sane-scsi

sane-scsi(5)             SANE Scanner Access Now Easy             sane-scsi(5)

NAME
       sane-scsi - SCSI adapter tips for scanners

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  contains various operating-system specific tips and
       tricks on how to get scanners with a SCSI interface working.

GENERAL INFO
       For scanners with a SCSI interface, it may be necessary to edit the ap-
       propriate  backend  configuration  file before using SANE for the first
       time.  For most systems, the configuration file should list the name of
       the  generic  SCSI device that the scanner is connected to (e.g., under
       Linux, /dev/sg4 or /dev/sge is such a generic SCSI device).  It is cus-
       tomary to create a symlink from /dev/scanner to the generic SCSI device
       that the scanner is connected to.  In this case, the configuration file
       simply lists the line /dev/scanner.  For a detailed description of each
       backend's configuration file, please refer to the relevant backend man-
       ual  page  (e.g.,  sane-epson(5)  for Epson scanners, sane-hp(5) for HP
       scanners, etc.).

       For some operating systems (e.g. Linux and OS/2), there is an alternate
       way  of  specifying  scanner devices.  This alternate way allows one to
       identify scanners by the SCSI vendor and model  string  and/or  by  the
       SCSI  device address (consisting of bus number, channel number, id, and
       logical unit number).  The syntax for specifying a scanner in this  way
       is:

              scsi VENDOR MODEL TYPE BUS CHANNEL ID LUN

       where VENDOR is the SCSI vendor string, MODEL is the SCSI model string,
       TYPE is type SCSI device type string, BUS is the SCSI bus number (named
       "host"  in  /proc/scsi/scsi), CHANNEL is the SCSI channel number, ID is
       the SCSI id, and LUN is the logical unit number of the scanner  device.
       The  first  two  fields  are  strings which must be enclosed in double-
       quotes if they contain any whitespace.  The remaining four  fields  are
       non-negative  integer numbers.  The correct values for these fields can
       be found by using operating system specific tools, e.g.  for  Linux  by
       looking  at  the  output of the command "cat /proc/scsi/scsi".  To sim-
       plify configuration, a field's value can be replaced with  an  asterisk
       symbol  (``*'').   An asterisk has the effect that any value is allowed
       for that particular field.  This can have  the  effect  that  a  single
       scsi-line  matches  multiple devices.  When this happens, each matching
       device will be probed by the backend one by one and registered  if  the
       backend thinks it is a compatible device.  For example, the line

              scsi MUSTEK MFS-06000CX Scanner 0 00 03 00

       would attach the Mustek SCSI scanner with the following /proc/scsi/scsi
       entry:

         Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
           Vendor: MUSTEK   Model: MFS-06000CX Rev: 4.04
           Type:   Scanner  ANSI SCSI revision: 0

       Usually it's sufficient to use vendor and model strings  only  or  even
       only the vendor string. The following example

              scsi MUSTEK * * * * * *

       would have the effect that all SCSI devices in the system with a vendor
       string of MUSTEK would be probed and recognized by the backend.

       If the remainder of a scsi-string consists of asterisks only,  the  as-
       terisks  can be omitted.  For example, the following line is equivalent
       to the one specified previously:

              scsi MUSTEK

       On some platforms (e.g., OpenStep), SANE device names  take  a  special
       form.   This  is explained below in the relevant platform-specific sec-
       tion.

       When using a SCSI scanner, ensure that the access  permission  for  the
       generic  SCSI device is set appropriately.  We recommend to add a group
       "scanner" to /etc/group which contains all users that should  have  ac-
       cess  to  the scanner.  The permission of the device should then be set
       to allow group read and write access.  For example, if the  scanner  is
       at  generic SCSI device /dev/sg0, then the following two commands would
       set the permission correctly:

              $ chgrp scanner /dev/sg0
              $ chmod 660 /dev/sg0

       When your system uses the device filesystem (devfs), you have  to  edit
       /etc/devfs/perms.  There you should search the line

              REGISTER ^sg[^/]* PERMISSIONS root.root 0600

       and add a new line (eg. for changing permissions of sg4):

              REGISTER ^sg4 PERMISSIONS root.scanner 0660

FREEBSD INFO
       Auto-configuration  using  the  "scsi *" lines in the config files only
       works if the  user  running  the  frontend  has  read/write  access  to
       /dev/xpt0.  Instead, you can also set a link /dev/scanner to the appro-
       priate /dev/uk device.

