Dear people, I just (yesterday night) bought myself a Canon PIXMA E4210 that I want to use *purely* with Free Software.
In my limited hours with it, I found that the scanning wasn't working with the programs in Debian testing nor sid but that I could make it work with an USB cable if I installed sane-backends 1.0.28 (I actually grabbed a package uploaded to mentors.debian.org). Since I read the code and it mentioned that it needed testers, here is a report. With the newer version of sane-backends, I can scan from the flatbed, as expected, and it works as well as I could expect (minus the fragility of this piece of hardware---disappointed with that, but that's not software-related, of course). Unfortunately, I can't scan from the ADF (which was one of the main reasons for me to choose this printer instead of others--with money being a 2nd factor, of course). This is what I have in my dmesg logs: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ 8812.136212] amdgpu: [powerplay] VBIOS did not find boot engine clock value in dependency table. Using Memory DPM level 0! [ 9138.020109] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 7 using xhci_hcd [ 9138.170011] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=04a9, idProduct=1855, bcdDevice= 1.02 [ 9138.170020] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [ 9138.170024] usb 1-1: Product: E4200 series [ 9138.170028] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: Canon [ 9138.170032] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: 103CD1 [ 9138.282978] usblp 1-1:1.1: usblp1: USB Bidirectional printer dev 7 if 1 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04A9 pid 0x1855 [ 9138.284546] usblp 1-1:1.2: usblp2: USB Bidirectional printer dev 7 if 2 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04A9 pid 0x1855 [ 9138.284573] usbcore: registered new interface driver usblp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - With scanimage, this is what I get: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $ scanimage -L device `pixma:04A91855_103CD1' is a CANON Canon PIXMA E4200 Series multi-function peripheral - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Making sure that there is a paper in the flatbed: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $ time scanimage --device=pixma:04A91855_103CD1 --progress --mode=Lineart --resolution=600 --format=png --gamma=1 > out.png Progress: 100.0% real 0m21.907s user 0m1.375s sys 0m0.323s $ file out.png out.png: PNG image data, 5104 x 7016, 1-bit grayscale, non-interlaced - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Now, making sure that there are sheets of paper on the ADF: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $ scanadf -d pixma:04A91855_103CD1 --mode Lineart --gamma 1 --output-file foo%02d.pnm Scanned document foo01.pnm scanadf: sane_read: Error during device I/O Error during device I/O Scanned 1 pages - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - What was scanned is the page from the flatbed, not from the ADF. If, OTOH, I specify something like: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - $ scanadf -d pixma:04A91855_103CD1 --mode Lineart --gamma 1 --source "Automatic Document Feeder" --output-file foo%02d.pbm scanadf: sane_read: Document feeder out of documents Scanned 0 pages - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The printer doesn't do anything, nothing moves etc. The ADF works if I tell it to scan from my Android device (but, then, the Canon app doesn't allow me to specify resolution, nor if I want B/W images etc.---yes, it's that limited). So, in essence, there is partial success with the pixma backend and this device. If there is anything that I can answer before I return this device (unfortunately, I'm not really sure that I can return it, but I will try it), then, please let me know and I will test whatever is desired. In the case of it being possible to return this device and get something else in its place, which manufacturer/model would be preferred to have *full* functionality with Free Software only? Any recommendations? Thanks, Rogério Brito. -- Rogério Brito : rbrito@{ime.usp.br,gmail.com} : GPG key 4096R/BCFCAAAA http://cynic.cc/blog/ : github.com/rbrito : profiles.google.com/rbrito DebianQA: http://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=rbrito%40ime.usp.br