NOTES ON INSTALLATION - 01.09.2000 ---------------------------------- provided by Kevin Here are some notes that people might find useful when installing the plustek driver. I have installed this driver on versions on Redhat from 5.2 to 6.1, Mandrake 7.1, and a Suse 6.2(?? maybe 3). I have used both the sane-1.0.1 and sane-1.0.2 tgz versions. I don't recall there being anything really specific to the distribution, with the possible exception of where certain files are put (see below). Most if not all of the following assume you are logged in as root: 1. Be sure you only have one version of sane: use "find /usr -name scanimage" to get a listing of how many scanimages there are on your system; there should be only one. Most of the distribution seem to default to /usr/bin (i.e., if you use an rpm package to install sane). THis may have been installed when you installed linux without your being aware of it; I find that distributions (RH in particular) install a lot of things I even told them I didn't want installed (I always use custom install). If you build and install the tgz version, it seems to work best in /usr/local (CFLAGS="-g -O -Wall" ./configure --prefix=/usr/local before you do the make in the sane directory). If you have scanimage entries in both /usr/bin and /usr/local/bin, you will have to remove one of them. If one was installed as an rpm ("rpm -qa | grep sane" will tell you) and want to remove it use "rpm -e sane". If it wasn't installed as an rmp, you have to find all the files associated with that copy. "ldd /usr/bin/scanimage" will give a list of the libraries associated with THAT copy of scanimage; you can delete the libsane libraries manually (other libraries in the list may be needed for other programs; don't just delete everything). 2. Assuming you now only have one copy of scanimage (and the other files associated with it), you want to be sure that the library links are set up (rpms do this for you). First check the /etc/ld.so.conf file to see if it lists the directory into which you installed sane (the prefix you used). This is normally either /usr/lib or /usr/local/lib. It doesn't hurt to have both of these listed. Add one or both to the ld.so.conf if needed (it's just a text file), and run "ldconfig -v". This will build a new list so scanimage knows where to find its libraries (the "-v" just lets you see what is happening). One extra note: scanimage often complains that it can't find libsane.so.1 even though it exists. It seems to go into /usr/local/lib/sane instead of /usr/local/lib (or no /local if you built it that way). You can either add that directory to the /etc/ld.so.conf list or make a soft link to it ( from /usr/local/lib, "ln -s sane/libsane.so.1 libsane.so.1". sane/libsane.so.1 may itself be a link to another file). Run ldconfig again, whichever method you use. 3. Problems loading the plustek driver pt_drv.o: Doing "make load" doesn't always work. It is supposed to create the pt_drv entry in the /dev subdirectory; this may fail for various reasons. Do " ls -al /dev/pt_drv". You should get back a line something like "crw-rw--r 1 root root 40, 0 /dev/pt_drv". If it says that pt_drv doesn't exist, use mknod to create it (check the manpage to be sure) "mknod /dev/pt_drv c 40 0". Use "ls ..." again to be sure it got created. I'm assuming you did a "make iinstall" at some point in the plustek directory. This should put pt_drv.o in both /lib/modules//misc and /lib/modules/misc. Don't worry about this last one; it's the first one that is important. You then need to check that the driver has all dependencies resolved. I would "cd /lib/modules/2.2.12 (or whatever)" and do "depmod -a". This will create a new file, modules.dep I think, which has the dependencies for all modules including pt_drv.o, in /lib/modules/2.... If you get any errors, first be sure that you have parport and parport_pc loaded ("modprobe parport_pc") and then try depmod again. If you don't get any errors, everything should work; do "modprobe pt_drv" and you should see messages indicating that the scanner has been found. If you have the scanner connected to a port with an address other than 0x378 (usually called lpt1 in the dos-win world) you will need to use the "port=0x278" (for lpt2) option: "insmod pt_drv port=0x278". If you get errors and the scanner is turned on and connected to the port you specified, then there is some other problem. If it loads, then try "scanimage -L" and see if the plustek scanner is listed. 4. The printer driver lp.o is known to have a conflict with pt_drv.o This results in a loud noise when you try to do a scan. Until this is resolved, remove the lp driver before loading the pt_drv and trying to use the scanner ("lsmod lp" will tell you if it is loaded. I made up a bash script which I call scanner; I checks to see if lp is loaded and unloads it, and loads the parport modules if necessary, before trying to load the plustek driver. If pt_drv is already loaded it unloads it, and could be set to reload lp.o if desired. Typing "scanner" just toggles the pt_drv load or unload. This post is long enough already but if anyone is interested I can email it or post it to this list. This is by no means an exhaustive list but I think it covers several of the most important problems. It is very difficult to get a program that is still undergoing changes to install perfectly in every case, and I would rather see Gerhard, who has done a tremendous job getting the various plustek scanners to work under linux, concentrate on driver issues rather than installation problems. Someday, when the driver is finalized (or nearly so) we may all simply install sane and the plustek driver using an rpm or deb package. Until then, remember that you will get cut when you're on the bleeding edge, and what doesn't kill you makes you stronger (although you may wish you were dead).