all but one page sent by network scanner are discarded

[Reuben Thomas]

Binary package hint: simple-scan

If I press Scan in simple-scan, then scan multiple pages on my scanner (in this case, a Lexmark X543dn), then only the first page appears in simple-scan. I can of course press Scan again to scan the next page, but with a network scanner this is tedious, as I have to enter a code on the scanner for every page, rather than just telling it to scan another page, or feeding a multi-page document into it.

See bug 815856 for scanning with "All pages from feeder."

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

Hi there,

thank you for filing this bug and showing your interest in Simple Scan!

This seems to be a Hardware Issue, i.e. Simple Scan does not support your scanner perfectly -- or possibly not at all.

Unfortunately such problems happen more often then they should, and while it might indeed be a problem with Simple Scan, in our experience, most of the time it is not.
This is why we prepared a check-list at [1] that will let you find out whether or not it really is a problem with Simple Scan and what your options are in either case.

Please read that list and tell us how you decided to proceed. I will set this bug to "Incomplete", so a friendly robot will expire this bug in 60 days if you do not respond. However, we would really prefer to hear back from you!

Best Regards
Michael

[1] https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SimpleScanHardwareIssues

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

The page to which you directed me says "if everything works with xsane, the problem is within Simple Scan and we will look into it". I can confirm that multi-page scanning works fine in xsane (although of course it took me 15 minutes just to work out what buttons to press in xsane's rather baroque UI).

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

(I'm sorry I didn't mention that xsane worked in my original bug report. That was the first thing I tried in order to finish the job I was doing.)

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

But do I understand correctly -- you are not clicking "all pages from feeder" but "single page" and you scanner sends multiple pages anyways. Simple Scan only uses the first page whereas xsane uses all of them?

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

I am clicking "Scan", while "Single page" is selected. A bit more explanation should explain why this is the correct thing to do despite the fact that I expect multiple pages.

So here's exactly what happens:

1. I click Scan, with "Single page" selected.

2. The scanner driver puts up a dialog with a code to type into the networked scanner.

3. I put my sheet to scan in the scanner on the plate, and enter the code given by the scanner driver. N.B. This is why I didn't select "All pages from feeder": I'm not using the feeder. (As you've noticed, I've filed a separate bug #815856 for using the ADF, which doesn't work either.)

4. The page is scanned.

5. The scanner says (on its built-in display): "Scan another page?"

6. I press the key for "yes", and put another sheet in.

7. I repeat steps 4-6 until I've done all the pages.

8. I press the key for "no".

9. Meanwhile, the computer is showing all the page data being received in the scanner driver's dialog.

10. Only the last page is actually displayed in simple-scan.

I could have simply scanned one page repeatedly, pressing "No" after each one, but that takes a long time, as between each one I have to walk between the computer & scanner, I have to wait for the scanner driver to put up a fresh dialog, and I have to type a code into the networked scanner. It takes about 60-90s per page, as compared to about 10s if I can scan them all in the same job.

In xsane I use "multiple pages" mode, and it works without using ADF mode.

[Michael Nagel (nailor)]

OK, thanks. It might be the case that simple-scan discards such extraneous pages on purpose. Robert should probably comment on this.

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

I hope I've made it clear that there's nothing "extraneous" about the pages I'm scanning. I've followed the obvious workflow: hit "Scan", walk over to the scanner, start the scan job, follow the scanner's prompts about whether I want to scan extra pages, then come back to the computer to discover that it has ignored all but one page.

I believe that the "Simple" in "Simple Scan" should mean "easy to use", not "unable to follow what the user is trying to do" :)

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Reuben Thomas, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better.

As per https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases your release is EOL.

If you have an issue in a supported release (ex. 16.04) please file a new report, and feel free to subscribe me to it.