[sane-devel] Fuji Xerox M225 dw scanner visible via avahi, sane-find-scanner but not scanimage (Ubuntu 17.04)

[Dave Platt]

> I have a Fuji Xerox DocuPrint M225 dw printer/scanner. It's connected 
> to the same wifi network as my Ubuntu 17.04 system, as well as 
> physically connected via USB.
> 
> I was unable to get Simple Scan to see it (I get the "No scanners 
> detected" banner), ...

Jason,

As far as I can tell, that scanner simply isn't supported by SANE
at this time.  It will show up in a generic USB scan (since it
reports a device type of "scanner") but none of the SANE back-ends
say that they're aware of this model, and so none will "talk" to it.

The "net" backend isn't intended for accessing arbitrary scanners over
the net.  Rather, it's used so that one host system that has a
SANE-supported scanner can "export" that scanner to other hosts on the
network via a single (SANE-specific, manufacturer-agnostic) protocol.

There was some discussion on the list last year that the M225 might
be using the same protocols as some of the Brother multi-function
scanner/printer models.  It's even possible it's based on a re-badged
Brother engine.  Unfortunately there's apparently little-to-no support
in SANE for any Brother scanners.  It may be that there's simply
no information publicly available to allow a driver to be written for
these.  Manufacturers often don't bother to document the protocols;
they simply ship a Windows-compatible driver or application, declare
victory, and leave for home.  :-)

>From what I read, the M225 is an all-in-one device which has a
built-in "scan to email" capability.  In the short term, at least,
this is probably your best bet for gaining access to scanning
capabilities on Linux.  Configure the printer to send scans via
email to your address, via your local on-network SMTP server (assuming
you have one;  if you do not you'll need to install Exim or Courier-MTA
or some such SMTP server and mail delivery system), and do the scans
that way.

Apparently you can configure the scan-to-email via a web server built
into the M225.  You might even be able to control the individual
scans that way (I haven't read the manual to see).