[conspire] Discussion: Linux and Scanners: 11/5/2025 7pm Eastern STANDARD time

[Rev Anon]

I have L3750CDW, Really like it!  Sometimes I do have trouble with it.  
I'll definitely try to remember to attend the meeting! (I always forget to)

On 11/4/25 18:31, Steve Litt wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Where: GoLUG Online: https://meet.jit.si/golug
> When: Wednesday, 11/5/2025 7pm sharp Eastern STANDARD time
>        Arrive 15 minutes early for Microphone check & discussion
> Who: Steve Litt, Troubleshooter, Developer, Tech Writer
> What: Linux and Scanners
>
> Getting scanners to work with Linux has never been easy, even for those
> scanners promising Linux compatibility (Brother, for instance). Too
> many moving parts, too little community knowledge, and the knowledge
> there is is often out of date and contradictory. Everything's too
> black-boxy. So for years I operated the scanner in my Brother
> MFC-L5850DW multifunction by scanning to a thumb drive and
> sneakernetting to my computer. A productivity catastrophe.
>
> An email on the Orange County (CA) LUG mailing list reminded me of this
> problem, and I said "hey, this is 2025, and I have ChatGPT now". So in
> 45 minutes, by asking ChatGPT the right questions, I was operating my
> scanner, from Void Linux. Void then worked with my exact scanner, in
> the exact right way. Ancient problem solved.
>
> Void Linux doesn't accept RPM or DEB packages without a lot of
> fooling around, so I had to construct everything the right way. Another
> three hours and I understood the mechanics behind Linux scanning. The
> following is the world's tersest summary:
>
> user<->xsane<->libsane<->brscan5_driver<->scanner
>
> Note: The brscan5_driver could be pretty much any driver for a
> particular model of scanner, regardless of brand, as long as that
> driver can interface with libsane (the SANE API).
>
> At the presentation I'll showcase everything necessary to interface a
> Brother MFC-L5850DW scanner with Void Linux, while at the same time
> making it relevant for any scanner and any distro.
>
> Hope to see you there.
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> GoLUG Publicity Coordinator
>
>
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