[sane-devel] Epson 4490 support ?

[m. allan noah]

The source in the package you are discussing is incomplete. There is
also a 'protocol translator' module which is only available as a
pre-compiled binary, there is no source for it. Hence, this is 'free'
as in beer, but decidedly NOT free as in speech.

I would suggest that you try to find a scanner which meets your needs
but has full source code available. This is the only means to protect
your investment in the long term.

allan

On Feb 13, 2008 12:25 PM, Andrew <andrew2006 at flight.us> wrote:
> >Andrew <andrew2006 at flight.us> writes:
> >
> >> The Epson 4490 is not listed on
> >http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html#Z-EPSON
> >
> >Check
> >
> >  http://sane.alioth.debian.org/lists/sane-backends-external.html#S-EPKOWA
> >
> >instead.  It is supported, but on i386 machines only as it requires a
> >non-free plugin.
> >
> >> Surfing around i see people have asked about support, there are
> >> cases where it does NOT work with out-of-the-box distribs/kooka, but
> >> i am not seeing definitive answers of whether it does or doesn't
> >
> >Last time I looked at kooka was during a debugging session trying to
> >find out why it insisted on blowing up regardless of what you did.
> >Hope things have changed for the better since then.
>
> Sorry, i don't have much linux scanning experience; i used kooka with an old scsi HP scanner with no problems and was just assuming that kooka is the scanning swiss-army knife for the entire linux community.
>
> (Are SCSI scanners better supported than USB/firewire ones?)
>
> >> Does anyone here know if this model is supported?
> >
> >Yes, provided you use it on an i386 machine and don't mind using
> >non-free software.  Packages are available at:
> >
> >  http://www.avasys.jp/english/linux_e/dl_scan.html
>
> thank you, this looks promising. Perhaps the term "non-free software" needs some elaboration, though.
>
> The above site has downloadable binaries and source(!)
> And, outside of computer jargon, "non-free" would almost certainly mean "something acquired only through a purchase".  Or did I misunderstand the agreement?  There are no trial periods or some such, or would i have to pay for the software you referred me to?
>
> Plus, the "EPSON AVASYS PUBLIC LICENSE" (linked from the above) seems to overlap with GPL on certain rights and "freedoms".  And the software is subject to it, to the GPL itself, and other licenses allowing redistribution, etc.
>
> >You most likely want the packages for gcc-3.4 or later.
>
> I think so. To home-compile it, i'd probably need to use the gcc-compat 3.4 (?)
>
> >
> >If you need Debian packages, use:
> >
> >  alien --scripts --keep-version <rpm-package>
> >
> >for the smoothest ride.
>
> I would use it with Fedora Core 6 and also Fedora 8.
>
> The provided Fedora binaries only go up to FC version 6. I hope to be able to compile the source for Fedora 8 (and higher)
>
> >If you are using a distribution that's not officially supported by my
> >employer you may need to straighten out a kink or two, but in general
> >our iscan packages work quite well across multiple distributions.
>
> great. Sorry to nag about kooka - any probability it might work with Kooka?
>
> i haven't bought the scanner yet; this is pre-purchase research, so i can't test it yet (i'll try to compile your driver, however, and report results here as soon as i can)
>
>
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