# Epson Perfection 1260 not working in SANE? [solved]

## ultraslinky

Hello fellow gentoo users  :Smile: 

I am having problems getting my old but still fine Epson Perfection 1260 Photo working on gentoo.

The premise is: this scanner works flawlessly under WinXp and Ubuntu. So the device works.

I read this page: http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Epson_USB_Scanner

I followed all the steps, i didn't do anything that different actually. The problem is that "sane-find-scanners" finds my scanner:

```

[...]

found USB scanner (vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x011d [EPSO��������������], chip=LM9832/3) at libusb:002:002

  # Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by

  # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage.

[...]

```

But then "scanimage -L" doesn't find anything:

```

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).

```

So ok, i start tinkering with the config files for SANE. I tried putting the line "usb 0x04b8 0x011d" in all the epson config files (/etc/sane.d/epson.conf and epson2.conf) but that doesn't change the output for "scanimage -L". Instead if i put that line in /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf, stuff starts to happen:

```
device `epkowa:usb:002:003' is a Epson (unknown model) flatbed scanner

```

but if i try "scanimage > out.pnm" the only thing i get is this, after about 20 seconds of hanging:

```

scanimage: open of device epkowa:usb:002:002 failed: Invalid argument

```

This is my lsusb output, and lsusb -v output for the scanner  :Smile: 

```
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0ac8:c326 Z-Star Microelectronics Corp. 

Bus 003 Device 002: ID 0a5c:2101 Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 04b8:011d Seiko Epson Corp. Perfection 1260 Photo
```

```
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 04b8:011d Seiko Epson Corp. Perfection 1260 Photo

Device Descriptor:

  bLength                18

  bDescriptorType         1

  bcdUSB               1.10

  bDeviceClass          255 Vendor Specific Class

  bDeviceSubClass         0 

  bDeviceProtocol       255 

  bMaxPacketSize0         8

  idVendor           0x04b8 Seiko Epson Corp.

  idProduct          0x011d Perfection 1260 Photo

  bcdDevice            1.00

  iManufacturer          64 EPSON

  iProduct               77 EPSO??????????????

  iSerial                 0 

  bNumConfigurations      1

  Configuration Descriptor:

    bLength                 9

    bDescriptorType         2

    wTotalLength           39

    bNumInterfaces          1

    bConfigurationValue     1

    iConfiguration          0 

    bmAttributes         0xc0

      Self Powered

    MaxPower                2mA

    Interface Descriptor:

      bLength                 9

      bDescriptorType         4

      bInterfaceNumber        0

      bAlternateSetting       0

      bNumEndpoints           3

      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class

      bInterfaceSubClass      0 

      bInterfaceProtocol    255 

      iInterface              0 

      Endpoint Descriptor:

        bLength                 7

        bDescriptorType         5

        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN

        bmAttributes            3

          Transfer Type            Interrupt

          Synch Type               None

          Usage Type               Data

        wMaxPacketSize     0x0001  1x 1 bytes

        bInterval              16

      Endpoint Descriptor:

        bLength                 7

        bDescriptorType         5

        bEndpointAddress     0x82  EP 2 IN

        bmAttributes            2

          Transfer Type            Bulk

          Synch Type               None

          Usage Type               Data

        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes

        bInterval               0

      Endpoint Descriptor:

        bLength                 7

        bDescriptorType         5

        bEndpointAddress     0x03  EP 3 OUT

        bmAttributes            2

          Transfer Type            Bulk

          Synch Type               None

          Usage Type               Data

        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes

        bInterval               0

Device Status:     0x0001

  Self Powered
```

Thanks in advance for your help!Last edited by ultraslinky on Wed Dec 07, 2011 4:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

----------

## EasterParade

Not certain whether that helps you. 

I have an Epson Perfection 1200 and that old scanner uses epson instead of 

epson2.

So go have a look at /etc/sane.d/dll.conf and uncomment epson or 

comment epson2 and fiddle around with that .

I remember I had to comment driver epson2 to get that old scanner to

work with sane.

As I said dun know if that gets you any further   :Smile: 

----------

## ultraslinky

Hey transsib, thanks for the suggestion! 

