Scanning details and troubleshooting
This file provides more detailed information about
setting up scanning with the hpoj software,
including possible troubleshooting steps in case something goes wrong.
Additional information may be found in the separate document pertaining to
the libsane-hpoj backend.
Also, be sure to consult the connectivity
details and troubleshooting document, because some issues here may
actually be connectivity-related.
Question: What do the terms "frontend" and "backend" mean?
SANE
separates scanning functionality into these two layers:
- The frontend application, such as scanimage, xscanimage,
or xsane, handles user
interaction and saving images to disk, but generally knows nothing about
the specific device it's accessing.
- The backend driver, such as
libsane-hpoj, implements a
common API for frontends
and performs all device-specific operations, such as reporting known devices
and options, starting and stopping scan operations, and converting the
received image data into a standardized format.
Question: Does SANE
still need to be re-compiled after installing hpoj?
No. If you had previously done this to support an older hpoj version (0.8
or earlier),
then you are now free to revert back to the sane-backends version
supplied by your distribution if you'd like.
Problem: SANE
can't find my scanner or reports an error such as "device
busy" when trying to access it.
Problem: SANE
tries to use my device through the hp instead of
or in addition to the hpoj backend.
You probably upgraded from hpoj-0.8 or earlier and had the
PTAL device name specified in hp.conf
using "option connect-ptal". For best results, the
SANE
hp backend should no longer be used with hpoj-supported devices.
Simply remove all references to PTAL devices in hp.conf, or
comment out the "hp" line in dll.conf.
Recent versions of SANE no longer
have OfficeJet scanning support enabled in the hp backend.
Problem: I tried editing the hp.conf or creating the
hpoj.conf file, but that didn't help.
hp.conf is for the hp backend, which is for certain
single-function ScanJet scanners only and (as described above) is no
longer used for scanning on hpoj-managed devices.
There is no corresponding hpoj.conf file.
libsane-hpoj automatically uses
devices that have been registered with
"ptal-init setup".
Problem: I tried to run "ptal-hp scan" as I did with hpoj-0.8,
but it didn't work.
This functionality was replaced with the
SANE-based scanning support for
all models using libsane-hpoj.
Problem: When I start SANE,
it segfaults, takes a long time, reports
lots of syslog messages, or otherwise acts strangely.
Perhaps another SANE
backend is causing trouble when probing for (and not
finding) its devices. Try editing the dll.conf file and commenting
out all backends (putting a "#" character at the beginning of the line)
except hpoj, net, and any other backends you know
you need.
Problem: SANE
terminated abnormally while scanning on the LaserJet
1220/3200/3300 series, and now it can't find or access the scanner.
The scanner lock in the device probably didn't get released. You can
manually release it by either power-cycling the device or passing the
environment variable "SANE_HPOJ_RESET_SCAN_TOKEN=1" to
libsane-hpoj.
Caution: Don't set this environment variable unless absolutely
necessary, because the scanner-lock token is the only thing preventing
multiple instances of libsane-hpoj from interfering with each
other on these models, especially in a networked environment.
Problem: When I scanned a page through the ADF, all I got was a
blank (white) image.
Try turning the page over.
Problem: I'm scanning from the glass, and every other time I try to
scan I get a "no documents" error.
Turn off the "batch scan" option.
Problem: After scanning multiple pages in the ADF on a flatbed-capable
model, the device starts endlessly scanning from the glass.
Turn on the "batch scan" option, which guarantees that a "no documents"
condition is returned on the next scan attempt after the last page has
been scanned from the ADF. Alternatively, you can set the "ADF mode"
option to "ADF", which prevents scanning from the glass altogether.
Problem: I don't see a "batch scan" option.
For some frontends such as xscanimage, there's a menu option
which you must select to make "advanced options" such as this one visible.
Also, there is no "batch scan" option for the OfficeJet LX and 300 series.
Ignore all references to this option for these models. For ADF-only models
in general, multi-page scans correctly stop after the last page, even if
the "batch scan" option isn't available or enabled.
Question: Why must I specify both --batch and
--batch-scan=yes on the scanimage command line?
--batch tells the scanimage frontend to perform
multiple scans until the backend returns a "no documents" condition.
--batch-scan=yes tells the backend to return the necessary
"no documents" condition after scanning the last page.
Problem: When scanning multiple pages with the OfficeJet 600 series,
there's a long delay before the next page starts getting scanned.
Turning on the "batch scan" option should eliminate this delay.
Problem: When scanning multiple pages, I tried to change scan options
(mode, resolution, etc.) between pages, but the settings didn't take
effect on the next page.
For some models (OfficeJet 500/600/700/T series, PSC 300 series, and
LaserJets), when the "batch scan" option is turned on, the scanner is
left in a different state between pages, such that it's ready to start
the next page more quickly but unable to accept scan option changes.
If you want to change scan options before the last page in the ADF has
been scanned, then turn off the "batch scan" option, which has the side
effect of completely resetting the scanner such that it can now accept
option changes. You can then turn the "batch scan" option back on if
you'd like.
Problem: With the LaserJet 1100A, if I wait too long between scanning
each page, I get a "Scanner jammed" error on the next page.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no way around this, regardless of the
value of the "batch scan" option. Just make sure you don't delay too
long between pages in a multi-page job on this model, or else place
only one page in the document feeder at a time.
