Hello, On Nov 22 14:17 LLLActive@GMX.Net wrote (shortened):
... did not know of the OpenSUSE RPM's (iscan, iscan-proprietary and iscan-firmware)
My next system is a 64 bit, then I will use your RPM's.
A warning regarding 64-bit: A scanner which requires a proprietary binary-only i386-only module from iscan-proprietary-drivers works only in a 32-bit environment. For example the "Epson Perfection 4990 Photo" is shown in YaST with driver "epkowa" and the info shows "requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-x750" and when you try to set it up in YaST, it shows this message: --------------------------------------------------------------- The package iscan should be installed but it contains proprietary binary-only i386-only software. Therefore it is only available for i386-compatible architectures and it may cause problems on AMD 64-bit (x86_64) systems. --------------------------------------------------------------- The "DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-x750" is provided in the package iscan-proprietary-drivers and the RPM info is --------------------------------------------------------------- Proprietary Driver Libraries for Image Scan for Epson Scanners The proprietary binary-only i386-only libraries are provided (in object code form only) ... --------------------------------------------------------------- This means that the iscan-plugin-gt-x750 doesn't work on a plain 64-bit system. It might work if all required 32-bit libraries are installed (in particular sane-backends-32bit.rpm) and if you use a 32-bit scanning frontend on your 64-bit system (i.e. the scanning frontend "iscan" from the 32-bit iscan package). It should work without problems if you install a 32-bit openSUSE on your 64-bit hardware. The reason is that 64-bit software and 32-bit software are totally separated (except the kernel level). Some details if you have an AMD 64-bit "x86_64" system: On the one hand on x86_64 hardware 32-bit i386 software can work. But on the other hand 32-bit software requires 32-bit libraries. Only the kernel on x86_64 has a special interface to accept both 64-bit and 32-bit system calls. On x86_64 from user application down to the kernel interface (but excluding the actual kernel which is of course the same) 64-bit software and 32-bit software are totally seperated: 64-bit application -> 64-bit library -> 64-bit kernel interface 32-bit application -> 32-bit library -> 32-bit kernel interface There is the following sequence of used libraries, see http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configuring_Scanners_from_SUSE_LINUX_9.2 "SANE Backends": 1. A scanning frontend links with the SANE library libsane.so which is in fact the dll pseudo-driver. 2. The dll pseudo-driver dlopen()s the other drivers which is in your case the epkowa driver. 3. In your particular case the epkowa driver needs a proprietary 32-bit-only library to operate your model. Therefore on a 64-bit system: If you run a 64-bit scanning frontend (e.g. the 64-bit version of scanimage, xscanimage, xsane, or kooka) then it links with the 64-bit version of libsane.so.1 which again could link with the 64-bit version of the epkowa driver which then cannot link at all with a 64-bit version of the proprietary library because there is only a 32-bit version of these library. More precisely: If the 32-bit Iscan packages are installed (which conflict with the 64-bit iscan-free package), the linking breaks when the 64-bit version of libsane.so.1 tries to link with a 64-bit version of the epkowa driver because only a 32-bit version is installed. In contrast on a 32-bit system: If you run a 32-bit scanning frontend (e.g. the 32-bit versions of scanimage, xscanimage, xsane , or kooka) then it links with the 32-bit version of libsane.so.1 which again links with the 32-bit version of the epkowa driver which then can link with the 32-bit version of the proprietary library so that your scanner works. Summary: It should work if you install a 64-bit system except the scanning software so that only the scanning software is full 32-bit (i.e. you must manually install 32-bit scanning packages). Alternatively use only the 32-bit Iscan packages (iscan, iscan-proprietary-drivers, and iscan-firmware) and use only its included scanning frontend "iscan" on your 64-bit system (i.e. you cannot use the 64-bit versions of scanimage, xscanimage, xsane , or kooka). See also https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=337816 The above described mess is the reason why I recommend to avoid any scanner which requires firmware upload and/or which requires a proprietary binary-only i386-only module. Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, 90409 Nuernberg, Germany AG Nuernberg, HRB 16746, GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org