SANE-1.4.0

#### Beyond Linux® From Scratch (System V Edition) - Version r13.0-1090

### Chapter 47. Scanning

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# SANE-1.4.0

## Introduction to SANE

SANE is short for Scanner Access Now Easy. Scanner access, however, is far from easy, since every vendor has their own protocols. The only known protocol that should bring some unity into this chaos is the TWAIN interface, but this is too imprecise to allow a stable scanning framework. Therefore, SANE comes with its own protocol, and the vendor drivers can't be used.

SANE is split into back ends and front ends. The back ends are drivers for the supported scanners and cameras. The front ends are user interfaces to access the backends.

### Note

Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most recent stable versions of the books.

### Back Ends Package Information

- Download (HTTP): https://anduin.linuxfromscratch.org/BLFS/sane/sane-backends-1.4.0.tar.gz

- Download MD5 sum: fddb8b164ff1b1ffb576c9ba4173610d

- Download size: 7.2 MB

- Estimated disk space required: 214 MB (Add 58 MB for tests)

- Estimated build time: 0.4 SBU (Using parallelism=4; add 0.1 SBU for tests)

### Note

The upstream location for this file is at https://gitlab.com/sane-project but the file URL uses an embedded md5sum. For convenience, the package has been copied to the location above.

### SANE Dependencies

#### Optional

Avahi-0.8, Cups-2.4.19, libjpeg-turbo-3.2.0, tiff-4.7.2, libusb-1.0.30, v4l-utils-1.32.0, Net-SNMP, libieee1284, libgphoto2, and texlive-20250308 (or install-tl-unx)

## Kernel Configuration, Drivers and Additional Packages

To access your scanner, you will probably need the related kernel drivers and/or additional support packages. A SCSI scanner will need SCSI drivers, a parallel port scanner needs parallel port support (you should use enhanced EPP modes) and perhaps libieee1284, and a USB scanner will need the libusb-1.0.30 package. For HP devices, you may need hplip. Ensure you have the necessary drivers properly configured to access the devices.

## Installation of SANE

### Installation of SANE Backends

The SANE daemon should run with its own group. Create this group by issuing the following command as the `root` user:

    groupadd -g 70 scanner

### Note

configure assumes that the user building SANE Backends is a member of the `scanner` group for testing the existence of this group. As a result, the user building the package needs to be added to the `scanner` group. Add the user to the `scanner` group by issuing the following command as the `root` user:

    usermod -G scanner -a username

After adding the `scanner` group as above, you will need to log out and back in to activate it.

For a USB scanner, if you are linking to libusb-1.0.30, include the configure switch --enable-libusb_1_0. Install SANE Backends by running the following commands:

    sg scanner -c "                                 \
    PYTHON=python3 ./configure --prefix=/usr        \
                               --sysconfdir=/etc    \
                               --localstatedir=/var \
                               --with-lockdir=/run/lock \
                               --docdir=/usr/share/doc/sane-backends-1.4.0" &&
    make

To test the results, issue: make check.

Now, as the `root` user:

    make install                                         &&
    install -m 644 -v tools/udev/libsane.rules           \
                      /etc/udev/rules.d/65-scanner.rules &&
    mkdir -p          /run/lock/sane &&
    chgrp -v scanner  /run/lock/sane

With the scanner on, run scanimage -L and the name and location of the device should appear. Of course, you need the device drivers configured, in order to run this test.

## Command Explanations

sg scanner -c "...": runs the command between double quotes with principal group `scanner`. This may be needed if the user has been newly added to group scanner, and has not logged out and in.

`PYTHON=python3`: This switch forces the build system to use Python 3 instead of Python 2.

`--sysconfdir=/etc`: This switch installs the configuration files in `/etc/sane.d` instead of `/usr/etc/sane.d`.

## Configuring SANE

### Config Files

`/etc/sane.d/*.conf`

### Configuration Information

##### Backend Configuration

The backend configuration files are located in `/etc/sane.d`. Information for configuring the various backends can be found by using the man(5) page for the desired backend. Run man sane-`<backend>`, substituting the desired backend.

Add any users that will use a scanner to the `scanner` group.

### Note

If you plan on using the scanner client Simple-scan-50.0 to access a networked scanner such as an "All-in-One" printer/scanner, there may be no configuration necessary. Try that first.

If you want to access a network scanner, include two lines in `net.conf`, as the `root` user (make sure to replace <server_ip> by the actual value):

    cat >> /etc/sane.d/net.conf << "EOF"
    connect_timeout = 60
    <server_ip>
    EOF

On the server side, include the client ip in the access list of `/etc/sane.d/saned.conf`, restart the saned daemon, and make sure the firewall, if any, is open to the client.

##### General Information

For general information about configuring and using SANE, see man sane. For information about USB scanning devices, run man sane-usb. For information about SCSI devices, run man sane-scsi.

##### Configuration and setup of the 'saned' daemon

The saned daemon is not meant to be used for untrusted clients. You should provide Firewalling protection to ensure only trusted clients access the daemon. Due to the complex security requirements to ensure only trusted clients access the daemon, BLFS does not provide instructions to configure the saned daemon. Some good (but outdated) information for setting up and securing the saned daemon can be found at https://penguin-breeder.org/sane/saned/.

## Contents

Installed Programs: gamma4scanimage, sane-config, saned, sane-find-scanner, scanimage, and umax_pp
Installed Libraries: libsane.so and numerous scanner backend modules
Installed Directories: /etc/sane.d, /usr/{include,lib,share}/sane, and /usr/share/doc/sane-1.4.0

### Short Descriptions

gamma4scanimage | creates a gamma table in the format expected by scanimage
sane-config | is a tool used to determine the compiler and linker flags that should be used to compile and link SANE
saned | is the SANE daemon that allows remote clients to access image acquisition devices available on the local host
sane-find-scanner | is a command-line tool to find SCSI and USB scanners and determine their device files. Its primary purpose is to make sure that scanners can be detected by SANE backends
scanimage | is a command line interface for scanning from image acquisition devices such as flatbed scanners or cameras. It is also used to list the available backend devices
umax_pp | is a tool used to read information from UMAX parallel port scanners. It can also be used for performing diagnostics on these scanners
`libsane.so` | is the application programming interface that is used to communicate between frontends and backends
`libsane-*.so` | modules are backend scanning library plugins used to interface with scanning devices. See http://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html for a list of supported backends

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