Comment 40 for bug 85488

Workaround to enable GUI tools:
I can use the command line workaround mentioned earlier, but it isn't acceptable for the rest of my family. I have written a short shell script that "prods" the scanner every second and stops after around 15-20 minutes. This enables the standard GUI scanner utitlities (Kooka and so on) to work. Apologies for the quality of the solution, as I am far from a skilled technical type, however I don't think anyone is likely to sort this problem out so close to release.

1. Find the device using "lsusb":
for me:
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04a9:220d Canon, Inc. CanoScan N670U/N676U/LiDE 20

so my scanner is on bus 001, device 004 - these numbers are used in the "wake-up" script as follows:

#!/bin/sh
echo "prodding scanner begins ..."
         for i in `seq 1 1000`;
        do
cat /dev/bus/usb/001/004 > /dev/null
sleep 1
        done
echo "scanner is now having a nice rest..."

save the above as "scantouch.sh". Activate the script by typing "sh scantouch.sh" - while the script is running (around 17 minutes max), the GUI scanner utilities can be used. Thanks to this horrible hack, my wife is able to get on with her work, and my ears no longer ring!

Warning: This worked for me, it might not for you, it might not be safe, there are surely better ways of doing this.