Myujth

Apologies if this is the wrong forum. I’ve spent over twelve hours scrubbing the internet for something that works. Ideas on better forums will also be appreciated.

The Problem

While my Epson Workforce 845 all in one printer comes up just fine on Win10 and Linux the scanner has been resisting coming up on Windows 10 and Linux. While this scanner was fully working on now decommissioned versions of Windows and Linux how to bring it up on W10 and Linux is a popular topic for unsolved solutions, at least for me. I’ve given up on Win10 leaving Linux as my target solution.

The Lubuntu I'm attempting now is running within Virtual Box and gets this pop up:

 iscan
Could not send command to scanner. 
Check scanner status.

The following logs to syslog for each failure:

v-lubuntu-1804 iscan: io/hpmud/model.c 543: no on_workforce_845 attributes found in /usr/share/hplip/data/models/unreleased/unreleased.dat 

Note the "hplip" HP directory in the logged path for an Epson scanner. There is no HP scanner on the network.

System Basics

Linux v-lubuntu-1804 4.15.0-43-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 6 14:45:28 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

iscan-bundle-1.0.0.x64.deb.tar.gzs

VirtualBox Version 6.0.0 r127566 (Qt5.6.2).
Using "bridged" network adapter.

The table the windows/Lubuntu system sits on has it’s own router with a LAN port hard wired to a LAN port of the main router with the table’s router WAN port being empty and DNS/gateway settings pointing to the main router and DHCP off. This has worked years without trouble. The scanner is hardwired to the main router and not the local table’s router. Thus the scanner is only accessible by network.

Though this is an Epson scanner, and I have "#" commented out the hplio line within dll.d/hplip, then entirely deleted the file, using iscan still syslogs with the hplip directory. Further there is no workforce_845 string anywhere within the sane.d directory tree:

/etc/sane.d$ grep -r workforce_845 . 

iscan-bundle-1.0.0.x64.deb$ ls plugins
iscan-network-nt_1.1.1-1_amd64.deb

ping p-epsonwf845
PING p-epsonwf845.fios-router.home (192.168.8.200) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from p-epsonwf845.fios-router.home (192.168.8.200): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=9.34 ms

# package status
$ dpkg-query --list '*epson*' '*sane*' '*scan*'
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-===============-============-============-===================================
ii epson-inkjet-p 1.0.0-1lsb3. amd64 Epson Inkjet Printer Driver - Wor
ii iscan 2.30.1-1~usb amd64 simple, easy to use scanner utili
ii iscan-data 1.36.0-1 all Image Scan! for Linux data files
ii iscan-network- 1.1.1-1 amd64 Image Scan! Network Plugin
un iscan-plugin-c <none> <none> (no description available)
un iscan-plugin-g <none> <none> (no description available)
 . . .
un libsane <none> <none> (no description available)
ii libsane-common 1.0.27-1~exp all API library for scanners -- docum
un libsane-extras <none> <none> (no description available)
ii libsane-hpaio: 3.17.10+repa amd64 HP SANE backend for multi-functio

First step: make sure that the scanner is connected to your virtual box. In your settings->usb, your scanner must be connected to the virtualbox. Otherwise, your virtual instance will never see the scanner.

Next step would be to try to run iscan as root. If that works, you just have a permission problem.

Try sane-find-scanner and scanimage -L to see if your scanner is recognised.

Finally, you might give vuescan a try, especially if your preferred environment is Windows. You can test it without license and the licenses are not really expensive (though I would suggest anyone to get the professional license).