xref: /third_party/backends/doc/umax/umax.FAQ

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Q: I am using an Astra 2200 Scanner and can do a preview scan but the scanner
   hangs or produces bad images when I start a final scan.

A: Disable the option "quality calibration". This does not reduce the image
   quality, the scanner reports it can do a quality calibration but that is
   not true for the current firmware version.

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Q: What scsi controller shall I use for UMAX scsi scanners?

A: The controller cards that come with UMAX scanners are very simple ones
   and I suggest not to use this cards.

   I like the ncr53c8xx (=symbios-loigc53c8xx = lsi53c8xx) controllers because
   they are not too expensive and I had very good results with these cards.
   Especially the ncr53c810 is very interesting for scanning because this
   are fast scsi controllers which allow long scsi cables.

   The Adaptec 2904 controllers seem to make problems with UMAX scanners on
   linux.

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Q: I want to use the scsi-card that comes with my umax scanner.
   What card is it and is it supported by my os?

A: There are at least two kind of scsi controller cards that
   come with UMAX scanners.

 ISA-Card:
   The ISA-cards that come with the umax scanners are very simple cards.
   I suggest not to use these cards.

   If you really want to try:
   the UDS-IS11 ISA-card is a DTC3181E-card based on the NCR5380-chip.
   On linux you may have the chance to get it work with the recent
   g_NCR5380-driver. The card does not have IRQ/DMA.

   Try the following option for kernel:  dtc3181e=0x280,255
   or use the following command:

     insmod g_NCR5380 ncr_irq=255 ncr_addr=0x280 dtc3181e=1

     - ncr_irq=255 : no IRQ, no DMA
     - ncr_irq=254 : autoprobe IRQ
     - ncr_addr    : can be: 0x220 0x240 0x280 0x2A0 0x2C0 0x300 0x320 0x340

   (Thanks to Colin Brough and Hans Schaefer for that tip)


 PCI-Card:
   Some UMAX Scanners come with a PCI SCSI controller card DOMEX DMX3191E.
   This card shall be compatible to the Advansys ABP940U (Chip: Advansys
   ASC3030). The card shall work without problems with the Advansys SCSI
   driver for linux.

   (Thanks to Volker Ossenkopf for that tip)

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Q: I use linux with a NCR/Symbios logic SCSI-Controller, sane does not work
   right.

A: There are two different drivers in the linux Kernel/modules.
   Use the BSD-driver ncr53c8xx or sym53c8xx.

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Q: I am using an AM53C974 based scsi card with a umax scanner, the system
   freezes when I start a scan, what can I do?

A: Try the recent driver for the scsi card, take a look at:
   http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/dc390/index.html

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Q: Will there be a support for the UMAX-parallel-port-scanners?

A: Since sane-1.0.5 there is a separate sane-umax-pp backend that does
   support (some) umax parallel port scanners.

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Q: Will there be a support for the UMAX-USB-scanners?

A: UMAX published their SCSI-protocol for scanners. However they have not so far
   published USB protocols. This seems to be because they are using an ASIC that
   is produced by someone else and they had to subscribe an NDA.
   Without the protocol documentation it really is hard to write a driver.
   I will not work on a driver.

   The Astra 2200W does work when connected via SCSI.
   It could work with SCSI-via-USB-driver and connected via USB, but that
   is not tested.

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Q: I get a black area at the top of the image. What's wrong?

A: This is a problem of some scsi-drivers.
   Update the driver for your scsi-adapter or update the operating system/kernel.

   For advansys-scsi-cards update to a new kernel which includes at least
   the driver version 3.1E of the advansys-scsi-driver. Take a look at:
   http://www.advansys.com/linux.htm

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Q: Does SANE and the umax backend work on LinuxPPC / big endian machine ?

A: There are people using the sane-umax on a LinuxPPC (big endian) machine.

   Other people write that they can not scan on a LinuxPPC. It looks like this
   is a problem with the driver of the scsi card.

   The "MESH" SCSI card is reported to work. The NCR53C94 SCSI card
   seems not to work.

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Q: SANE hangs or crashes when I start a frontend for sane, what can I do?

A: Sometimes the backends that are not used make problems.
   Edit /usr/(local)/etc/sane.d/dll.conf
   and comment out everything but the backend you need.

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Q: compiling sane aborts with error "virtual memory exhausted"
   on slackware linux with gcc. What goes wrong?

A: The optimization set by "-O2" makes problems, try which one of the following
   calls work:

   make CFLAGS="-g -Wall -O1"
   make CFLAGS="-g -Wall -O"
   make CFLAGS="-g -Wall"

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You find a lot of tips and information on the internet. E.g. take a look
at http://www.scantips.com