              Adaptec AHA1542CF
                     Reported to work fine under FreeBSD 2.2.2R with  the  aha
                     driver.

              Adaptec 2940
                     Reported to work fine under FreeBSD 2.2.2.

              Adaptec 1522
                     The  scanner probes ok but any attempt to access it hangs
                     the entire system. It looks like something  is  disabling
                     interrupts  and  then  not  re-enabling them, so it looks
                     like a bug in the FreeBSD aic driver.

              Adaptec 1505
                     Works on FreeBSD 2.2.5R and 3.0  using  the  aic  driver,
                     provided  that  Plug-and-Play  support is disabled on the
                     card.  If there are no uk devices, just do a ``sh MAKEDEV
                     uk0''  in  the /dev directory. The scanner should then be
                     accessible as /dev/uk0 if it was probed during boot.

              Tekram DC390
                     Reported to work fine under FreeBSD 2.2.2R with  the  amd
                     driver.

LINUX INFO
       First,  make  sure  your  kernel  has SCSI generic support enabled.  In
       ``make xconfig'', this shows up under ``SCSI support->SCSI generic sup-
       port''.

       To  keep scanning times to a minimum, it is strongly recommended to use
       a large buffer size for the generic SCSI driver. From SG driver version
       2.0 on, the maximum buffer size can be changed at program run time, and
       there is no restriction in size. This driver version  is  part  of  the
       Linux  kernels from version 2.2.7 on. If the new SG driver is available
       some backends (e.g. sane-umax, sane-mustek,  sane-sharp)  automatically
       request  larger  scsi  buffers. If a backend does not automatically re-
       quest  a   larger   scsi   buffer,   set   the   environment   variable
       SANE_SG_BUFFERSIZE  to the desired buffer size in bytes. It is not rec-
       ommended to use more than 1 MB, because for large values the  probabil-
       ity  increases  that  the  SG driver cannot allocate the necessary buf-
       fer(s). For ISA cards, even 1 MB might be a too large value. For a  de-
       tailed   discussion   of   memory   issues   of   the  SG  driver,  see
       http://www.torque.net/sg.

       For Linux kernels before version 2.2.7 the size of the buffer  is  only
       32KB.   This  works, but for many cheaper scanners this causes scanning
       to be slower by about a factor of four than when using a size of 127KB.
       Linux  defines  the  size of this buffer by macro SG_BIG_BUFF in header
       file /usr/include/scsi/sg.h.  Unless a system  is  seriously  short  on
       memory,  it  is recommended to increase this value to the maximum legal
       value of 128*1024-512=130560 bytes.  After changing this value,  it  is
       necessary to recompile both the kernel (or the SCSI generic module) and
       the SCSI backends. Keep in mind that this is only necessary with  older
       Linux kernels.

       A  common  issue  with  SCSI scanners is what to do when you booted the
       system while the scanner was turned off?  In such a case,  the  scanner
       won't  be recognized by the kernel and SANE won't be able to access it.
       Fortunately, Linux provides a simple mechanism to probe a  SCSI  device
       on  demand.  Suppose you have a scanner connected to SCSI bus 2 and the
       scanner has a SCSI id of 5.  When the system is up and running and  the
       scanner is turned on, you can issue the command:

              echo "scsi add-single-device 2 0 5 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi

       and  the kernel will probe and recognize your scanner (this needs to be
       done as root).  It's also possible to dynamically remove a SCSI  device
       by using the ``remove-single-device'' command.  For details, please re-
       fer to to the SCSI-2.4-HOWTO.

       Scanners are known to work  with  the  following  SCSI  adapters  under
       Linux.  This list isn't complete, usually any SCSI adapter supported by
       Linux should work.

              Acard/Advance SCSI adapters
                     Some old versions of the kernel  driver  (atp870u.c)  cut
                     the  inquiry information.  Therefore the scanner couldn't
                     be detected correctly. Use a current kernel.

              Adaptec AHA-1505/AHA-1542/AHA-2940
                     Reported to work fine with Linux since v2.0. If  you  en-
                     counter  kernel freezes or other unexpected behaviour get
                     the latest Linux kernel (2.2.17 seems to work) or  reduce
                     SCSI buffer size to 32 kB.

              ASUS SC200
                     Reported to work fine with Linux v2.0.

