scanning sometimes impossible with LIDE 210

[Nils Kassube]

If I try to scan with xsane or skanlite there is often an error message like "Error during device I/O". If that error message appears, I have to replug the scanner to make it working again. There are several symptom which are not always the same: Sometimes only preview doesn't work, sometimes scanning doesn't work. Sometimes scanning with 75 dpi / color results in a corrupted image with vertical coloured lines while scanning the same text printout with 600 dpi results in a normal output. Often the scanner is very noisy compared to the sound I am used to from scanning with the trusty release.

Using the amd64 version on the same machine works, but the scanner is quite noisy compared to the sound I am used to from the trusty release.

WORKAROUND: Use the trusty packages of xsane, libsane and other dependencies.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: libsane 1.0.25+git20150528-1ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-16.32-generic 4.4.6
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-16-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu1
Architecture: i386
CurrentDesktop: KDE
Date: Mon Apr 4 21:43:22 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-04-04 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Beta i386 (20160404)
SourcePackage: sane-backends
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Nils Kassube (kassube)]

Today I have taken the xenial sources for sane-backends and xsane and built the libsane and xsane packages with a trusty i386 system. Then I booted the Kubuntu trusty i386 (14.04.3) iso image. First I installed the xsane package from the standard repo and the scanner worked as it should. The I installed the newly compiled packages (libsane-common_1.0.25+git20150528-1ubuntu2_all.deb libsane_1.0.25+git20150528-1ubuntu2_i386.deb sane-utils_1.0.25+git20150528-1ubuntu2_i386.deb xsane-common_0.999-3ubuntu1_all.deb). With the new xsane version scanning was unreliable, just as I reported for the xenial version.

[Dmitry (dmitrymq)]

Lide 220 doesn't work too. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sane-backends/+bug/1588878

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nils Kassube, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

To clarify, for the hardware this is reproducible with, is there anything stopping you from using a 64-bit OS going forward?

[Nils Kassube (kassube)]

I have two machines with which I want to use the scanner, one of them is the desktop with 64-bit Kubuntu (still 14.04) and the other one is a rather old laptop which is not 64-bit capable (Pentium-M) with 32-bit Kubuntu 16.04. When I discovered the problem on the laptop, I checked it with the desktop and found out that it is the same for the 32-bit version of 16.04, but different with 64-bit 16.04. And even with 64-bit 16.04 there is still the unusual noise and I fear that it might result in some hardware wearout. So I'm not sure if using 64-bit really would be a workaround.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nils Kassube, to see if this is already resolved in Ubuntu, could you please test the 64-bit version on your desktop via http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the results?

[Nils Kassube (kassube)]

On Do, 12. 01.2017 you wrote:
> Nils Kassube, to see if this is already resolved in Ubuntu, could you
> please test the 64-bit version on your desktop via
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ and advise to the
> results?

I tried it, but the current amd64 and i386 versions are not bootable on
this machine. There is a loop with usb errors / timeouts. But I did try
it on the laptop and the problem persists. That should be expected
because the xenial and zesty versions of sane-backends are identical.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nils Kassube, to clarify, you tested the amd64 daily on the laptop and it worked?

[Nils Kassube (kassube)]

Christopher M. Penalver wrote:
> Nils Kassube, to clarify, you tested the amd64 daily on the laptop and
> it worked?
Christopher, nothing really worked - to clarfy:
1. I don't see a point in trying only the amd64 version - after all i386
is a supported architecture as well, even with zesty.
2. Anyway, I tried to run the daily amd64 image on the desktop as you
requested, but it didn't boot - there was a loop of USB errors and
timeouts and I finally gave up after several minutes. Therefore I also
downloaded the i386 version and it didn't boot either on the desktop -
the USB problem was the same.
3. Then I tried the i386 image on the laptop (which is i386 only) and it
booted fine, but the scanner error was the same I/O error message I
knew from xenial for both preview scan and for normal scan.
4. Finally I checked the sane-backend version of the zesty image only to
find out it is identical to the xenial version, so there is no reason
why the error should be gone in zesty.

[Nils Kassube (kassube)]

Meanwhile I have installed the zesty amd64 version on my desktop. As expected the result was the same as with xenial, i.e. scanning worked but it was rather noisy. As a workaround I installed the trusty packages of xsane, libsane and other dependencies. This version worked for the i386 and amd64 versions of zesty without I/O errors or increased noise.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nils Kassube, the issue you are reporting is an upstream one. Could you please report this problem to them following the instructions at http://www.sane-project.org/bugs.html ?

Please provide a direct URL to your upstream report once you have made it so that it may be tracked.

Thank you for your help.

[Nils Kassube (kassube)]

Well, I should have guessed that it is an upstream issue ...
Instead of filing an upstream bug, I tested the latest git snapshot from <http://www.sane-project.org/snapshots/>. I compiled the backends and frontends source and tested the newly compiled xscanimage on the i386 machine. With this version the problem is gone. So it would be great if the ubuntu version could get an upgrade to the latest snapshot.

[Nils Kassube (kassube)]

Today I have tested the latest update for the i386 version of Artful Ardvark. With this version (1.0.27-1~experimental2) the scanner works without excessive noise.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Nils Kassube, I am closing this report because as per https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sane-backends/+bug/1565975/comments/13 the bug has been fixed in the latest development version of Ubuntu.

This is a significant bug in Ubuntu. If you need a fix for the bug in previous versions of Ubuntu, please perform as much as possible of the SRU Procedure [1] to bring the need to a developer's attention.

[1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure