Can't install scanner driver

[kwatson512]

Hi. Newbie; fresh installation of Mint Daryna on a Dell XPS 400 PC. Installation went well, but I have a few glitches that still need cleaning up. I have an Epson Perfection 1200U flat-bed scanner, and found a linux driver here. The selector on that page asked which distribution, and I selected "debian" and "other" with the idea that Mint is built on Ubuntu which is built on Debian.

Three files were offered: a .tar.gz source file, an rpm installation file, and a .pdf user guide. Following the instructions, I installed the SANE package as a precursor to installing this package. Then I discovered that I needed to install the alien package in order to read and install the rpm file, so I did that too.

Trying to use alien to install the driver failed. Here's the command I used:

sudo alien -i iscan-2.11.0-1.c2.i386.rpm

It said the file wasn't found, even though my terminal was open from the desktop, and I had the file on the desktop.

Then I decided to try to install the source. I extracted that into a folder on my desktop and opened a terminal from within that. First command in the instructions is:

sudo ./configure

So I did that, and the process executed until it reached "configure: error: Package requirements (imlibgdk) were not met: No package 'imlibgdk' found"

It also suggested "Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you installed software in a non-standard prefix." and "Alternatively, you may set the environment variables GDK_IMLIB_CFLAGS and GDK_IMLIB_LIBS to avoid the need to call pkg-config. See the pkg-config man page for more details."

I looked for an "imlibgdk" package on my machine and the Mint Software Portal and couldn't find it. I don't know enough about linux syntax to adjust the path environment variable or set the alternative variables. Can anyone suggest a next step?

Thanks,
Ken

[newW2]

Hi Ken,
I see from your post that the alien command is missing the path to the desktop. When in the terminal the path would be something like: /home/your_user_name/Desktop/
I also did a quick search and found the following on the Ubuntu forum.

[kwatson512]

I can't make anything work today. I went to that link and it looked promising--seemed to describe the same problem I have.

I tried the three commands there:

sudo apt-get install libgtk-dev
sudo apt-get install imlibgdk
sudo apt-get install gdk-imlib-dev

Results:

First command produces:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting libgtk1.2-dev instead of libgtk-dev
libgtk1.2-dev is already the newest version.
You might want to run `apt-get -f install' to correct these:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
vmware-server: Depends: vmware-server-kernel-modules but it is not going to be installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt-get -f install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

Second and third commands can't execute because they can't find the appropriate packages.

What next? This is waaaay too hard for a newbie. I just want my computer hardware to work. I do think I'll like Mint once I have it installed, but this is NOT fun.

Ken

[kwatson512]

I just looked at newW2's previous post, and tried dragging the rpm file to the terminal. This time it might have worked. Can someone who can read this tell me whether it did?

sudo alien -i '/home/kwatson512/Desktop/iscan-2.11.0-1.c2.i386.rpm'
Warning: Skipping conversion of scripts in package iscan: postinst postrm preinst prerm
Warning: Use the --scripts parameter to include the scripts.
dpkg --no-force-overwrite -i iscan_2.11.0-2_i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package iscan.
(Reading database ... 91855 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking iscan (from iscan_2.11.0-2_i386.deb) ...
Setting up iscan (2.11.0-2) ...

Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place

Thanks,
KEn

[newW2]

Thanks to mabhatter on the Ubuntu Forum for the correct Alien command

The conversion command should be:

Code: Select all

sudo alien -d -c iscan-2.11.0-1.c2.i386.rpm

..to convert the .rpm file to a .deb one.

Leave it a while to convert. It should say iscan_2.11.0-2_i386.deb generated when finished.
Double click the newly created .deb file on your desktop to install with gdebi. Just click on the Install button when gdebi’s finished loading and close the program down when it’s done.

Now it’s time to clean up a little.
Back into your terminal and enter the following command to remove both of the unwanted packages as you won’t be needing them anymore..

Code: Select all

 sudo rm iscan_2.11.0-2_i386.deb iscan-2.11.0-1.c2.i386.rpm

That should be all you need to do software wise.

That’s it, just start up whichever program you want to use for scanning and the scanner should be found automatically.

[kwatson512]

Thanks! Worked like a champ. In fact the sudo alien -d -c installed the package.

I tried to acquire an image with the scanner in The GIMP, but "scanner" is greyed out (not active) in the program. Any thoughts?

Ken

[newW2]

Using Sane? The libraries are in synaptic, and a google search came up with this.

[kwatson512]

Yes, SANE is installed. But "scanimage --list-devices" didn't find anything. Browsing the man sane-usb (my scanner is connected via usb) hurts my hair. All the options there match the readme.linux file in my sane installation folder. Most of the discussion is around what to do with different linux kernels, and I know I don't need to know all that. Bottom line, my scanner isn't detected, even from root.

Ken