>> That's the kind of reason why I don't like using printer's own network >> facilities and prefer to connect them over USB to a local GNU/Linux >> server which can then share them over CUPS&SANE. > There will be no computer close enough to the printer to do the job.
Indeed, it's not always a convenient option. For me, the BananaPi homeserver was within reach of a USB cable, so it was a no-brainer. > And if you are suggesting I should buy a device, even an inexpensive Definitely not. The ecological impact of a new device dwarfs any of the potential benefits. >> It also has the side benefit that sleeping while connected via USB tends >> to consume significantly less power than sleeping while connected via the >> wifi network (can't remember what the numbers look like for ethernet). >> The difference can be sufficient to power a BananaPi ;-) > Have you considered turning the printer off and disconnecting it from > the power mains with an external switch? I could live with it, yes, but my wife expects the printer to "just work", so it has to pretend it's always on. > Well, in between explaining why all the answers I got do not match the > question, I RTFS, and it seems indeed it is not possible with SANE. It's definitely possible with SANE. But apparently not with `hpaio`. > What stupid design. Yeah, I wish they'd just used SANE instead of inventing their own wheel. > As for the hpaio backend, it relies on CUPS to find networked printers, > but CUPS will not be always running. What stupid design. At least they do use CUPS instead of reinventing yet another wheel. Stefan