NAME¶

sane-pixma - SANE backend for Canon PIXMA Multi-Functions Printers
MP, MX, ImageCLASS and I-SENSYS series

DESCRIPTION¶

The sane-pixma library implements a SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) backend that provides access to Canon PIXMA multi-function devices (All-in-one printers). The backend implements both USB interface and Network LAN interface using Canon's BJNP protocol. Currently, the following models work with this backend:

The following models are not well tested and/or the scanner sometimes hangs and must be switched off and on.

The following models may use the same Pixma protocol as those listed above, but have not yet been reported to work (or not). They are declared in the backend so that they get recognized and activated. Feedback in the Sane-dev mailing list welcome.

The backend supports:

The device name for USB devices is in the form pixma:xxxxyyyy_zzzzz where x, y and z are vendor ID, product ID and serial number respectively. Example: pixma:04A91709_123456 is a MP150.

Device names for BJNP devices is in the form pixma:aaaa_bbbbb where aaaa is the scanners model and bbbb is the hostname or ip-adress.

This backend, based on cloning original Canon drivers protocols, is in a production stage. Designed has been carried out without any applicable manufacturer documentation, probably never available. However, we have tested it as well as we could, but it may not work in every situations. You will find an up-to-date status at the project homepage. (See below). Users feedback is essential to help improve features and performances.

OPTIONS¶

Besides "well-known" options (e.g. resolution, mode etc.) pixma backend also provides the following options for button handling, i.e. the options might change in the future.
Button scan is disabled on MAC OS X due to darwin libusb not handling timeouts in usb interrupt reads.

button-controlled

This option can be used in combination with scanadf(1) and scanimage(1) in batch mode, for example when you want to scan many photos or multiple-page documents. If it is enabled (i.e. is set to true or yes), the backend waits before every scan until the user presses the "SCAN" button (for MP150) or the color-scan button (for other models). Just put the first page in the scanner, press the button, then the next page, press the button and so on. When you finished, press the gray-scan button. (For MP150 you have to stop the frontend by pressing Ctrl-C for example.)

button-update button-1 button-2

These options are interesting for developers. To check button status: (1) set button-1 and button-2 to zero, (2) set button-update (Its type is SANE_TYPE_BUTTON.), (3) get button-1 and button-2. If the result is not zero, the corresponding button was pressed.

FILES¶

/usr/lib64/sane/libsane-pixma.a

The static library implementing this backend.

/usr/lib64/sane/libsane-pixma.so

The shared library implementing this backend (present on systems that support dynamic loading).

/etc/sane.d/pixma.conf

The backend configuration file (see also description of SANE_CONFIG_DIR below). The files contains an optional list of scanners. Normally only scanners that can not be auto-detected because they are on a different subnet shall be listed here. If your OS does not allow enumeration of interfaces (i.e. it does not support the getifaddrs() function) you may need to add your scanner here as well. Scanners shall be listed as:

USB SUPPORT¶

USB scanners will be auto-detected and require no configuration.

NETWORKING SUPPORT¶

The pixma backend supports network scanners using the so called Canon BJNP protocol. Configuration is normally not required. The pixma backend will auto-detect your scanner if it is within the same subnet as your computer if your OS does support this.

If your scanner can not be auto-detected, you can add it to the pixma configuration file (see above).

FIREWALLING FOR NETWORKED SCANNERS¶

The sane pixma backend communicates with port 8612 on the scanner. So you will have to allow outgoing traffic TO port 8612 on the common subnet for scanning.

Scanner detection is slightly more complicated. The pixma backend sends a broadcast on all direct connected subnets it can find (provided your OS allows for enumeration of all interfaces). The broadcast is sent FROM port 8612 TO port 8612 on the broadcast address of each interface. The outgoing packets will be allowed by the rule described above. Responses from the scanner are sent back to the computer TO port 8612. Connection tracking however does not see a match as the response does not come from the broadcast address but from the scanners own address. You will therefore have to allow incoming packets TO port 8612 on your computer.

So in short: open the firewall for all traffic from your computer to port 8612 AND to port 8612 to your computer.

With the firewall rules above there is no need to add the scanner to the pixma.conf file, unless the scanner is on a network that is not directly connected to your computer.

ENVIRONMENT¶

SANE_DEBUG_PIXMA

If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this environment variable controls the debug level for this backend. Higher value increases the verbosity.

PIXMA_EXPERIMENT

Setting to a non-zero value will enable the support for experimental models. You should also set SANE_DEBUG_PIXMA to 11.

SANE_CONFIG_DIR

This environment variable specifies the list of directories that may contain the configuration file. Under UNIX, the directories are separated by a colon (`:'), under OS/2, they are separated by a semi-colon (`;'). If this variable is not set, the configuration file is searched in two default directories: first, the current working directory (".") and then in /etc/sane.d. If the value of the environment variable ends with the directory separator character, then the default directories are searched after the explicitly specified directories. For example, setting SANE_CONFIG_DIR to "/tmp/config:" would result in directories "tmp/config", ".", and "/etc/sane.d" being searched (in this order).

SEE ALSO¶

sane(7), sane-dll(5), http://home.arcor.de/wittawat/pixma/, http://mp610.blogspot.com/

In case of trouble with a recent Pixma model, try the latest code for the pixma backend, available in the Sane git repository at:
http://git.debian.org/?p=sane/sane-backends.git

You can also post into the Sane-devel mailing list for support.

AUTHORS¶

Wittawat Yamwong, Nicolas Martin, Dennis Lou, Louis Lagendijk

We would like to thank all testers and helpers. Without them we could not be able to write subdrivers for models we don't have. See also the project homepage.