              BusLogic BT958
                     To  configure  the  BusLogic card, you may need to follow
                     these     instructions     (contributed     by     Jeremy
                     <jeremy@xxedgexx.com>):  During  boot, when your BusLogic
                     adapter is being initialized, press Ctrl-B to enter  your
                     BusLogic  adapter  setup.   Choose the address which your
                     BusLogic  containing  your  scanner  is  located.  Choose
                     ``SCSI Device Configuration''.  Choose ``Scan SCSI Bus''.
                     Choose whatever SCSI id that contains  your  scanner  and
                     then  choose  ``View/Modify SCSI configuration''.  Change
                     ``Negotiation'' to ``async'' and change ``Disconnect'' to
                     ``off''.  Press  Esc,  save,  and Esc again until you are
                     asked to reboot.

              NCR/Symbios 53c400/53c400a or Domex DTC3181E/L/LE (DTCT436/436P)
              ISA SCSI card
                     This card is supplied by Mustek (and other vendors). It's
                     supported since Linux 2.2.  The SCSI cards are  supported
                     by the module g_NCR5380.  It's necessary to tell the ker-
                     nel the io port and type of card.  Example for a 53c400a:
                     ``modprobe   g_NCR5380   ncr_addr=0x280  ncr_53c400a=1''.
                     Once the kernel detects the  card,  it  should  work  all
                     right.  However, while it should work, do not expect good
                     performance out of this card---it has no  interrupt  line
                     and therefore while a scan is in progress, the system be-
                     comes almost unusable.  You may change the values of  the
                     USLEEP macros in drivers/scsi/g_NCR5380.c.  Some documen-
                     tation is in this file and NCR5380.c.

              NCR/Symbios 810
                     For some scanners it may be necessary to disable  discon-
                     nect/reconnect.   To   achieve   this   use   the  option
                     ncr53c8xx="disc:n". Some people reported that their scan-
                     ner  only  worked  with  the  53c7,8xx  driver,  not  the
                     ncr53c8xx. Try both if you have trouble.
                     For Linux kernels before 2.0.33 it may  be  necessary  to
                     increase  the  SCSI  timeout. The default timeout for the
                     Linux kernels before 2.0.33 is 10 seconds, which  is  way
                     too low when scanning large area.  If you get messages of
                     the form ``restart (ncr dead ?)'' in  your  /var/log/mes-
                     sages  file  or on the system console, it's an indication
                     that the timeout is too short.  In this  case,  find  the
                     line  ``if  (np->latetime>10)'' in file ncr53c8xx.c (nor-
                     mally  in  directory   /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi)   and
                     change  the  constant  10 to, say, 60 (one minute).  Then
                     rebuild the kernel/module and try again.

              Tekram DC315
                     The     driver      can      be      downloaded      from
                     http://www.garloff.de/kurt/linux/dc395/.   For some older
                     scanners it may be necessary to disable all the more  ad-
                     vanced   features   by  using  e.g.  modprobe  dc395x_trm
                     dc395x_trm=7,5,1,32.

              Tekram DC390
                     Version 1.11 of the Tekram  driver  seems  to  work  fine
                     mostly,  except that the scan does not terminate properly
                     (it causes a SCSI timeout after 10 minutes).  The generic
                     AM53C974 also seems to work fine and does not suffer from
                     the timeout problems.

SOLARIS, OPENSTEP AND NEXTSTEP INFO
       Under Solaris, OpenStep and NeXTStep,  the  generic  SCSI  device  name
       refers  to  a  SCSI  bus,  not  to  an individual device.  For example,
       /dev/sg0 refers to the first SCSI bus.  To tell SANE  which  device  to
       use,  append  the  character  'a'+target-id to the special device name.
       For example, the SCSI device connected to the first SCSI controller and
       with target-id 0 would be called /dev/sg0a, and the device with target-
       id 1 on that same bus would be called /dev/sg0b, and so on.

ENVIRONMENT
       SANE_DEBUG_SANEI_SCSI
              If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this en-
              vironment variable controls the debug level for the generic SCSI
              I/O subsystem.  E.g., a value of 128 requests all  debug  output
              to  be printed by the backend. A value of 255 also prints kernel
              messages from the SCSI  subsystem  (where  available).   Smaller
              levels reduce verbosity.

       SANE_SCSICMD_TIMEOUT
              sets  the timeout value for SCSI commands in seconds. Overriding
              the default value of 120 seconds should only  be  necessary  for
              very slow scanners.

SEE ALSO
       sane(7), sane-find-scanner(1), sane-"backendname"(5), sane-usb(5)

AUTHOR
       David Mosberger

@PACKAGEVERSION@                  14 Jul 2008                     sane-scsi(5)
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