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Created July 5, 2017 04:14
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Get Epson iScan to work in Ubuntu with a networked/wireless scanner

If you see this error upon starting iScan aka "Image Scan for Linux":

“Could not send command to scanner. Check the scanner’s status.”

It means the iScan couldn't find the scanner. This happens often if it's not connected via USB, but lives in a wireless network for instance.

Do the following:

cd /etc/sane.d/
sudo gedit dll.conf

This will open the main configuration file for the SANE dynamic backend loader.

Ensure these entries are listed and uncommented inside the configuration file:

epkowa net

Take note of any other entries referencing Epson. Having them commented or uncommented can help troubleshooting later if iScan can't still connect.

Ensure that /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf is properly configured. Normally you could use net autodiscovery value but that might not work:

net autodiscovery

If that doesn't work you need to assign a fixed IP to the scanner unit and add it like so in the epkowa.conf configuration file:

net 192.168.xx.xx

Note that this is obviously an example address. It's normally a local address value.

Save the files and check if now iScan connects. If you still have issues ensure you have downloaded the latest drivers from Epson: http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/.

You can also try commenting/uncommenting other Epson values from the dll.conf file.

@GettingNowhere
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GettingNowhere commented Dec 3, 2018

Bugger!
I thought my Perfection VS500 was knackered, so I bought a little portable scanner.
Whilst waiting for it to arrive, I gave the suggestion on this thread a try (I actually used the Root File Manager GUI and just copied the files (all 3 of them) in /usr/lib/sane to /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/sane/ - just in case they change it back again in another update), and the damn thing woke up, yawned, and started scanning again.
Thank you for that.
Anybody want a portable scanner that hasn't arrived yet?.....

@rafko1
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rafko1 commented Dec 30, 2018

GettingNowhere: this helped me with my new Epson XP-900 scanner after 10 hours painfull hardwork... thanks...

p.s. sorry for my english

@Fperdreau
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lechndo: It did work on my Ubuntu 18.04 LTS installation as well. Thanks a lot!

@Ron-Deen
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Followed these instructions for my Epson XP-860. Worked flawlessly the first time.
Note that the "net autodiscovery" did nor work for me and I had to use the fixed IP address with the default port.
So: thanks

@cryptogopher
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cryptogopher commented Sep 10, 2020

Scanning through WiFi on newer Epson scanners (e.g. XP-342) requires utsushi backend (as opposed to net or epkowa). It is available in imagescan v3 AFAIK (some distros package it separately, e.g. Gentoo has iscan-plugin-network-nt package that must be installed separately).
Once you have it, make sure it is added to /etc/sane.d/dll.conf:

utsushi

Then you need to create /etc/utsushi/utsushi.conf with description of your scanner. It should look like that:

[devices]
scanner.udi = esci:networkscan://<IP>:1865
scanner.vendor = Epson
scanner.model = Your-Model

Actually only udi is required and you can omit vendor and model.

After that your scanner should be discoverable:

$ scanimage -L
device `utsushi:esci:networkscan://<IP>:1865' is a <your scanner vendor and model>

@streamnsight
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for those interested, more stuff here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SANE/Scanner-specific_problems#Driver-Backends

Now, on my end I am using a wireless scanner, and it has a scan button.
I'd really like to know how I can make use of the scan button with imagescan

I read there is a service called Epson Network Monitor supposed to trigger the software when the button is pressed, but I don't see a linux version or any info about this service.
If anyone knows anything about this, I'd love to figure this out.

@megamaced
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megamaced commented Nov 2, 2020

thank you for this guide,

in my case, just replace any reference of epkowa with epson2 and then use xsane

Tested on opensuse tumbleweed

@ngocminhdao88
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For my Epson ET-2750 i used the epsonds backend with fixed IP address.

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