Setup of Acer/BENQ USB Scanner:

System:

Ubuntu 6.06

Kernel:

2.6.15-28-686

Scanner:

• Flatbed Scanner, 600 x 1200dpi (Windows?), USB 1.0, labeled as 'Vuego 4300U'.
• Power pack is: 16VDC @ 1A; Center terminal on plug is Positive (+)/Outer terminal is Negative (-).

Search for Scanners that are loaded/recognised:

Run tail on /var/log/messages.

• 'tail -f /var/log/messages'

Scanner gets recognised when plugged in:

(The output of my 'Tail' command):

• "usb 5-2: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2"

Do:

'lsusb'.

This gave me:

• Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
• Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
• Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
• Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
• Bus 004 Device 002: ID 04a5:20b0 Acer Peripherals Inc. (now BenQ Corp.) S2W 3300U/4300U
• Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Do:

• 'cat /proc/bus/usb/devices'.

See if the scanner was recognised and loaded a driver - look for something after the "Driver=xxx" bit - in my case, none was found (this section is redundant when using 2.6.x kernels???).

My output is below (other USB devices were there as well, I just didn't list these as they are irrelevant):

• T: Bus=05 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=01 Dev#= 2 Spd=12 MxCh?= 0
• D: Ver= 1.00 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff MxPS= 8 #Cfgs= 1
• P: Vendor=04a5 ProdID=20b0 Rev= 1.00
• S: Manufacturer=Color
• S: Product= FlatbedScanner? 22
• C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=40 MxPwr?=100mA
• I: If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 3 Cls=ff(vend.) Sub=ff Prot=ff Driver=(none)
• E: Ad=81(I) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 64 Ivl=0ms
• E: Ad=02(O) Atr=02(Bulk) MxPS= 8 Ivl=0ms
• E: Ad=83(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS= 8 Ivl=16ms

See what xsane has to say about the state of things:

Open terminal window, as normal user:

Run 'xsane'.

(If not installed, 'apt-get install xsane' as root on CLI, or via Synaptic)

I received a GUI error message from xsane:

• "Error: Failed to open device 'snapscan:libusb:005:002': Invalid argument"

Note the numbers '5-2' from the 'tail' command, and also the '005:002' from xsane... this looks promising.

Close GUI error message.

Configuring snapscan:

Note CLI message from xsane:

• snapscan? Cannot open firmware file /usr/share/sane/snapscan/your-firmwarefile. bin.
• snapscan? Edit the firmware file entry in snapscan.conf.

In CLI (any user), 'cd /usr/share/sane/snapscan'

• "bash: cd: /usr/share/sane/snapscan: No such file or directory"

... it doesn't work, because the directory isn't there.

Lets make it.

As root user (CLI):

• 'mkdir /usr/share/sane/snapscan'

Change to your snapscan directory:

In CLI (root user)

• 'cd /usr/share/sane/snapscan'

Locating firmware:

Now we need to find (on the internet) the firmware for your scanner:

Open Device Manager (System==>Administration)

Scroll down/expand the tabs to the devices with names similar to:

• "xxxxx (xxxx Family) USB UHCI"
• "xxxxx (xxxx Family) USB2 EHCI"

Look for a device that has names/numbers/model/etc. associated with your scanner.

E.g. mine has "S2W 3300U/4300U" under "82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4" tab.

Click on that device, and then in the right pane, click on 'Advanced', which shows heaps of stuff.

Look for the two lines that have the following:

• "usb_device.product_id"

and

• "usb_device.vendor_id"

Mine looks like:

• "usb_device.product_id int 8368 (0x20b0)"
• "usb_device.vendor_id int 1189 (0x4a5)"

We need to find firmware (maybe!) that needs to be uploaded? to the scanner before it will work?

Do a google search, or look on snapscan.sourceforge.net for the product_id/vendor_id (e.g. '0x20b0' and/or 0x4a5').

On sourceforge, I found:

• "Acer / Benq 3300 / 4300 USB 0x04a5, 0x20b0 "FlatbedScanner23" u176v046.bin"

So I need to locate firmware "u176v046.bin".

I found this located inside the windows driver files for the scanner.

I copied this firmware into "/usr/share/sane/snapscan".

I did a (as root) 'chmod -R 777 /usr/share/sane/snapscan' - may be a security risk!!!

Edit your /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf:

As root user:

• 'gedit /etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf'

Alter to suit your binary firmware file.

Save.

See what we did:

Run 'xsane' as normal user!

You should see "Waiting 20 seconds, scanner warming up".

Wait a bit, and Xsane should fire up!

w00t!! :-)

Links:

snapscan.sourceforge.net/

Notes to self (Author) for page improvements:

• Ensure each part is in the correct order, e.g. loading firmware we haven't located yet, etc. (sanity check? :-) )

  • Check USB is configured OK
  • Identify Scanner
  • Check to see if Scanner is recognised by USB system
  • Identify/locate/download firmware for scanner
  • Install firmware file(s)
  • Configure snapscan? to upload firmware
  • See if Scanner is recognised and loads
  • Test if scanner works
  • Ensure scanner works the same through a cold boot of PC and scanner !
• Space things out more - looks too cluttered
• Remove irrelevant/obsolete commands
• Add more links
• Learn how to do Wiki pages better, so others can understand them!!!
• If this To-Do list is still here, feel free to pester the Author :-)

HardwareNotes Scanner ScannerNotes