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SANE Problems

If you have any problems with SANE or XSane please read this before you write any mails.

The SANE frontend (like xsane or xscanimage) does not start or aborts with a segmentation fault.

• Edit /usr/local/etc/sane.d/dll.conf (or /usr/etc/sane.d/dll.conf) and comment out all but the backend you need. To do this add a "#" at the beginning of the relevant lines.
• make sure there is only one sane version installed before you compile xsane (try as root: $find / -name "*sane*" | less)
• If you used an earlier version of xsane before remove the configuration directory: rm -rf ~/.sane/xsane (you have to enter all configurations again afterwards).
• make sure there is only one gtk-config and only one gimp-config file on your system (find / -name "g*-config").
• Do not install any self compiled source package over binary packages, in most cases the installation paths are different so the old versions are not overwritten!
• If that does not help try to find out where the error occurs:

    gdb xscanimage
    r <enter>
    after the frontend returned:
    backtrace <enter>

The scanner starts the scan but it stops while scanning

The scsi bus or the whole system freezes

The image is corrupted

In general there are three different reasons that can cause such erros:

In most cases it is a problem with your scsi bus. Please check the following points:

The scsi bus has to be a chain (one line) that is terminated on both ends. If possible the scanner should be on one end of the chain because the connectors on most scsi scanners are not specified for the scsi-2 standard.

If you do not use any ultra-scsi-devices and your scsi controller is a fast scsi controller you can use passive terminators. If one or more devices are ultra-scsi-devices you have to use active terminators.

If the scsi controller is at an end of the scsi chain the termination of the controller has to be enabled. Otherwise it has to be disabled. If you use a fast scsi controller and you have one or more ultra-scsi-devices connected, you must not use the built in termination of the scsi controller (because it is a passive terminator), you have to use an active terminator instead.

The length of the scsi chain is limitted. If you use no ultra-scsi-devices the whole length of the chain must not exceed 3 meters. If there are one or more ultra-scsi-devices in the scsi chain the length of the chain must not exceed 1.5 meters.  If there are only 3 devices (2 devices + controller) the length of the chain may be up to 3 meters, but if you have any problems you should try to reduce the length.

The driver for your scsi controller does not work like expected. Update your scsi driver if you do not have the most recent version.

If that does not help try it with an other type of scsi card.
 

May be your scanner/firmware does not work correct with the backend you use. Update the backend version or contact the author of the backend.

If you get an error message  that libsane-dll.so.1 or libsane-so.1 is not found, you have to tell your system where the SANE-libraries are installed.

For linux and sane-1.0.1 you have to edit /etc/ld.so.conf and add a line with the path to the SANE libraries (normally /usr/local/lib/sane), then call ldconfig.

For linux and sane-1.0.2 and later versions the path to the SANE libs MUST NOT be listed in /etc/ld.so.conf, if it has been listed, remove the path and call ldconfig, then reinstall SANE.

On some systems "/usr/local/lib" is not searched for libraries, it may be necessary to add this path. For linux make sure that "/usr/local/lib" is listed in /etc/ld.so.conf, call ldconfig as root after changing /etc/ld.so.conf.

If all that does not help, make sure that libsane.so.* are symbolic links to ./sane/libsane-dll.so.*

Please read the documentation of the backend you use

If you tested everything above and you still need help: contact the backend/frontend author or to the sane mailling list (you must be subscribed to the list).