[sane-devel] epkowa for 64-bit machines

[Lars Ljung]

Hi,

I recently found an Epson Perfection 3170 which I would like to use
under 64-bit Ubuntu. After realising that there is no free or 64-bit
driver for this scanner I started looking into writing one.

I got as far as snooping the USB communication from the Windows driver
and I can now load the firmware and read the status of the buttons. Bear
in mind that I know nothing about USB or scanners...

But I'm not sure if I'm trying to reinvent the wheel here. What is
exactly the relationship between the epkowa backend and libesint32? I
have looked at the epkowa source code but I don't fully understand how
it works. I suppose libesint32 loads the firmware, but I can do that
myself. What else is it good for?

What is the best approach to get this scanner to work on 64-bit
machines? Implement the interpreter API? Write a completely new driver?
Other options? I do realise that there might be both technical and legal
issues involved.

Lars