HP Scanjet4200C
Hi Brian,
I have had a 4200c for over a year now, and it took me quite awhile to
get it working with Debian. Here's what I had to do:
Go to Sourceforge and download the SANE drivers as tarballs.
Download a patch for the 4200c and apply it to the SANE driver.
Install the Patched SANE driver (I couldn't figure out how to use the
DEBs for SANE because they don't have the patch applied)
Hack a few lines in the scanner module file of your kernel and recompile
the kernel (This is explained in the Source Forge page for the 4200c
patch) You will need to be using a kernel with USB support.
Make a link to the scanner.
When you are done with this, then you will be able to use xsane to
perform your scans. You won't be able to use the GIMP plugin for SANE,
though. Also, the scanner produces weird distortions (the x axis is
stretched out).
In short, the 4200c is the most disappointing computer hardware purchase
that I have made. The only reason I have Windows still on my computer as
a dual boot is to use the scanner. I have seen no progress with the
patch in 6 months or so, either. I will probably end up trying to trade
it for another Linux-supported SANE-compatible scanner.
-Glen
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