Andrew <andrew2006 at flight.us> writes: >>Andrew <andrew2006 at flight.us> writes: >> >>> The Epson 4490 is not listed on >>http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-EPSON >> >>Check >> >> http://sane.alioth.debian.org/lists/sane-backends-external.html#S-EPKOWA >> >>instead. It is supported, but on i386 machines only as it requires a >>non-free plugin. >> >>> Surfing around i see people have asked about support, there are >>> cases where it does NOT work with out-of-the-box distribs/kooka, but >>> i am not seeing definitive answers of whether it does or doesn't >> >>Last time I looked at kooka was during a debugging session trying to >>find out why it insisted on blowing up regardless of what you did. >>Hope things have changed for the better since then. > > Sorry, i don't have much linux scanning experience; i used kooka with an old > scsi HP scanner with no problems and was just assuming that kooka is the > scanning swiss-army knife for the entire linux community. > > (Are SCSI scanners better supported than USB/firewire ones?) > >>> Does anyone here know if this model is supported? >> >>Yes, provided you use it on an i386 machine and don't mind using >>non-free software. Packages are available at: >> >> http://www.avasys.jp/english/linux_e/dl_scan.html > > thank you, this looks promising. Perhaps the term "non-free > software" needs some elaboration, though.
As allan m. noah already responded, I meant non-free as in speech. > The above site has downloadable binaries and source(!) And, outside > of computer jargon, "non-free" would almost certainly mean > "something acquired only through a purchase". Or did I > misunderstand the agreement? There are no trial periods or some > such, or would i have to pay for the software you referred me to? The iscan "source" contains a binary object for which no corresponding source code is provided. Also the plugin package you will need for this model is provided in binary form only. > Plus, the "EPSON AVASYS PUBLIC LICENSE" (linked from the above) > seems to overlap with GPL on certain rights and "freedoms". And the > software is subject to it, to the GPL itself, and other licenses > allowing redistribution, etc. We tried to make it as free as we possibly could, but unfortunately iscan is not 100% free (as in speech). >>You most likely want the packages for gcc-3.4 or later. > > I think so. To home-compile it, i'd probably need to use the gcc-compat 3.4 > (?) You can (re)compile the iscan package if you want, but for the plugin you will be out of luck. When using the gcc-3.4 or later package you should not need any gcc-compat package. The source we provide should compile fine with gcc-4.x (with x < 4), AFAIK. >>If you need Debian packages, use: >> >> alien --scripts --keep-version <rpm-package> >> >>for the smoothest ride. > > I would use it with Fedora Core 6 and also Fedora 8. > > The provided Fedora binaries only go up to FC version 6. I hope to > be able to compile the source for Fedora 8 (and higher) You get the same binary packages for all versions of all distributions (seeing that we don't do Debian packages yet). The distribution info is used for statistical purposes. >>If you are using a distribution that's not officially supported by my >>employer you may need to straighten out a kink or two, but in general >>our iscan packages work quite well across multiple distributions. > > great. Sorry to nag about kooka - any probability it might work with > Kooka? If kooka works fine for you, I would think it should work with the SANE backend provided by iscan (+ the plugin you'll need). It's just that we haven't tested with kooka. > i haven't bought the scanner yet; this is pre-purchase research, so > i can't test it yet (i'll try to compile your driver, however, and > report results here as soon as i can) Hope this helps, -- Olaf Meeuwissen FLOSS Engineer -- EPSON AVASYS Corporation FSF Associate Member #1962 sign up at http://member.fsf.org/
