[sf-lug] (forw) Re: Xsane can't see an HP Laserjet 1536dnf MFP scanner / printer

[Rick Moen]

Seems to have been accidentally diverted to private mail.  Redirecting.

----- Forwarded message from Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com> -----

Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2018 18:20:37 -0700
From: Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com>
To: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
Subject: Re: [sf-lug] Xsane can't see an HP Laserjet 1536dnf MFP scanner /
 printer
Reply-To: bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com
Organization: 0



On 07/31/2018 04:16 PM, Rick Moen wrote:

    But actually the scanner works very well on most stuff.
    And Avasys was where I had to download the drivers years ago.
    Inkjets may be hard on ink but of the color printing solutions I have
seen over the years since the 1980s thru the C+64, the Amiga, and Linux
it was the most reasonably priced for the work I occasionally send its
way.
    I started with Dot-Matrix, then HP-Inkjet, Canon and finally the Epson
and I knew about the need to download drivers when I bought it.  I knew
because I had done my homework on that front.

> Quoting Bobbie Sellers (bliss-sf4ever at dslextreme.com):
> 
>>      Never a disk with Linux drivers have I seen for printers,
>> plenty for Windows and MacOS.
> That is _so very much_ the wrong thing to wish for.

    Did I say I wished for it.  Disks full of software get mislaid
and not having to dig
for it is a benefit.  I had software from two separate publishers for
the machines
I used with the Amiga.  Where is it now and do I care?  Not much since paper
newsletters are seldom done for users groups any longer.
    The printing done with the C+64/128 was mediated by the
Batteries Included
Paper Clip word processor and a special printing utility that both had
the drivers
for the old dot-matrix.
> 
> Drivers from hardware manufacturers are almost invariably extremely
> buggy, proprietary, brittle, and binary-only.  You really should not ask
> for that.  Wrong.  What IMO you should wish for is hardware
> manufacturers giving full, useful hardware documentation without
> requiring an NDA to the open source community, so the community can
> create, and maintain within Linux distributions' mainline codebases the
> drivers and keep them usable and of high quality as the underlying
> software systems evolve.
> 
>>      My Epson NX515 - printer/scanner/copier is such a device.
> _Correct_ name is Epson Stylus NX515.  This is an inkjet-based all-in-one
> device.   Like most inkjet printers, it's pretty not-good and Epson is
> pretty uncooperative about it with the open source community, but the
> Gutenprint print-filter ('driver') collection got printing support
> working for it through reverse-engineering starting with version 5.2.5
> in February 2010.
> 
> Buying this multifunction device with its manufacturer's pretty terrible
> record for lack of cooperation is, to a degree, asking for trouble, not
> to mention that inkjet devices in general are both pretty terrible, very
> expensive to operate on account of the very high cost for ink supplies,
> and the tendency of inkjet manufacturers to regard all information about
> their technical specifications as a trade secret.  On the other hand,
> since there's apparently been about a decade for the open source
> communtiy to reverse-engineer this thing, that partially offsets its
> disadvantages.  (Too bad it's not a good enough device for experienced
> driver coders to want to buy, which would motivate them to improve
> driver support sooner instead of ignoring it because they'd always avoid
> such hardware.)
> 
> That leaves the question of the scanner ('SANE') backend support.
> 
> In 2010 when this thing was new, the (terrible) sole option was to
> install the proprietary, binary-only 'iscan' SANE backend, proprietary
> add-on sane-backends-iscan, from a company called 'Avasys'.
> https://pclosmag.com/html/Issues/201007/page22.html
> 
> Looking at actual open-source solutions in 2018, via the
> http://www.sane-project.org/ supported-devices lists for both the
> production and development release, there is still zip.  _So_,
> here we are in 2018, and your scanner solution for the Epson Stylus
> NX515 is still:  Go to the Avasys Web site and separately download
> the proprietary, binary-only, secret-sauce 'iscan' SANE backend
> for it.  Retrofit that onto your Linux w/SANE installation.  (I don't
> know for a fact that Avasys forbids Linux distros from distributing its
> proprietary driver set, but that's the usual situation.  Also, few
> Linux distros wish to take on that headache, anyway.)

        Actually I have not had to download any drivers in quite some time.
Simple Scan and Xsane can be configured to use it and as I mentioned the
biggest problem was getting the software to choose the right input.
> 
> _Or_, what I would do:  Sell the Epson Stylus NX515, and get something
> that doesn't suck.
> 
>> A lot of models can be frustrating to work with, for someone who needs
>> the printer to do real work it must be maddening.
> Simple solution:  Don't buy shoddy printers.
> 
> A problem you didn't buy into is one that you don't need to solve.

    Yes all very ideal for people with adequate income.
    But I reject the idea that the any of the printers were shoddy.
    Inexpensive they were.  Over the years the output
improved as I moved from the dot matrix, to the used HP, to the
used Canon to the new Epson.
    Getting them to work kept me off the streets.
    As for replacing the Epson that is highly unlikely as
I don't have the time left to worry about that.  If I get over my
health problems I might live long enough to replace it.

    Bobbie Sellers



----- End forwarded message -----