Ubuntu

Using Canon Scanner, USB type 8400F

Asked by Ralph Hess

The one thing stopping me switching to Linux [Ubuntu 8.04LTS] is the lack of a driver for my Canon 8400F USB scanner. I know that Canon refuses to support Linux. This leads me to ask a multipart question.

How difficult would it be to write a translator that actually uses either the Windows driver software from Canon, or for that matter the Apple Mac drivers that seem to be available? Software like Wine requires the underlying Linux to support the hardware, and Virtual Machines are no help, I might as well continue to dual boot.

There is windows software available that traps and lists USB calls, including the scanner - can that help?

Legal issues apart, how difficult would it be to "reverse engineer" just the drivers to make Sane work?

I think my frustration is showing!!

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Andre Mangan (kyphi) said : 		#1

This is written in sympathy:

For two years I held on to a Canon scanner and waited for Canon to make the source code available or otherwise show some consideration for the estimated 30 million Linux users (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRPEIo0LLHQ&feature=related), some of them perhaps using Canon products. I waited in vain.
The scanner, although still in working order but long bypassed by newer technology, ended up in the garbage bin and I felt relief at having discarded what had become a shackle.

It did work in an XP installation in VirtualBox.

There are other manufacturers of scanners or multifunction units which you can just plug in and they work - something that Canon can not do.

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martino (lrinetti-libero) said : 		#2

I can't help Ralph on the problem,
just i can share with him the same frustration on my (unfriendly) CanonScan 8800F with Linux Ubuntu 8.04LTS
after a long search of a driver for this kind of product. Of course mi next scanner will be different.

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SP (pellegry-simon) said : 		#3

I bougth this usb scanner to scan old negatives and 35mm pictures.

It's absolutely not working on Ubuntu and there's no drivers from Canon....

Actually i'm using a VIrtual Box and whenever i need to scan something i launch it but it's pretty clear to me that my next gear won't be Canon and will be Linux-friendly.

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask Ralph Hess for more information if necessary.

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