NAME¶

sane-pixma - SANE backend for Canon Multi-Function Printers and CanoScan Scanners

DESCRIPTION¶

The sane-pixma library implements a SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) backend that provides access to Canon PIXMA / i-SENSYS / imageCLASS / imageRUNNER multi-function devices (All-in-one printers) and the Canon CanoScan Flatbed/TPU scanners. The backend implements both the USB interface and network interface (using Canon's BJNP and MFNP protocols). The network interface supports scanners over IPv4 as well as IPv6 (MFNP over IPv6 is untested).

Currently, the following models work with this backend:

The following models are not well tested and/or the scanner sometimes hangs and must be switched off and on.

The following models may use the same Pixma protocol as those listed above, but have not yet been reported to work (or not). They are declared in the backend so that they get recognized and activated. Feedback in the sane-devel mailing list welcome.

The following models may use partly the same Pixma protocol as other devices listed above, but may still need some work. They are declared in the backend as experimental and need the environment variable PIXMA_EXPERIMENT=1 to get recognized and activated. Snoop logs are required to further investigate, please contact the sane-devel mailing list.

The backend supports:

The device name for USB devices is in the form pixma:xxxxyyyy_zzzzz where x, y and z are vendor ID, product ID and serial number respectively.

Example: pixma:04A91709_123456 is a MP150.

Device names for BJNP/MFNP devices is in the form pixma:aaaa_bbbbb where aaaa is the scanners model and bbbb is the hostname or ip-adress.

Example: pixma:MF4800_192.168.1.45 is a MF4800 Series multi-function peripheral.

This backend, based on cloning original Canon drivers protocols, is in a production stage. Designed has been carried out without any applicable manufacturer documentation, probably never available. However, we have tested it as well as we could, but it may not work in all situations. You will find an up-to-date status at the project homepage. (See below). Users feedback is essential to help improve features and performances.

OPTIONS¶

Besides "well-known" options (e.g. resolution, mode etc.) sane-pixma backend also provides the following options, i.e. the options might change in the future.
The button status can be polled i.e. with scanimage -A.
Button scan is disabled on MAC OS X due to darwin libusb not handling timeouts in usb interrupt reads, but may work when using the network protocol.

adf-wait

This option enables and sets the time in seconds waiting for a document inserted into the Automatic Document Feeder. The maximum allowed waiting time is 3600 sec (= 1 hour).

button-controlled

This option can be used by applications (like scanadf(1) and scanimage(1)) in batch mode, for example when you want to scan many photos or multiple-page documents. If it is enabled (i.e. is set to true or yes), the backend waits before every scan until the user presses the "SCAN" button (for MP150) or the color-scan button (for other models). Just put the first page in the scanner, press the button, then the next page, press the button and so on. When you finished, press the gray-scan button. (For MP150 you have to stop the frontend by pressing Ctrl-C for example.)

button-update (deprecated)

(write only) In the past this option was required to be set to force reading of the button status for button-1 and button-2. The sane-pixma backend no longer requires this option to be used: if no fresh data is available, it will be now requested automatically from the scanner. This option is left for backward compatibility reasons.

button-1 button-2

(read only) These options will return the value of the respective buttons. value 0 means that the button was not pressed, 1 is returned when the button was pressed. Some scanners with more than two buttons send the button number as target.

original

(read only) Returns the value of the type or size of original to be scanned if the scanner provides that data. Known values of type: 1 = document, 2 = photo, 5 = film. Known values of size: 1 = A4, 2 = Letter, 8 = 10x15, 9 = 13x18, b = auto. Not all scanners can provide this data.

target

(read only) Returns the value of the target of the scan operation if the scanner provides that data. The values depend on the scanner type. Known values: 1 = save to disk, 2 = save to pdf, 3 = send to email, 4 = send to application or 1 = JPEG, 2 = TIFF, 3 = PDF, 4 = Compact PDF. For some scanners this value is equivalent to the number of the pressed button. Not all scanners can provide this data.

scan-resolution

(read only) Returns the resolution of the scan operation if the scanner provides that data. Known values: 1 = 75 dpi, 2 = 150 dpi, 3 = 300 dpi, 4 = 600 dpi. Not all scanners can provide this data.

document-type

(read only) Returns the type of the scanned document if the scanner provides that data. Known values: 1 = Document, 2 = Photo, 3 = Auto scan. Not all scanners can provide this data.

adf-status

(read only) Returns the status of the document feeder if the scanner provides that data. Known values: 1 = ADF empty, 2 = ADF filled. Not all scanners can provide this data.

adf-orientation

(read only) Returns the scan orientation of the medium scanned from ADF if the scanner provides that data. Known values: 1 = Portrait, 2 = Landscape. Not all scanners can provide this data.