Problem: With a "batch scan" on the LaserJet 1220/3200/3300 series,
immediately after scanning one page it starts scanning the next page,
even before I clicked on "Start" again.
This is another quirk of batch scans on these models. Just don't delay
too long between pages in a "batch scan" on these models, or the device
may discard the buffered image data when it reaches the end of the page
if the new scan operation hasn't yet been started from the PC.
Problem: I set the "ADF mode" option to "Auto" on an ADF-only model.
If I start a scan with the ADF empty,
SANE hangs for a long time before
returning an error message.
This is a known bug. Leave the "ADF mode" option set to "ADF" for
ADF-only models.
Problem: I scanned a letter-sized page, but the resulting image file
was padded to be much longer.
In some cases, especially for scroll-fed scanners, it is impossible to know
in advance exactly how long the document will be, and
SANE frontends
generally don't go back and update the image-length field in the file
header after the scan has completed. Therefore, by default
libsane-hpoj makes a "best guess"
estimate of the maximum image size, and pads it with white data or
truncates it as needed.
If desired, you may use the "geometry" options to select a smaller scan area.
Alternatively, if you really want to scan the entire page but avoid the
default padding, you can change the "length measurement" option from
Padded to either Unknown, Unlimited, or Approximate. Save the resulting
image to a PNM file, such as out.pnm. Then run something like the
following command, which reads the image from out.pnm and writes
it back out with the correct length field to out-fixed.pnm:
hpojip-test out.pnm out-fixed.pnm -decpnm -encpnm
Problem: The right and/or bottom margins are cut off.
This has been fixed as much as possible in
libsane-hpoj.
Any remaining margin-cutoff issues may be the fault of the device and/or
the SANE
frontend (such as xsane).
Try using a different frontend application, such as xscanimage or
scanimage.
Problem: The device sometimes locks up in the middle of scanning a page,
possibly with a "SYSTEM ERROR" message on the front panel.
This is a known issue on certain models (OfficeJet 500/600/700 and PSC 300
series). The workaround seems to be to increase the value of the "JPEG
compression factor" option. The default value for this option is 10 on
these models (0 otherwise), but try increasing it some more if you still
experience this problem.
A list of "system error" codes on these models and possible fixes may be found
here.
Problem: Scans on my parallel-connected model are very slow.
The following suggestions may help, depending on your system,
device, budget, and image-quality needs:
- Set your parallel port to ECP in your BIOS setup or on-board jumpers,
as appropriate.
- Connect via USB or JetDirect instead of parallel if possible.
- Try turning on scanner compression if your model supports it:
JPEG for color and grayscale; MH, MR, or MMR for lineart.
- Use the lowest acceptable resolution possible, which normally happens
automatically when performing a "preview" scan.
- Use a lower scan mode for preview scans: grayscale for images, lineart
for text. Then go back to the desired scan mode for non-preview scans.
Question: What is the difference between the two JPEG compression
and quality options in xsane?
Some scanner models return JPEG-compressed image data, and the backend
transparently decompresses it before delivering it to the frontend
application. The backend "JPEG compression factor" option tells the
scanner to what extent to compress the data (larger numbers mean more
compression and faster scans but lower quality). On the other hand,
xsane is able to save scanned
data as JPEG files, but it must re-compress the data given a separate "JPEG
quality factor" setting. Note that since JPEG is a "lossy" compression
standard, for best final image quality you should use as little
compression as possible, especially in the intermediate device-to-backend
compression step. It is not currently possible to save the device-compressed
image data directly to a JPEG file and avoid the redundant re-compression
and associated quality loss, because the
SANE API standard
requires backends to deliver image data in an uncompressed format.
Problem: In the middle of a scan I pressed the "Cancel" button on the
device's front panel, and SANE
locked up.
This is a problem on certain models. Usually the application will un-freeze
after a timeout period, which could be a minute or more depending on what
state the scan operation was in at the time the Cancel button was pressed.
Problem: I pressed one of the "Scan" buttons on the device's front
panel, but nothing happened.
The "Scan", "Scan To", and "Start Scan" buttons on the front panel are
not currently supported by the hpoj software. Always use the
SANE frontend
application to initiate scans.
Question: How do I set up xscanimage or
xsane to run as a
GIMP plugin?
Invoke something like one of the following commands, adjusting the paths as
necessary for the directory in which the application is installed and the
version of GIMP you're using:
ln -s /usr/local/bin/xscanimage ~/.gimp/plug-ins
ln -s /usr/local/bin/xsane ~/.gimp-1.2/plug-ins
See
http://www.xsane.org/doc/sane-xsane-gimp-doc.html for more
information. This may not be necessary if you are using
SANE and
GIMP
packages provided by your distribution which automatically set up the
appropriate links.
Question: How can I share my scanner with other network clients?
Using saned, you can share the device's scanning function with
other network clients that are also running
SANE.
You may be able to connect the device directly to the network with a
JetDirect print server. However, not all products' Windows drivers
support this configuration.
Question: How do I debug scanning problems?
If you have problems, in some cases it may be helpful to enable debug
output, which is fully enabled with the following command before running
the application:
export SANE_DEBUG_DLL=128
export PTAL_DEBUG=2
The debug output is sent to standard error. To capture this to a file
named log.txt, add 2>log.txt to the command line.
Put it before the ampersand if running xscanimage or
xsane in the background.
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