Friday, January 31, 2014

Setting up Epson USB Scanners on Fedora 20

Setting up scanners on Linux is significantly easier than it used to be. In my experience, most USB scanners are mostly plug-and-play. Epson however seems to have not fully embraced 'the Linux way', but still provides the tools necessary to use their scanners (as well as printer / scanner all-in-ones) in Linux.




The steps haven't changed significantly since some earlier guides were written.

First, before installing the Epson tools, we need libtool.

# yum install libtool
 
Now, you are ready to get the latest tools from Epson. Go here and search for your scanner (I'm 99% certain they all use the same driver packages, but better safe than sorry). In my case, I saw the following list:

We aren't interested in the print drivers (since I'm setting up a scanner with no all-in-one capability). However, both sets of scanner drivers are necessary to make this all work. Click the "Download" button behind "module name: core package&data package", agree to the license, and download "iscan-2.29.3-1.usb0.1.ltdl7.x86_64.rpm" and "iscan-data-1.26.0-1.noarch.rpm" (version numbers may have changed since I wrote this, adjust accordingly, also, if you are running a 32 bit install, download "iscan-2.29.3-1.usb0.1.ltdl7.i386.rpm" instead). Do not download the *ltdl3* RPM, it will not work for you.

Next, click the "Download" button behind "module name: iscan plugin package", agree to the license, and download "iscan-plugin-gt-x770-2.1.2-1.x86_64.rpm" (again, download i386 package instead if using 32 bit).

Hopefully you downloaded them all to the same directory. If you didn't, move them all to the same directory now. Navigate to the directory with all the packages, and install them:

# yum install iscan-data-1.26.0-1.noarch.rpm iscan-2.29.3-1.usb0.1.ltdl7.x86_64.rpm iscan-plugin-gt-x770-2.1.2-1.x86_64.rpm

You must install all three packages for the scanner to work. Once everything is installed, reboot.

Make sure your scanner is plugged in, powered on, and connected to your computer.

You should now be able to run the Epson scan utility:

$ iscan

The scanner should whirr to life. At this point, your scanner is ready to use. If you wish, you can continue with the iscan utility. I prefer using a more Gnome-style tool, Simple Scan. Easily available with:

# yum install simple-scan

Hopefully this works for you!
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4 comments:

  1. WillMarch 30, 2014 at 11:31 AM

    Hi Brandon,

    I just installed Fedora 20 and have an Epson V500 scanner. I followed your directions and it sort of works sometimes. Sometimes Iscan and Simple Scan work, sometimes they don't recognize the scanner and I have to go through some sequence of turning the scanner on and off and rebooting to get them to work, I'm not sure exactly what the trick is. Have you noticed this and do you have a recommendation?

    Thanks again for listing the guide above.

    Will K.

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    Replies
    1. Brandon NielsenMarch 31, 2014 at 5:59 PM

      I'm using that exact scanner and haven't had any of those issues, sorry.

      Are you using the Epson supplied USB cable with the ferrite beads on each end? I've read some forum posts where people have had connectivity issues with scanners when using cables without them.

      Delete
  2. AnonymousFebruary 3, 2015 at 3:54 AM

    Iscan does not work since F17 (see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=888459 ). I'm using an Epson Perfection V370. I can start it, but not actually scan anything. Using xsane works, but for some reason I get better image quality and smaller size using iscan in Windows, so am stuck with that. I sent a message to Epson support and it was clear they have no interest in fixing the issue.

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    Replies
    1. Brandon NielsenFebruary 3, 2015 at 6:31 PM

      I just setup my Epson V500 scanner following the instructions above on my Fedora 21 install (changing the version numbers to reflect the current versions).

      Iscan worked for me, both preview and high quality scans worked fine. simple-scan produced a high quality scan as well.

      Sorry you're having issues, the guide still works for me!

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