[sane-devel] Brother DCP-J315W

[Ralph Little]

Hi,

On Wed, May 14, 2025 at 4:52 AM David Brown <davown2000.db at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Guys,
>
> I've used various versions of Ubuntu for some years now and every time I
> do a fresh install I run into major problem getting my scanner to work
> (Brother DCP-J315W).
>
> Usually I get there after researching 3 hours and usually editing the
> 40-libsane.rules file which subsequently became 60-libsane1.rules and maybe
> 20-sane.hwdb.  Who knows - way too hard for the average user and only just
> within my skills area.  Very frustrating and a real "go back to Windows"
> moment.
>
> Recently, I upgraded my old system to Ubuntu 24.04.2 and scanner worked
> after the upgrade.  So far so good.  But then I did a fresh install of
> U24.04.2 on a new external SSD and all hell broke loose.  No amount of
> fixing or tweaking worked.  My scanner is bricked unless I boot into my old
> OS.
>

I'm assuming that you are using Brother's backend, brscan3 in your case.
Could you give us some details as to what occurs when you try to  use it? I
usually find that there is a dependency issue whenever I have had issues in
the past like this.
Perhaps start by showing us the output of:

scanimage -V

and

scanimage -L


> I contacted Brother and they concluded that Ubuntu had changed something
> and neither Ubuntu forums or Brother could work it out.  Neither are too
> interested in supporting an old, possibly obsolete model.
>

Well we are!! :D

Probably the best solution would be to get Brother's backend working for
you, especially since it appears to have worked before for you.
If not, there is a work-in-progress SANE backend for Brother devices, and
some people have found that it works OK for them. Details here:
https://gitlab.com/sane-project/backends/-/merge_requests/751 . If all else
fails, we can get you hooked up with a copy of this configured for your
device.

Cheers,
Ralph
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