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

[abel deuring]

Heiko Freundel wrote:

> It should work like this and the printer does.
> 
> Ubuntu already installed Sane 1.0.14-1.
> 
> I tried different things I found, like:
> http://www.elijahlofgren.com/ubuntu/#scx-4521f
> with no success.
> 
> Trying to start xsane from shell shows the following message:
> insmod: can't read
> '/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/kernel/drivers/mfpportctrl/mfpport.ko':
> No such file or directory
> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
> 
> 
> When I start the Samsung Unified Driver Configurator (which installs
> itself) and then click the scanner button, it closes, with the messages
> below.
> 
> ~$ /opt/Samsung/mfp/bin/Configurator
> insmod: can't read
> '/lib/modules/2.6.17-10-generic/kernel/drivers/mfpportctrl/mfpport.ko':
> No such file or directory
> *** glibc detected *** /opt/Samsung/mfp/bin/Configurator: double free or
> corruption (!prev): 0x081c1258 ***
> ======= Backtrace: =========
> /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6[0xb74ad8bd]
> /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__libc_free+0x84)[0xb74ada44]
> /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3(__builtin_vec_delete+0x24)[0xb6baa464]
> /usr/lib/sane/libsane-samsung_scx4x21.so.1(init_mfp_port_control__4port+0x7f)[0xb6a6c62b]
> /usr/lib/sane/libsane-samsung_scx4x21.so.1(init_mfp_port_control__6device+0x16)[0xb6a6d11e]
> ...
> 
> But I don't know, whether I need mfpport.ko or where I get it from.

grepping through the kernel sources for the word "mfpport" gives no
result. Neither are there any files with a name that matches
*mfpport*. But if you ask google for "mfpport.ko", you'll get a lot
of error reports, often in conjunction with Samsung devices, but no
hint for useful patches, at least on the first 5 result pages. This
is an indication that mfpport.ko is a Samsung-specific kernel
module, for which no source code is available. You could try to find
this file somewhere in the Samsung driver package, and try to load
it manually, but if there is any incompatibility with the Ubuntu
kernel, this will not work.

> Samsung told me, the driver was not testet with Ubuntu.

...which they should state clearly on their website, in README files
and in other places where people might check, if a device is
supported under a specific operating system. Binary-only kernel
modules are a really bad idea.

And we (the Sane project) should tell more clearly in the *desc
files for external backends, if source code is available (at least
partially), if the backend works only under Linux, or even only with
very specific kernel versions...

Abel