Benq 4300u Scanner ... (Revived!)

[tenfoot]

I have just brought one of these scanners, after I found through http://www.buzzard.me.uk/jonathan/scanners-usb.html that they work with Linux, and downloaded and installed sane-backends-1.0.19 and sane-frontends-1.0.14 as suggested. Xsane is installed, also.

However, when I click on XSane to launch the scanner the following error appears: Failed to open device 'snapscan:libusb:001:002': Invalid argument. A search for snapscan:libusb:001:002 does not find it but a search for libusb by itself shows that it is installed.

Needless to say, I am at a loss (which isn't unusual) and seek advice as to what I have done wrong or what I have failed to do, and how the devil I can recify matters.

Regards from New Zealand on a very cool Monday evening.

Tenfoot

[Husse]

Check /etc/udev/rules.d/45-libsane.rules so your scanner is there
If not
http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... &sk=t&sd=a
Could be something else....

[tenfoot]

Hi Husse

Yes, the scanner is there. The item reads:

#Benq (Acer) 3300 | Benq (Acer) 4300 | Guillemot / Hercules Scan&home Touch 1248 (USB)
SYSFS{idVendor}=='04a5',SYSFS{idProduct}=='20de',MODE='664'.GROUP='scanner

Does this look OK to you? If it does, are there any other steps I can take to get this thing working?

Regards from New Zealand on a very pleasant Deisay afternoon.

tenfoot

[hotweiss]

Your scanner should work:

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

None the less, here's a solution that I found:

1. Go to the Windows install CD and find u176v046.bin and copy it to Dapper (/usr/share/sane or wherever). Do this with admin privileges (eg, sudo nautilus). Change the copied file owner to root.

2. Point /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf to point to the above file at the heading "firmware". It will now find the 4300U automatically.

3. Done. Restart your scanner and use Xsane or Kooka. There will be an indeterminable wait while the firmware is loaded; your computer has not hung.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... =Benq+4300

[Husse]

Thanks hotweiss
Your post needs some clarification though

find u176v046.bin and copy it to Dapper

ehhh well...
Hopefully it works just as well with a later Mint
The seemingly odd description of the conf file is explained the moment you look in it

[tenfoot]

The trouble is, I haven't got a Windows CD for the scanner. I've searched the web for the file u176v046.bin, without any success

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

I am re-opening this subject as I have made some progress.

Eventually I found u176v046.bin and installed it in /usr/share/sane, did an edit of /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf by changing the line starting #firmware to firmware /usr/share/sane/u176v046.bin (thus pointing to the location of the .bin file).

However, that is as far as it goes, because launching xsane returns: Error during device I/O

Going into the command line and typing scanimage, returns

zed@zed-desktop ~ $ scanimage
[snapscan] Scanner warming up - waiting 16 seconds.
scanimage: sane_start: Error during device I/O
User defined signal 1

I have no idea what "User defined signal 1" is

I have searched for information on this and the sane bug report page has quite a lot on it, which seems to come down to either remove the module ehci_hcd, which interferes with usb2.0, or fit a firewire card.

Adopting the former suggests that one loses the speed of usb.2.0, and as I have a cordless desktop, external usb hard drive and a usb printer, I am reluctant to take this step.

I have no idea what one must do to fit a firewire card or, indeed, whether that would solve the problem, although it is suggested that it might.

Is there anyone on the forum who has had a similar problem with a Benq scanner? If so, have you got it working?

tenfoot

[Husse]

Take a look at
http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... 49&t=13361
It's solved for that scanner with method you are trying
Maybe you find something useful in that topic or if you contact Bobo-the-Cat

[Caraibes]

I have this scanner (since 2004)... Never managed to make it work in Linux... I have to reboot in winxp to scan

Yesterday I set up a "VirtualBox XP", just so I can scan without a reboot...

I would be VERY VERY PLEASED if any of you guys post a solution !

[tenfoot]

I have this scanner (since 2004)... Never managed to make it work in Linux... I have to reboot in winxp to scan

Yesterday I set up a "VirtualBox XP", just so I can scan without a reboot...

