[sane-devel] MFP - Samsung SCX-4521F

[Heiko Freundel]

abel deuring schrieb:
> Heiko Freundel wrote:
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> for the above mentioned MultiFunktionPrinter Samsung provides an Linux
>> driver which should work with sane. This was a main reason for deciding
>> for that MFP. I tried to use it with Ubuntu 10.0, but without success.
>>
>> Samsung just wrote me, that the driver was not testet with Ubuntu :-(
>>
>>  At http://www.sane-project.org I just found the information, that there
>> is an untested version of the driver.
>>     
>
> Where did you find this information? I just checked the page with
> the list of scanners supported by the sane-backends package, and
> could not find the word "Samsung". Only on the list of external
> backends mentions Samsung. Additionally, I searched the current
> source code from the CVS -- and found the SCX-4521F only in the
> files describing external backends.
>   
Yes, you are right:
http://www.sane-project.org/lists/sane-backends-external.html#S-SAMSUNG
>   
>> 1. How can Samsung have an driver and the sane-project has not?
>>     
>
> well, anybody, individuals as well as companies and other
> organizations, are free to write Sane backends as they want to do
> so. And nobody is forced to contribute a Sane backend to the
> "backend collection" from the Sane project. Moreover, a manufacturer
> like Samsung has the advantage to have easy access to relevant
> programming information for the scanners (I don't know, if Samsung
> provides this kind of information to independent developers).
>
> The Sane project will have "direct" support for Samsung devices only
> if somebody starts the work on a special backend, or if some
> scanner/MFP device turns out to be easily supportable by an existing
> backend.
>   
I know, that Samsung can do that. But the driver doesn't work with
Ubuntu 10.0. Samsung told me, that it wasn't tested with Ubuntu. Two
days ago I asked with which distributions it was test. I'm still waiting
for an answer.

I don't have the knowledge for writting printer drivers, but if the
driver works with other distributions, it shouldn't be that much change?
Is there an for an beginner understandable howto which I can use do the
changes by myself?

Thanks
Heiko