[sane-devel] USB problems - [was"no devices available"]

Sat Jun 21 16:18:00 UTC 2008

More in depth response to come but I wanted to send a quick note that  
the problem has been solved!  Buried in the 60 page thread on running  
the Hardy kernel on Gutsy, I found the solution!

http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4335549&postcount=364

I added that file and I can now run xsane as user.  I suspect that it  
fixed the camera problem too - I realize the other solution was just a  
workaround.

Hopefully this thread will be useful for others in the future.

Thanks so much for all your input.  I will digest it a bit later -  
kinda burned out now.

:)

Quoting kilgota at banach.math.auburn.edu:
>
> Well, it seems that you are well on the way to solving the problems.
> What you have to do about the camera ought to be quite similar to what
> you have to do about the scanner. The reason why I cannot give you more
> specific advice is that I have no idea of the way that Hardy Heron is
> setting up these kinds of things. There are all kinds of ways to do it.
> Some examples:
>
> let root only run the given class of usb devices
>
> let all users run the given class of usb devices
>
> let only one user run the given class of usb devices
>
> let a group do it, for example a group called "scanner" and if it is
> done this way then any given user who is supposed to have access to the
> scanner needs to get added to the group, a separate operation.
>
> In all of the above, for "scanner" you can substitute "camera" of
> course. And by all means, you should finish the job in a manner which
> is compatible with Hardy Heron. If they want you to use a group, then
> use a group. Call it what they called it for the rest of the scanners
> (cameras). And so on.
>
> Now, I am just curious. Is there a specific line for your camera in the
> libgphoto2.rules file? If so, then what does it say? If that line is
> set up correctly, then IMHO the camera ought to work. If it is a PTP
> camera, then PTP support is done through the libgphoto2 PTP driver. If
> it requires some proprietary Canon driver, then that is supported
> through the libgphoto2 Canon driver. In either event, the permissions
> given in libgphoto2.rules ought to suffice for access to the camera,
> and AFAICT there ought to be no need at all for a more general
> statement in the permissions.rules file. Similar remarks pertain to the
> scanner, naturally.
>
> Theodore Kilgore
>
> On Sat, 21 Jun 2008, earther at eartherdesigns.com wrote:
>
>> Yes, you are correct that it is a permissions problem,
>>
>> I finally got the camera working properly by editing   
>> /etc/udev/rules.d/40-permissions.rules as per this thread:
>>
>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=784864
>>
>> I can now run xsane as root but not as user.  I have looked through  
>>  Groups settings several times and everything looks OK so I'm   
>> guessing I'll need to do more hand-editing.
>>
>> I'm too tired to do any more with this tonight but tomorrow I will   
>> revisit your comments and see where I can go with them.
>>
>> Thanks so much for your thoughts on this.
>>
>> Quoting kilgota at banach.math.auburn.edu:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Don't know about the scanner, but I do know a bit about the internals
>>> of libgphoto2. The problem with the scanner is most probably similar to
>>> what appears to happen with the camera:
>>>
>>> With approximately 99% probability, I would say that your problem with
>>> the camera is a permissions problem. Quite likely, what has happened is
>>> that the camera and perhaps the scanner also, is not listed in any of
>>> the appropriate files in /etc/udev/rules.d in spite of the fact that
>>> you have upgraded udev. Either that, or along with the upgraded udev
>>> the rules are not what you expect. For example, the libgphoto2.rules
>>> might expect you, as a user, to belong to a group called "camera" or
>>> some variation on the same theme. One of the things that you might do
>>> to try to localize the problem is to try running these devices as root.
>>> If that works, then definitely it is a permissions problem and you need
>>> to create the right entries in the libgphoto2.rules file and the
>>> libsane.rules files, which are suitable for yourself, or if you do find
>>> entries in those files for these devices (look for the USB
>>> Vendor:Product number combination) and it wants your userid to belong
>>> to some group and it does not, then either add yourself to the group or
>>> change the rules file to let you do what you want. By all means, too,
>>> you can contact Ubuntu and ask them just exactly what they have in mind
>>> about how they intend for things like this to be done in Hardy Heron. I
>>> do not know how they are handling such things as upgrades because I am
>>> not using Ubuntu and instead I usually deal with things like this by
>>> hand-editing the affected files.
>>>
>>> Sorry that there are these problems with permissions, but the
>>> alternative is that these problems are not under control and then we
>>> would have a Linux with all the lack of security that is found in
>>> Windows. Clearly, none of us want that. But in return for the care
>>> about security comes some occasional inconvenience, in the form of
>>> problems like this.
>>>
>>> I hope this helps.
>>>
>>> Theodore Kilgore
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, 20 Jun 2008, earther at eartherdesigns.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> Good news. I have made some progress after upgrading the Hardy udev
>>>> package but still not out of the woods.
>>>>
>>>> lsusb now prints out correctly:
>>>>
>>>> ~$ lsusb
>>>> Bus 008 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>> Bus 007 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>> Bus 006 Device 002: ID 03f0:0205 Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3300c
>>>> Bus 006 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>> Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>> Bus 004 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>> Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>> Bus 002 Device 006: ID 04a9:30fd Canon, Inc. PowerShot A610 (normal
>>>> mode)/PowerShot A610 (PTP mode)
>>>> Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>> Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
>>>>
>>>> And Sane now finds the scanner:
>>>>
>>>> ~# SANE_DEBUG_NIASH=255 scanimage -L
>>>> [sanei_debug] Setting debug level of niash to 255.
>>>> [niash] sane_init
>>>> [niash] Looking for ScanJet 3300C...
>>>> [niash] _AttachUsb: found libusb:006:003
>>>> [niash] niash: _ReportDevice 'libusb:006:003'
>>>> [niash] Looking for ScanJet 3400C...
>>>> [niash] Looking for ScanJet 4300C...
>>>> [niash] Looking for HP ScanJet 4300c...
>>>> [niash] Looking for Snapscan Touch...
>>>> [niash] Looking for Office Scanner USB 19200...
>>>> [niash] sane_get_devices
>>>> device `niash:libusb:006:003' is a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3300C
>>>> flatbed scanner
>>>> [niash] sane_exit
>>>>
>>>> However, when launched, Sane spits out this error:
>>>>
>>>> Failed to open device 'niash:libusb:006:002': Device busy.
>>>>
>>>> Any ideas?
>>>>
>>>> FWIW, the camera is having problems too.  Just in case it might be
>>>> helpful, here's the error:
>>>>
>>>> "An error occurred in the io-library ('Could not claim the USB
>>>> device'): Could not claim interface 0 (Operation not permitted). Make
>>>> sure no other program or kernel module (such as sdc2xx, stv680,
>>>> spca50x) is using the device and you have read/write access to the
>>>> device."
>>>>
>>>> Thanks again for your expertise and patience.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Quoting "m. allan noah" <kitno455 at gmail.com>:
>>>>>
>>>>> xsane is not the problem, but sane probably is. run this at the
>>>>> command line as root:
>>>>>
>>>>> SANE_DEBUG_NIASH=255 scanimage -L
>>>>>
>>>>> and post the output to this list.
>>>>>
>>>>> allan
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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>>
>>