In the epson backend conf file there is a comment which lists my 1260 as an example of unsupported scanner by the epson backend, so i ruled that one out (i tried it anyway and predictably it didn't work). But epson2 isn't detecting anything either. However i haven't tried disabling the epson backend and trying only with epson2. I'll try that now and I'll see what happens  :Smile:  danke schön!

----------

## EasterParade

ultraslinky wrote:

 *Quote:*   

> In the epson backend conf file there is a comment which lists my 1260 as an example of unsupported scanner by the epson backend

 

Hm...that´s strange as the compatibility list on the sane homepage lists ur scanner as

being fully supported with the epson2 driver.

http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-EPSON

It should work for u - good luck   :Smile: 

EDIT

I have a CANON LIDE which I use more often than the Epson but I remember having had problems 

with activating the correct driver myself. I realized that I cannot have both drivers uncommented

and activated for the Epson. One of em´s got to be switched off by commenting it with # 

Urs seems to work with epson2 if the sane device list is to be trusted and it usually is. So I´d comment Epson and se if Sane wants to recognize ur scanner now.

----------

## EasterParade

There is yet another idea but I suppose u already have that.

In /etc/make.conf u should list the sane-backends so that sane-backends

actually builds the necessary drivers

```
ALSA_CARDS="ctxfi"

INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse"

VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"

LINGUAS="de"

CAMERAS="canon ptp2"

SANE_BACKENDS="epson epson2 genesys"
```

Only a sidenote   :Confused: 

----------

## ultraslinky

OK, now i commented the epson line in the dll.conf file... It still won't recognize anything.

That website you gave me seems very useful, but it says that epson2 doesn't support my scanner? and it says that epkowa should support it, when it doesn't, i tried (or maybe i'm doing something wrong!). 

Let's try that plustek backend, it says it is supported because it has the same chip as pluteks apparently. let's try. This is the link: http://www.gjaeger.de/scanner/plustek/#epson  :Smile: 

Thanks for your help transsib!

----------

## EasterParade

Ups yep u´r right; 1260 is partly working with plustek.

I apologize.

I know for a fact that people have it working in openSuse

Some have to work on permissions as scanimage -L shows 

the scanner only when issued as user root.

----------

## ultraslinky

I feel like an idiot  :Very Happy:  so now i was reading the comments on plustek.conf and i was realizing that this backend wants to create a device node in /dev... and i realized that i'm not executing as root argh! i tried giving it some root privilidges and it's working fine! 

So this is solved! But how can i let xsane access the scanner without giving it root privilidges? I'm now using "sudo xsane" and it works... but i'd like to avoid giving it superuser privildges  :Smile: 

----------

## EasterParade

 *Quote:*   

> I feel like an idiot 

 

and why should u feel like that?   :Very Happy: 

U´r certainly no such thing 

I believe u should add user to groups plugdev and scanner.

There is also a file /etc/hotplug/usb/libsane.usermap where ur 

scanner should be listed with information that lsusb can give u.

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Epson_USB_Scanner

May be ur scanner is already listed there. If not above link can help 

u find the necessary data to put in there.

Hope it helps as giving xsane root privileges is a bad idea.

Always amazing to see how many scanners just dun work with Linux

especially the newer ones. And when one works the next in line has 

different hardware built into em which makes it hard to impossible

to make them work at all.

If all efforts would have failed I could have given u my perfection 1200 photo

which works fine with the epson driver.   :Laughing: 

congrats for making it running   :Very Happy: 

----------

## frostschutz

I have the Epson Perfection 1260. The scanner works fine in Gentoo for me, without root privileges (if you are in the scanner group), using the plustek backend.

Unfortunately it's in need of replacement (visible stripes in the results, visible in both color [striped end up in magenta] and grayscale mode). Well, it's old enough and it was a cheap scanner to begin with, what, 8 or 9 years ago? I know I bought it offline and I haven't visited a computer store for ages... My printer (Canon i550) is near its end of life as well, paper feed no longer working properly and its smearing ink rather than printing it regularly. Cleaned it up to no avail. I think I'll replace both devices with a printer/scanner/copier/fax combo device as soon as the printer runs out of ink   :Laughing: 

EDIT: Ah, my mailbox remembers. I killed this device on Fri, 2 May 2003 due to a bug in the plustek backend. The bug in the backend was already known and fixed at the time but the sane version Gentoo was shipping at the time was too old!  :Laughing:  I went back to the store the next day and got a replacement which is what I'm still using today...

