[sane-devel] Optrox Photomaker 3F - writing a backend

[Ondrej Zary]

Hello,
my attempt to reverse engineer Optrox Photomaker 3F scanner with proprietary 
ISA card produced some results: I can now (almost) scan a preview.

If anyone is interested in details, here are some files (some command 
analysis, partial scanner schematic, some program, empty SANE backend):
http://www.rainbow-software.org/linux_files/optrox/


I started writing a SANE backend. But the problem is that I need root 
privileges to access the scanner - the ISA card is accessed through I/O ports 
0x340-0x34F. Is there a "correct" (or recommended) way to do this in SANE?

I found that mustek backend supports one scanner with proprietary card. The 
manpage recommends accessing the backend through saned. This is certainly not 
very user friendly.

Another way is to create a separate suid root scanning program. The backend 
will do all scanner access through this program. But this way, the backend 
will be not a real backend - could it be included into SANE?

-- 
Ondrej Zary