I was a bit apprehensive about whether or not this would work with Linux, but my worries were unfounded and it works very well indeed IMHO. Some links you might find useful if interested in this scanner are:
- SANE which is the main scanner software for Linux. It provides the code which interfaces with the scanner. Documentation included with the source code gives you tips on setting up the scanner
- USB Scanners on Linux, which has a list of compatible scanners (it lists the Acer 3300, but does not mention S2W bit, which had me worried).
- This mail posted to the SANE-devel mailing list by Nuno Nunes. Has a link to modified SANE1.0.4 sources supplied by ACER/Benq. Nuno also mentions the scanner on his hardware compatibility page.
- The SnapScan SANE Backend homepage. The Acer 3300U is apparently a variant of the Agfa SnapScan.
- XSane, which is a nice X frontend to the SANE machinery.
Getting the scanner to work was basically very simple. Did a make menuconfig and added USB-scanner support to the kernel (as a module). I already had basic USB support added so that I could use my pencam. Did not need to reboot the system (simply did make modules; make modules_install). Also, there is some useful information in the kernel source tree in the Documentation/usb/scanner.txt file. When I downloaded the modified SANE sources linked to by Nuno (see above), I looked through the output from the tar file and ran the detection script. This added a line to the end of my modules.conf file:
options scanner vendor=0x04a5 product=0x20b0
However, I decided not to use these sources to install SANE, and instead
opted for the more recent 1.0.8 which I got from the
SANE homepage. As a frontend I opted for
XSane.
Since I use devfs, and had the modules installed, all that was required to get the scanner module to load was to type
modprobe scanner
The final step required was to edit the SnapScan config file installed by
the SANE backends code. In my install, this was in
/usr/local/etc/sane.d/snapscan.conf, and I added the line:
firmware /usr/local/etc/sane.d/u176v042.binThis file can be found on the CDROM included with your scanner. I copied it to the location /usr/local/etc/sane.d/u176v042.bin (obviously enough!). I knew what file to use by studying the SnapScan SANE Backend Web Page. My scanner reports itself as a FlatbedScanner23, and has vendor-product id 0x04a5 0x20b0, which suggests u176v042.bin. Interestingly, Nuno's scanner appears to identify itself as FlatbedScanner21.
Anyway, after compiling kernel modules, modifying modules.conf, modprobing the module (after plugging in and connecting the scanner), compiling and installing SANE, compiling and installing XSane, copying the firmware file onto my linux partition and updating the SANE config (phew!) I was ready to do a scan... which worked fine first time!
Only hitches I ran into were
- Trying to scan before copying over the firmware and editing the config file. Result was an error message.
- Wondering why scanner did not appear under /dev/usb when I connected it. This will only work if the scanner module has been loaded.
These have just been some quick notes I though i would type up to provide you with confirmation that this model of scanner works with linux, and to give some useful links. Apologies for lack of clarity or poor style! mc.