USB scanners and linux

USB scanners and linux

[Geoff Shang]

Hi all:

For complex financial reasons, we need to buy something now and we
thought it should be a scanner.  We would like to go USB since SCSI is
expensive and parallel is sooo slow.  Anyway, I need to know if there are
any issues with using USB scanners under 2.2.18.  Are there drivers for
each scanner or is there like some kind of standard interface?  Also, I
have a PC without onboard USB support.  I believe that I can get a card
for USB without too much expense to the management. But does this create
problems for the USB support under linux?

Any comments would be helpful. This is a matter of some urgency.

Geoff.

Stragne Alsa Behavior

[Janina Sajka]

Hi, Listers:

Here's a puzzler I'd like to solve that's kind of off beat.

OK. That's a bad joke, here's why.

I have an IBM Thinkpad portable running linux. It's actually IBM's first
Thinkpad with Linux pre-installed. On this machine I have Alsa -- the very
latest. Here's the puzzler:

1.)	When the machine is docked, Alsa works fine;
2.)	When I undock the machine, Alsa sounds like it's half speed;
3.)	When I dock the machine again, Alsa is fine;
4.)	When I undock the machine ...

Well you get the idea. But, what's this about? And, more importantly how
the blazes to fix it? Might it have swomething to do with Copperman Intel
P3 Stepping technology thingie whereby maybe the cpu runs at a different
speed under different power circumstances? Well, why then does the
undocked behaviro still misbehave when I've got it plugged into the wall.

Very strange. Very strange indeed.

Come to think of it, I upgraded my Aklsa while I was in a hotel room about
a month ago. I didn't have my dock--that stays home. So, this has started
happening since then. But it was also happening before the upgrade--I just
hadn't figured out that it had something to do with things that change
when I dock and undock.



				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research & Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

janina@afb.net

Lilo Error

[Janina Sajka]

Thanks to everyone for the various lilo suggestions. So far no go, though.

I upgraded my modtools, and that actually got my Adaptech pcm scsi
working. So, that's very nice. But, upgrading lilo -- I'm currently at 


				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research & Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

janina@afb.net

Re: Stragne Alsa Behavior

[Kirk Wood]

It is because there is a little poltergeist in the machine. It does these
kind of things so we have something to wonder about. <g>

=======
Kirk Wood
Cpt.Kirk@1tree.net

Cluelessness
	There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of 
	inquisitive idiots

Re: USB scanners and linux

[Chris Nestrud]

What command-line packages are their that can take advantage of a
scanner? My HP is working well, and I know of scan-image and gocr (which
didn't work quite as well). Any other things I can have a look at?

Chris


On Thu, 11 Jan 2001, Thomas D. Ward wrote:

> Basically, with the scanners you just compile a 2.2.18 Kernel for your Linux
> distro, and while making the config file select USB support, and answer yes
> to the USB scanner support.
> Most scanners will work with the generic driver. Read the documentation that
> comes with the 2.218 Kernel to get a complete list of scanners supported.
> As far as I can tell Red Hat seams to find my Umax Astra just fine, but I
> haven't tested it with some scanner packages yet.
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Geoff Shang" <gshang10@scu.edu.au>
> To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Cc: <blinux-newbie@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 8:53 PM
> Subject: USB scanners and linux
> 
> 
> > Hi all:
> >
> > For complex financial reasons, we need to buy something now and we
> > thought it should be a scanner.  We would like to go USB since SCSI is
> > expensive and parallel is sooo slow.  Anyway, I need to know if there are
> > any issues with using USB scanners under 2.2.18.  Are there drivers for
> > each scanner or is there like some kind of standard interface?  Also, I
> > have a PC without onboard USB support.  I believe that I can get a card
> > for USB without too much expense to the management. But does this create
> > problems for the USB support under linux?
> >
> > Any comments would be helpful. This is a matter of some urgency.
> >
> > Geoff.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

Re: USB scanners and linux

[Frank Carmickle]

Hi Geoff.  How was the move?

Also the hp 6300 should work just fine.  

Check out http://www.linux-usb.org for the whole story!  It looks like
there are only a few usb controlers and all but one are supported.  I am
not sure about the usb controller.  I looked around a little.  Most
modules are for motherboards.  I will keep looking. 

FC

On Thu, 11 Jan 2001, Thomas D. Ward wrote:

> Basically, with the scanners you just compile a 2.2.18 Kernel for your Linux
> distro, and while making the config file select USB support, and answer yes
> to the USB scanner support.
> Most scanners will work with the generic driver. Read the documentation that
> comes with the 2.218 Kernel to get a complete list of scanners supported.
> As far as I can tell Red Hat seams to find my Umax Astra just fine, but I
> haven't tested it with some scanner packages yet.
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Geoff Shang" <gshang10@scu.edu.au>
> To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Cc: <blinux-newbie@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 8:53 PM
> Subject: USB scanners and linux
> 
> 
> > Hi all:
> >
> > For complex financial reasons, we need to buy something now and we
> > thought it should be a scanner.  We would like to go USB since SCSI is
> > expensive and parallel is sooo slow.  Anyway, I need to know if there are
> > any issues with using USB scanners under 2.2.18.  Are there drivers for
> > each scanner or is there like some kind of standard interface?  Also, I
> > have a PC without onboard USB support.  I believe that I can get a card
> > for USB without too much expense to the management. But does this create
> > problems for the USB support under linux?
> >
> > Any comments would be helpful. This is a matter of some urgency.
> >
> > Geoff.
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

Re: Stragne Alsa Behavior

[Charles Hallenbeck]

Actually I thought that half speed trick was to accommodate the National
Library Service cassette tape format.