----------

## EasterParade

frostschutz wrote:

 *Quote:*   

> I have the Epson Perfection 1260.

 

Without the third party driver part they link to?

So I guess the sane device compatibility list isn´t up to date 

any more..

The upside is that u can still use older hardware for a much longer

time on Linux. That Perfection 1200 Photo that I still use from time to time

does not work on Windows, not on XP and certainly not on 7. But 

sane-backend still makes it usable.

But newer devices are mostly unsurpported by the backend.

I recently bought a brother mfc. It works fine almost completely

with the proprietory drivers u can find on the brother solutions page

for Linux. Scan to PC only works with a Windows box connected and

communication with FAX over FritzBox dun work properly either

but other than that it is fine. 

But the sane-backend will never deliver a driver.

I´d really like to know why.   :Sad: 

----------

## frostschutz

 *transsib wrote:*   

> Without the third party driver part they link to?

 

Never even knew there was a third party. Plustek backend is open source, no?

----------

## ultraslinky

@frostschutz: Yes, now they have huge red warning "your SANE version MUST be higher than 10.10" for the 1260! And yes, i have noticed this thing too, this scanner works in windows xp but not on win7, and that is annoying, but it still works really well on linux and winXp, the quality is still good, none of the problems you were having. Maybe it's a bit slow, but still why should i replace it? 

I always heard that those "all in one" printer + scanner + copier don't work well on linux... But i might be wrong.

But i haven't had an inkjet for ages. The ink cartridges are a scam, seriously, you're paying 1 euro for every milliliter? I recently saw my friend's new printer, it's a Samsung colour laser, around 80€, it will even print quite well on photo paper (still worse than a good photo inkjet printer of course). I was really impressed.

@transsib: thanks! i added my user to the scanner group, now it works without being root  :Smile:  and i am using the plustek backend which works fine. And by "proprietary" backend, do you mean the "epkowa" backend? That is supposed to be the proprietary one, right? It doesn't work at all for my 1260.

Thanks everyone! i think we can consider this solved  :Smile: 

----------

## frostschutz

 *ultraslinky wrote:*   

> The ink cartridges are a scam, seriously, you're paying 1 euro for every milliliter?

 

Laser just wasn't an option a couple of years back - and by the looks of it, it's not an option today. The cheapest device that fits my needs (print, scan, fax) is 324€ (color laser), 124€ (bw laser), and we're talking bulky and ugly devices there. On the other hand there are several nice devices in the 50-80€ range for ink based devices. Standalone scanners are more expensive, what's up with that.  :Laughing: 

Also, I rarely ever print anything. Never for myself (who needs prints when you have computer/netbook/smartphone/ereader). Only if other people ask me for it, like when returning something to an online store you usually have to put some printout or other in the package and maybe something to stick on the outside of the package so you don't have to pay shipping costs... and that's pretty much the only reason to keep a printer around at all, sometimes you just have to have a hardcopy of something. It's usually less than 100 pages per year though.

So for me ink is definitely cheaper - as long as the cartridge doesn't dry out by itself and so far I was lucky in that regard I guess.

And ink is cheaper when you buy from a third party vendor, and my only requirement to the print result is that it does not smear when you touch or fold the paper...

----------

## EasterParade

@ultraslinky

Very observant ur remark about the package version. I completely neglegted

that part of the issue. I have media-gfx/sane-bakcends-1.0.22-r2 and media-gfx/xsane-0.998

but then I have easy devices ( the old epson perf. 1200 photo, the canon lide 210 and the brother ).

I am glad to hear that u´ve got ur issue fixed and that u can use ur scanner now.   :Very Happy: 

And by proprietory I did not mean epkowa. I was just chatting along a bit about my brother

multifunction colorlaserprinter, which only works with non open-source drivers.

All sane-backend drivers are open-source.

@frostschutz

my epson is certainly 10 years old or even older, not sure. It still works but I guess it also 

depends on how much u use ur devices.

The brother is a new aquisition and I have tons of fun with it besides it being necessary for 

multiple tasks, even unrelated to uncles, brothers and what not   :Smile: 

I could guttenberg a whole danm thesis with that device, I grant, but it has already proven

useful. And the color-laser is astonishingly brilliant, even for small pictures on normal

printer paper.

----------

