Xsane page size setting - desperate!

[JohnJasonJordan]

I have a Canoscan LiDE 30 scanner which works fine in Linux. I haven't used it in months, and never since moving from Jaunty x86_64 to Fedora 11 x86_64. This evening I suddenly need to scan two pages to send to someone via e-mail, and the recipient is desperate to receive them. Naturally, Xsane has decided this is the moment to screw me.

The problem:

I cannot figure out how to tell Xsane that the page size is 8.5 11. It insists on scanning only the left side, 3.99 x 11. I cannot find a page size anywhere in any of the buttons.

In Preview I once got it to scan the entire page, but could not figure out how to save the image to file. Subsequently I have not been able to figure out how I did it. In any event, scanning from the small main window always scans 3.99 x 11. Adjusting the scan area manually in the Preview window allows me to change the size area in the small main window to 8.5 x 11, but when I then scan from the small main window it reverts to 3.99 x 11.

I have scanned the document a hundred times at least, each time trying different buttons, but nothing has succeeded in getting the full page. I hope there is an Xsane expert here who can help.

[weitjong]

I also got the scanning assignment from my wife and I haven't actually started it yet. Still too busy to play with my F13

In Xsane, just above the "Acquire Preview" button, there is a drop down list box. Use that to choose the correct scan size. Then hit the preview button to get the preview. If it is ok then Press the "Scan" button on the other "floating" window.

BTW, I notice F13 there is a new scanning tool called "Simple Scan". It seems to get the scanning job done properly as well. It has a simple user interface as its name implies.

[JohnJasonJordan]

Originally Posted by weitjong

I also got the scanning assignment from my wife and I haven't actually started it yet. Still too busy to play with my F13

In Xsane, just above the "Acquire Preview" button, there is a drop down list box. Use that to choose the correct scan size. Then hit the preview button to get the preview. If it is ok then Press the "Scan" button on the other "floating" window.

BTW, I notice F13 there is a new scanning tool called "Simple Scan". It seems to get the scanning job done properly as well. It has a simple user interface as its name implies.

I have come to the conclusion that it is a bug.

1) I did the above exactly as stated and it still scans only the left 3.99 inches of the page.

2) I installed gscan2pdf and it does the same thing. That is, it shows the whole page, but most of it is washed out and unusable. But just before it shows the whole page the page with only the left 3.99 inches appears for a brief flash.

3) I installed Skanlite (the KDE frontend for sane), and it scans only the left 3.99 inches.

4) I renamed the ~/.sane folder, and all three front ends (Xsane, gscan2pdf and Skanlite) still scan only the left 3.99 inches.

Conclusions:

1) It's not in my settings.
2) It's not in the GUI front end to sane that I am using.

Furthermore, I used to scan pages and pages with Xsane on Ubuntu and never had any problem. But this is the first time I have tried to scan with Fedora 11.

I am currently trying to figure out if it's possible to scan from the command line. Since doing so would probably still use the sane libraries I probably will still have no joy, but it's my last hope.

I'd like to check the sane bug reports, but Google hasn't turned them up yet. (I have the world's worst Google-fu.) If someone has a link I'd appreciate it. Also, if anyone has a Canoscan LiDE 30 it would be helpful to see if you get the same results with Xsane 0.997. Then I can rule out hardware trouble.

[mchauber]

Originally Posted by JohnJasonJordan

I have come to the conclusion that it is a bug.

<snip>

Also, if anyone has a Canoscan LiDE 30 it would be helpful to see if you get the same results with Xsane 0.997. Then I can rule out hardware trouble.

I have a Canoscan LIDE 30. It scans fine with xsane, also with "Aquire Images" (part of the kipi-plugins package). I doubt that it makes any difference because I used the scanner without issue when I had Fedora 11, but I'm presently running Fedora 12.

EDIT:

Ahhh! I think I see what is going on!