On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Kirk Wood wrote:

> It is because there is a little poltergeist in the machine. It does these
> kind of things so we have something to wonder about. <g>
> 
> =======
> Kirk Wood
> Cpt.Kirk@1tree.net
> 
> Cluelessness
> 	There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of 
> 	inquisitive idiots
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

My web site is http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh 
The Moon is Waning Gibbous (96% of Full)

Re: Stragne Alsa Behavior

[Kirk Wood]

> Actually I thought that half speed trick was to accommodate the National
> Library Service cassette tape format.

Doh, hadn't thought of that. You can record the tapes using normal tape
player at home on the docking station. Then play the files back on the
road and they are slowed down to correct speed. See there, you thought
this was a bug. It is really a feature. Maybe we should market this idea.

=======
Kirk Wood
Cpt.Kirk@1tree.net

Cluelessness
	There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of 
	inquisitive idiots

Re: USB scanners and linux

[Thomas D. Ward]

Basically, with the scanners you just compile a 2.2.18 Kernel for your Linux
distro, and while making the config file select USB support, and answer yes
to the USB scanner support.
Most scanners will work with the generic driver. Read the documentation that
comes with the 2.218 Kernel to get a complete list of scanners supported.
As far as I can tell Red Hat seams to find my Umax Astra just fine, but I
haven't tested it with some scanner packages yet.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Geoff Shang" <gshang10@scu.edu.au>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Cc: <blinux-newbie@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 8:53 PM
Subject: USB scanners and linux


> Hi all:
>
> For complex financial reasons, we need to buy something now and we
> thought it should be a scanner.  We would like to go USB since SCSI is
> expensive and parallel is sooo slow.  Anyway, I need to know if there are
> any issues with using USB scanners under 2.2.18.  Are there drivers for
> each scanner or is there like some kind of standard interface?  Also, I
> have a PC without onboard USB support.  I believe that I can get a card
> for USB without too much expense to the management. But does this create
> problems for the USB support under linux?
>
> Any comments would be helpful. This is a matter of some urgency.
>
> Geoff.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: USB scanners and linux

[Thomas D. Ward]

Try a site called Vividata.com.
I believe they have some really good OCR packages using the Care Omnipage
scan engine. However, I am almost sure the applications are all now GUI, and
not commandline. However, it is worth a look.



----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Nestrud" <ccn@uark.edu>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 1:14 AM
Subject: Re: USB scanners and linux


> What command-line packages are their that can take advantage of a
> scanner? My HP is working well, and I know of scan-image and gocr (which
> didn't work quite as well). Any other things I can have a look at?
>
> Chris
>
>
> On Thu, 11 Jan 2001, Thomas D. Ward wrote:
>
> > Basically, with the scanners you just compile a 2.2.18 Kernel for your
Linux
> > distro, and while making the config file select USB support, and answer
yes
> > to the USB scanner support.
> > Most scanners will work with the generic driver. Read the documentation
that
> > comes with the 2.218 Kernel to get a complete list of scanners
supported.
> > As far as I can tell Red Hat seams to find my Umax Astra just fine, but
I
> > haven't tested it with some scanner packages yet.
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Geoff Shang" <gshang10@scu.edu.au>
> > To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> > Cc: <blinux-newbie@braille.uwo.ca>
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 8:53 PM
> > Subject: USB scanners and linux
> >
> >
> > > Hi all:
> > >
> > > For complex financial reasons, we need to buy something now and we
> > > thought it should be a scanner.  We would like to go USB since SCSI is
> > > expensive and parallel is sooo slow.  Anyway, I need to know if there
are
> > > any issues with using USB scanners under 2.2.18.  Are there drivers
for
> > > each scanner or is there like some kind of standard interface?  Also,
I
> > > have a PC without onboard USB support.  I believe that I can get a
card
> > > for USB without too much expense to the management. But does this
create
> > > problems for the USB support under linux?
> > >
> > > Any comments would be helpful. This is a matter of some urgency.
> > >
> > > Geoff.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: USB scanners and linux

[Geoff Shang]

Hi all:

Thanks to those who wrote back about USB scanners and linux.  We ended up
getting the HP scanjet 5200C.  We could have gotten the epson perfection
610 but we weren't sure about the accessability of the windows software.
The HP stuff is apparently quite speech friendly, though apparently not
brilliant at OCR.

As for the USB PCI card, my conclusion is that it should work, as on-board
USB seems to do stuff via the PCI buss anyway.  You need to use lspci to
determine your USB interface type, and windows lists it as being PCI
universal serial buss, so I'm pretty confident this should work.

Now looking forward ~to road-testing sOCRates.

Geoff.