Almost Weaned

[GrannyGeek]

I have a very cheap USB Lexmark all-in-one (X1270) and while I've gotten the printer to work with Linux, the scanner is a lost cause. It is definitely not supported by SANE and I can't find any other support for it, either. Vuescan, which supports 750 scanners, does not support any Lexmark scanners.

There are some Lexmark scanners supported by SANE, so be sure you do some googling on your scanner model and Linux. If you find anything, let us know.
--GrannyGeek

[jimwill]

Well, GrannyGeek, I did find this - http://ca.geocities.com/freshshelf@rogers.com/index.html

seems the guy was trying to write his own driver, but his blog ends 'to be continued...' and I don't know when he wrote it! If someone could contact him, and maybe get the info he has compiled, they could finish it up!!

Also the sane-backends he lists is for version 18 - I have 19 and it still does not work!

[GrannyGeek]

SANE has had backends for some of the X11xx series of Lexmark scanners. They don't work with the X12xx series, which is what I have. I tried everything I could think of to fool it, but no go.

If you find a magic solution, do tell us.

I'm thinking of donating that Lexmark all-in-one to a recycling place after I use up the cartridges. It was basically free when I got it but it's pretty thirsty for ink and is not economical to run. The cartridges are expensive. It doesn't do a great job of printing, can't be made to scan in Linux, and can't be used as a standalone copier. It requires software in order to work as a copier and the software is Windows-only. I hate to foist it on someone else, but I guess if it was cheap enough it might be better than nothing for a Windows user.

I have a good but ancient SCSI scanner attached to that computer, so I really don't need another scanner. I also have a laser printer and two other decent color printers (one on a print server), so I don't need the printer part either. My other desktop is attached to a Canon all-in-one that was free after rebate when I bought a laptop in August, 2007. The Canon has decent Linux support for printing and Canon has a Linux scanner driver that works  both standalone and with the Gimp. Also, copying with the Canon is independent of any operating system and works even if the computer is turned off.
--GrannyGeek