Scanner Recommendations

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PublicLewdness
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Joined: 03/15/2020

I have a Samsung M2070FW and a Brother J450DW and both of them would work just fine back in the days when I used Linux Mint 17 but on every distro since then the scanner hasn't worked on them. This includes Trisquel 9; Linux Mint 19 and 20; Manjaro and Solus. I seem to remember there hearing about a widespread a bug in the Linux kernel itself but I can't find it now. I also I have the same issues under Xsane as well as Simple Scan. They work under my wife's Windows 10 system. Any recommendations on scanners (stand alone or part of an all in one are both fine) to buy that work in Linux ? I considered just buying one from Think Penguin but they don't ship theirs to Canada.

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

As far as I know, HP publishes the most information about the support by GNU/Linux distribution: https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/supported_devices/

Unfortunately, it is not as much as it used to be: that page used to indicate whether the printer/scanner "Requires firmware download". If so, it does not work on Trisquel, the firmware being proprietary. Anyway, the column "Driver Plug-in" is still present: it *must* be "No". Also, the "Min. HPLIP Version" allows to check whether the device may work out of the box on a given version of Trisquel ("may", because, I repeat, I fear that a now-unmentioned proprietary firmware is required). Trisquel 9 ships with HPLIP Version 3.17.10.

Buying on http://libre.thinkpenguin.com brings the guarantee that the device will work without proprietary software: ThinkPenguin checks it.

PublicLewdness
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Joined: 03/15/2020

"As far as I know, HP publishes the most information about the support by GNU/Linux distribution: https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing/supported_devices/

Unfortunately, it is not as much as it used to be: that page used to indicate whether the printer/scanner "Requires firmware download". If so, it does not work on Trisquel, the firmware being proprietary. Anyway, the column "Driver Plug-in" is still present: it *must* be "No". Also, the "Min. HPLIP Version" allows to check whether the device may work out of the box on a given version of Trisquel ("may", because, I repeat, I fear that a now-unmentioned proprietary firmware is required). Trisquel 9 ships with HPLIP Version 3.17.10.

Buying on http://libre.thinkpenguin.com brings the guarantee that the device will work without proprietary software: ThinkPenguin checks it."

I wanted to buy from Think Penguin as I love supporting businesses like that but they don't ship printers or scanners to Canada.

nadebula.1984
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Joined: 05/01/2018

Canon CanoScan LiDE series work perfectly on my blobless Debian.

PublicLewdness
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Joined: 03/15/2020

"Canon CanoScan LiDE series work perfectly on my blobless Debian."

Fantastic, I found two models in that series that are for sale near me.

lutes
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Joined: 09/04/2020

This can be useful to check general GNU/Linux compatibility for scanners: http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html.

Of course, you then need to check whether that device needs proprietary firmware if you want to use it on Trisquel (or any FSDG compliant distro).

Not sure whether this issue is related to yours, but something similar could have happened for the devices you mention: https://gitlab.com/sane-project/backends/-/issues/371.

I have been using an HP DeskJet 2050A and an HP Photosmart B110 as printer+scanner through T7, T8 and T9 without any problem (although I just noticed they are not on the SANE list). You might be able to get second-hand ones, as I did. This is a good way to reduce man-hour and processed material destruction.

PublicLewdness
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Joined: 03/15/2020

"This can be useful to check general GNU/Linux compatibility for scanners: http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html.

Of course, you then need to check whether that device needs proprietary firmware if you want to use it on Trisquel (or any FSDG compliant distro).

Not sure whether this issue is related to yours, but something similar could have happened for the devices you mention: https://gitlab.com/sane-project/backends/-/issues/371.

I have been using an HP DeskJet 2050A and an HP Photosmart B110 as printer+scanner through T7, T8 and T9 without any problem (although I just noticed they are not on the SANE list). You might be able to get second-hand ones, as I did. This is a good way to reduce man-hour and processed material destruction."

Thank you for that list, will be a great guide.

lutes
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Joined: 09/04/2020

For the sake of completeness, the reason why the backend for the devices I mentioned (hpaio) is not included in SANE is that "it is included in the HPLIP software", as mentioned here:

http://www.sane-project.org/lists/sane-backends-external.html#S-HPAIO

So this list of external backends is also worth checking.

PublicLewdness
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Joined: 03/15/2020

deleted

Mr. P
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Joined: 03/25/2020

Canon pixma MP250 (printer+scanner) work whit libre driver present in Trisquel repo, but I don't remember the correct package name, sorry.