and all went OK…
    Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
    Bus 002 Device 074: ID 04a9:220d Canon, Inc. CanoScan N670U/N676U/LiDE 20
    Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:0084 Microsoft Corp.
    Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
    Bus 001 Device 002: ID 04a9:262b Canon, Inc. LaserShot LBP-1120 Printer
    Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
  • then do $ sudo sane-find-scanner to be sure xsane and scanner can talk together
    # 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.
    # Also you need support for SCSI Generic (sg) in your operating system.
    # If using Linux, try "modprobe sg".
    found USB scanner (vendor=0x04a9 [Canon], product=0x220d [CanoScan], chip=LM9832/3) at libusb:002:074
    # 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’re done, run xsane (Applicatione » Images » xsane)
  • I still experienced the screeching noise when using the « aperçu » command («CTRL + 1» then «Alt + P»). I will check on this issue later on but until then, my advice is « dont use aperçu« 
  • UPDATE : Gerhard Jaeger, maintainer of the plustek-backend above mentionned, « suspect[s] that the current parameterset (which is the same since 1.0.15) makes the device operate nearly the limit, and that there are some devices beyond » [X] and suggests « To fix this, you’ll need to upgrade to [o]ne of the latest CVS snapshots and to compile/install on your own » [X]

Daily Links

Last night a distro saved my life…

This is how you find out how the open-source economic system works.
My ubuntu 6.10 ‘Edgy Eft’ stalled. I suspected a Firefox memory leak, not a good guess as I had recently upgraded to 2.0.0.1 (and recovered the fox logo, thanks to the mozilla foundation). A quick Google told me that this was not the case, but I suffered from the « upgrade to edgy and hibernate swap uuid problem ». A quick nano /fstab to recover my swap uuid, copy/paste in /etc/instramfs-tools/conf.d/resume, followed by update-inistramfs -u -k $(uname -r) did the trick (well, it’s all described in French ubuntu wiki).
Alas, poor Yorik, my machine refused to restart on reboot.
NO sweat, I rebooted, fschk kicked in, solved a few (!) issues… and made my day !

    Conclusions:

  1. Imagine THAT with another OS…
  2. When they say that some distros are for geek only, it is true. I am lucky to have installed a flavor with plenty of autodetect fs checks at bootup AND a huge userbase which contributes to many forums & howtos
  3. I use Ubuntu since 5.04, after some tries at Knoppix, Easylinux and Debian (yes, in that order). I never gave a dime to anybody (well, free as in beer also…). Because I didn’t feel why I should. This is probably a cultural issue with us multicultural expats, never at ease in our country (another story…). Now I know why I will donate. Donate few, donate often, donate to many. To wikipedia, to ubuntu, to EFF, to whoever gives to the community without expecting the community to give back, but who still has a life to live, kids to feed, house to pay…