FILES¶

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.a

The static library implementing this backend.

/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/libsane-pixma.so

The shared library implementing this backend (present on systems that support dynamic loading).

/etc/sane.d/pixma.conf

The backend configuration file (see also description of SANE_CONFIG_DIR below).

If so desired networking can be disabled as follows:

USB SUPPORT¶

USB scanners will be auto-detected and require no configuration.

NETWORKING SUPPORT¶

The sane-pixma backend supports network scanners using the so called Canon BJNP and MFNP protocols.

Canon seems to be dropping support for these protocols in recent scanners. To verify if your scanner supports one of these protocols, check the content of the _scanner._tcp service entry in mDNS/DNS-SD (using for example avahi-discover(1)). If that does not list port 8610 or 8612 your scanner probably does not support the mfmp or bjnp protols.

Both IPv4 and IPv6 are supported, but IPv6 is as yet untested with MFNP. Please report your results on the mailing list.

Configuration is normally not required. The sane-pixma backend will auto-detect your scanner if it is within the same subnet as your computer if your OS does support this.

If your scanner can not be auto-detected, you can add it to the sane-pixma configuration file (see above).

FIREWALLING FOR NETWORKED SCANNERS¶

The sane-pixma backend communicates with port 8610 for MFNP or port 8612 for BJNP on the scanner. So you will have to allow outgoing traffic TO port 8610 or 8612 on the common subnet for scanning.

Scanner detection is slightly more complicated. The sane-pixma backend sends a broadcast on all direct connected subnets it can find (provided your OS allows for enumeration of all network interfaces). The broadcast is sent FROM port 8612 TO port 8610 or 8612 on the broadcast address of each interface. The outgoing packets will be allowed by the rule described above.

Responses from the scanner are sent back to the computer TO port 8612. Connection tracking however does not see a match as the response does not come from the broadcast address but from the scanners own address. For automatic detection of your scanner, you will therefore have to allow incoming packets TO port 8612 on your computer. This applies to both MFNP and BJNP.

So in short: open the firewall for all traffic from your computer to port 8610 (for MFNP) or 8612 (for BJNP) AND to port 8612 (for both BJNP and MFNP) to your computer.

With the firewall rules above there is no need to add the scanner to the pixma.conf file, unless the scanner is on a network that is not directly connected to your computer.

ENVIRONMENT¶

SANE_DEBUG_PIXMA

If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this environment variable controls the debug level for this backend itself. Higher value increases the verbosity and includes the information printed at the lower levels.

SANE_DEBUG_BJNP

If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this environment variable controls the debug level for the BJNP and MFNP network protocols for this backend. Higher value increases the verbosity and includes the information printed at the lower levels.

PIXMA_EXPERIMENT

Setting to a non-zero value will enable the support for experimental models. You should also set SANE_DEBUG_PIXMA to 11.

SANE_CONFIG_DIR

This environment variable specifies the list of directories that may contain the configuration file. On *NIX systems, the directories are separated by a colon (`:'), under OS/2, they are separated by a semi-colon (`;'). If this variable is not set, the configuration file is searched in two default directories: first, the current working directory (".") and then in /etc/sane.d. If the value of the environment variable ends with the directory separator character, then the default directories are searched after the explicitly specified directories. For example, setting SANE_CONFIG_DIR to "/tmp/config:" would result in directories tmp/config, ., and /etc/sane.d being searched (in this order).

SEE ALSO¶

sane(7), sane-dll(5), scanimage(1), scanadf(1), gamma4scanimage(1), getifaddrs(3)

In case of trouble with a recent Pixma model, try the latest code for the sane-pixma backend, available in the Sane git repository at:
https://gitlab.com/sane-project/backends.git

You can also post into the Sane-devel mailing list for support.

AUTHORS¶

Wittawat Yamwong, Nicolas Martin, Dennis Lou, Louis Lagendijk, Rolf Bensch

We would like to thank all testers and helpers. Without them we could not be able to write subdrivers for models we don't have. See also the project homepage.