[sane-devel] incompatible iscan-2.11.0

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Apr 23 17:04 m. allan noah wrote (shortened):
> On 4/23/08, Julien BLACHE <jb at jblache.org> wrote:
> >
> > Well, without the non-free bits it provides better support for some
> >  scanner, and supports devices no other backend supports :)
> 
> which scanners are those? I wonder if the best course of action would
> be to update the epson or epson2 backends to support those scanners,
> then you could drop epkowa.

Use something like

egrep ':model|:comment' doc/descriptions-external/epkowa.desc \
 | grep -B1 ':comment.*non-free'

and you get entries like
---------------------------------------------------------------
:model     "GT-7200U"                   ; product spec (JP)
:comment   "requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-7200<br>
 also supported by the plustek backend"

:model     "GT-7300U"                   ; product spec (JP)
:comment   "requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-7300<br>
 also supported by the plustek backend"

:model     "GT-F500"                    ; product spec (JP)
:comment   "multi photo feeder not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f500<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend"

:model     "GT-F520"
:comment   "multi photo feeder not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f520<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend"

:model     "GT-F550"                    ; product spec (JP)
:comment   "auto film loader not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f500<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend"

:model     "GT-F570"
:comment   "auto film loader not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f520<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend"

:model     "Perfection 1250"
:comment   "requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-7200<br>
 also supported by the plustek backend<br>
 overseas version of the GT-7200U"

:model     "Perfection 1250 PHOTO"
:comment   "requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-7200<br>
 also supported by the plustek backend<br>
 Perfection 1250 with TPU option bundled"

:model     "Perfection 1260"
:comment   "requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-7300<br>
 also supported by the plustek backend<br>
 overseas version of the GT-7300U"

:model     "Perfection 1260 PHOTO"
:comment   "requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-7300<br>
 also supported by the plustek backend<br>
 Perfection 1260 with TPU option bundled"

:model     "Perfection 2480 PHOTO"
:comment   "multi photo feeder not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f500<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend<br>
 overseas version of the GT-F500"

:model     "Perfection 2580 PHOTO"
:comment   "auto film loader not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f500<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend<br>
 overseas version of the GT-F550"

:model     "Perfection 3490 PHOTO"
:comment   "multi photo feeder not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f520<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend<br>
 overseas version of the GT-F520"

:model     "Perfection 3590 PHOTO"
:comment   "auto film loader not supported<br>
 requires DFSG non-free iscan-plugin-gt-f520<br>
 also supported by the snapscan backend<br>
 overseas version of the GT-F570"
---------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately most models which require a non-free plugin
are not supported by another (i.e. free) backend.

Furthermore many of the proprietary models require firmware upload
which is automatically done by the epkowa backend together with
the matching non-free plugin.

Currently - as far as I found out (see below) - firmware files
are only needed for the following scanners:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
esfw41.bin:
Perfection 2480 PHOTO / GT-F500, Perfection 2580 PHOTO / GT-F550

esfw32.bin:
Perfection 3170 PHOTO / GT-9400UF

esfw52.bin:
Perfection 3490 PHOTO / GT-F520, Perfection 3590 PHOTO / GT-F570

esfw43.bin:
Perfection 4180 PHOTO / GT-F600

esfw54.bin:
Perfection 4490 PHOTO / GT-X750

esfw66.bin:
Perfection V10 / GT-S600, Perfection V100 PHOTO / GT-F650

esfw68.bin:
Perfection V350 PHOTO / GT-F700

esfw7A.bin:
Perfection V200 PHOTO / GT-F670 
-----------------------------------------------------------------

To determine for which models the firmware files are:
For each firmware file do "strings $firmware-file | grep ^EPSON".
At the moment this results the following models:
esfw41.bin: GT-F500
esfw32.bin: GT-9400
esfw52.bin: GT-F520
esfw43.bin: GT-F600
esfw54.bin: GT-X750
esfw66.bin: GT-S600
esfw68.bin: GT-F700
esfw7A.bin: GT-F670
Then check epkowa.desc which other models require the same
non-free plugin and assume that all those models require
the respective firmware file too.

By the way:
I must know which models require firmware upload so that I can
inform our users when they try out a free backend where the
firmware upload must be configured manually.
Again a nice example which awkward things I do to deal with
Epson Avasys' proprietary stuff in particular because their
official policy is to not help distributors to package their
proprietary stuff well and easily.
Step by step Epson Avasys' official policy results what they
actually ask for: "do not actually realase it but keep it under
Epson Avasys' full control" - o.k. - they conviced me - they
can get what they ask for...



Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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