On my laptop, 'scanimage -L' tells me that my device is "plustek:libusb:003:008"

But when I ran:

scanimage -d plustek:libusb:003:008 -p >page1.pnm

It seems to give me what you have been describing.

So if I change that to:

scanimage -d plustek:libusb:003:008 -x 215 -y 280 -p >page1.pnm

I get the whole page.

See if that works for you.

Cheers,

M

[JohnJasonJordan]

Originally Posted by mchauber

I have a Canoscan LIDE 30. It scans fine with xsane, also with "Aquire Images" (part of the kipi-plugins package). I doubt that it makes any difference because I used the scanner without issue when I had Fedora 11, but I'm presently running Fedora 12.

EDIT:

Ahhh! I think I see what is going on!

On my laptop, 'scanimage -L' tells me that my device is "plustek:libusb:003:008"

But when I ran:

scanimage -d plustek:libusb:003:008 -p >page1.pnm

It seems to give me what you have been describing.

So if I change that to:

scanimage -d plustek:libusb:003:008 -x 215 -y 280 -p >page1.pnm

I get the whole page.

See if that works for you.M

I had just about concluded that the scanner was tits up, but you have given me hope that it is just a configuration problem. Unfortunately, your solution did not work.

Why I was thinking that the scanner was busted:

1) I rebooted to a Jaunty live CD and tried to scan. Got the same results (scans beautifully, but only the left 3.99 inches of the page).

2) Tried Hardy live CD and got the same results.

3) Installed gscan2pdf and Skanlite (KDE), both of which gave me the same results.

4) Renamed the ~/.sane folder, but it made no difference.

Trying your solution I did scanimage -L first, which told me that my scanner is plustek:libusb:001:006. Then I copied and pasted your command above, editing to reflect my scanner, and entered the command:

scanimage -d plustek:libusb:001:006 -x 215 -y 280 -p >page1.pnm

Opening the page1.pnm file I see that it scanned only the leftmost 3.99 inches of the page.

I thought that the -x and -y values in scanimage were just offsets from the top left, in mm. So if I specified -x215 and -y280 it should have started the image 215 mm from the top and 280 mm from the left edge. But instead it still scanned starting at 0 and 0, and failed to scan past 1014 mm on the x axis.

Reading man scanimage I see no options for specifying page size. The Xsane GUI does appear to offer page size options, but regardless of what I set it to I get just the left 3.99 inches.

If I hold the lid open while scanning the bar that travels up and down appears to have all its lights lit up. (I expected to see one side burned out.)

I don't understand where you got 215 and 280 from.

[mchauber]

Originally Posted by JohnJasonJordan

I had just about concluded that the scanner was tits up, but you have given me hope that it is just a configuration problem. Unfortunately, your solution did not work.

<snip>

Opening the page1.pnm file I see that it scanned only the leftmost 3.99 inches of the page.

I thought that the -x and -y values in scanimage were just offsets from the top left, in mm. So if I specified -x215 and -y280 it should have started the image 215 mm from the top and 280 mm from the left edge. But instead it still scanned starting at 0 and 0, and failed to scan past 1014 mm on the x axis.

Reading man scanimage I see no options for specifying page size. The Xsane GUI does appear to offer page size options, but regardless of what I set it to I get just the left 3.99 inches.

If I hold the lid open while scanning the bar that travels up and down appears to have all its lights lit up. (I expected to see one side burned out.)

I don't understand where you got 215 and 280 from.

From the manpage:

To scan 100x100 mm to the file image.tiff (-x and -y may not be available with all
devices):

scanimage -x 100 -y 100 --format=tiff >image.tiff

I assume that this means that it scans up to point Xmm,Ymm from 0mm,0mm, and is not an offset.

I got the 215mm and 280mm because that's about the size of a 8.5x11 sheet of paper.

Being that you have tried that command and it is still not giving you what you need, then I believe you have narrowed the problem down to the scanner itself. If you've abused that poor thing as long as I have mine, I know you hate to see it go.

Sorry. I thought I was on to something.

M