Re: Which scanner with Debian 2.0?
On Wed, 12 Aug 1998, Morgan Collett wrote:
> I want to set up a graphic design workstation under Linux, running the
> Gimp. I want to use a graphics tablet, and a flatbed scanner.
>
> Can anyone recommend a scanner? Should it be SCSI or can parallel port
> scanners work?
Only a very few parallel-port scanners are supported under Linux. SCSI
scanners are much better supported. Take a look at the SANE project, which
is probably the most active scanner project for Linux. The home page is
at "http://www.mostang.com/sane/";. It has a partial list of supported
scanners. SANE can also act as a GIMP plugin.
> (Can anyone recommend what NOT to get?)
Well, the cheaper SCSI scanners (some Microtek and Mustek scanners,
for example) have one problem - they don't "disconnect" from the SCSI bus
during a scan. This means that if you have another SCSI device on the same
bus, you can't access it during a scan. This can be very bad if you have a
disk on the same bus as the scanner - you can get disk timeouts.
There are a few solutions:
0) Don't use SCSI for anything but scanning. One problem is the SCSI
cards that come with most scanners are absolute trash, often not even
using an interrupt. Your whole system will slow to a crawl while using
them, if you can get it to work at all. This may be acceptable.
1) Get a more expensive scanner. HP scanners don't usually have this
problem. You tell them to scan, they go away and do it, and while they are
scanning you can still access other peripherals on the SCSI bus.
2) Get a separate SCSI card for the scanner. Since you can get SCSI cards
pretty cheap these days (I've seen decent SCSI cards for $53 in the Linux
Journal) this is an attractive option.
3) Hack the kernel and increase the disk timeouts. I did this so I could
use my Mustek scanner and not crash my SyQuest drive. Not terribly
difficult and sure saves money.
I use a combination of 2 and 3. Good luck!
Sincerely,
Ray Ingles (248) 377-7735 ray.ingles@fanucrobotics.com
"I can write programs that control air traffic, intercept ballistic
missiles, reconcile bank accounts, control production lines."
"So can I, and so can any man, but do they work when you do write them?"
- Fred Brooks, after Shakespeare, in "The Mythical Man-Month"
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