I would be VERY VERY PLEASED if any of you guys post a solution !

Hi

I'm running Windows 2000 on Virtualbox but cannot get the Benq 4300u to work. What scanner driver are you using, and can you post the url from where you got it, please?

I loathe using Windows with a fervour which borders on obsession and only do so because there are two applications (Family Historian - a genealogy program and Pedigree Assistant - a dog genealogy program) which do not have their equivalent in Linux.

tenfoot

[Caraibes]

@Tenfoot:

I am running Windows XP, not 2000, in my VirtualBox... XP has many drivers that 2000 doesn't have...

The BenQ 4300 works out of the box in XP...

Then you just share a folder between your VirtualBox XP, and between your "real" desktop, and that's it...

[tenfoot]

@Tenfoot:

I am running Windows XP, not 2000, in my VirtualBox... XP has many drivers that 2000 doesn't have...

The BenQ 4300 works out of the box in XP...

Then you just share a folder between your VirtualBox XP, and between your "real" desktop, and that's it...

Thanks. I'll see if I can obtain a WindowsXP disk.

tenfoot

[tenfoot]

I didn't go the WindowsXP/Virtualbox way in the end. In fact I abandoned the whole exercise However, today I decided that having purchased the scanner I should try and get it working with LinuxMint. So, here we go.

(a) Plugged the scanner in and tried to launch it using xSane and got the expected error message "Failed to open device 'snapscan:libusb:001:002': Invalid argument"

(b) Searched for and found u176v046.bin and installed it by creating a directory Snapscan in /usr/share/sane and copying the .bin file to it.

(c) edited the file /etc/sane.d by entering the text: firmware /usr/share/sane/snapscan/u176v046.bin and uncommenting the line /dev/usb/scanner0 bus=usb

(d) ran xSane and the window opened. Clicked on Preview and the scanner sprang into action - well, it made noises as if something was going to happen - and then the xSane window closed.

(e) ran xSane again and got the error message: Failed to open device 'snapscan:lisusb:002:00': Error during device I/O

(f) entered the Terminal and did lusb, with the following result

zed@zed-desktop ~ $ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 04a5:20b0 Acer Peripherals Inc. (now BenQ Corp.) S2W 3300U/4300U
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 046d:c517 Logitech, Inc. LX710 Cordless Desktop Laser
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 05e3:0702 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB 2.0 IDE Adapter
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 03f0:2f17 Hewlett-Packard EWS 2605dn
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
zed@zed-desktop ~ $

So, the Device is there but xSane is "throwing a wobbly"

I have searched Google for the error and although there are numerous entries, none seem applicable to this scanner.

Is anbody able to help me, please?

[Husse]

I'll look into it but I have some 50 other topics to tend to first....

[tenfoot]

I'll look into it but I have some 50 other topics to tend to first....

Thanks for a very prompt response, Husse. It encourages me to "hang in there" , as I know the problem will be resolved eventually

Edit: Just in case it is of assistance, I think I was using Elyssa at the time of my first message in May 2008.

[Husse]

I found one page here
Seems similar to what you have done
Unfortunately I find mostly very old pages, from 2000 to 2005

[tenfoot]

I found one page here
Seems similar to what you have done
Unfortunately I find mostly very old pages, from 2000 to 2005

Yes. they are the directions I followed. It is a tad annoying that it is supposed to work with Linux but I'm having these problems. Even more annoying is that I ran Gloria LiveCD on a friend's computer (trying to convert her to use it) and found that her Canon N65U scanner was recognised by xSane and worked perfectly

[Husse]

I just upgraded to Helena and I can't get my scanner to work
I'll try to find a solution for both in a while, but there are so may questions in the forum

[tenfoot]

Joined the Waikato LUG mailing list to try and resolve this problem but their suggestions didn't work either Have joined the Sane-dev mailing list and they suggested removing /dev/usb/scanner0 bus=usb from /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf as it was no longer needed. Did this but the error Failed to open device 'snapscan:lisusb:002:00': Error during device I/O is still there.

Will be delighted to learn that you've got you scanner working.

[Husse]

Failed to open USB is what I get too - if only I could get some more time.....