Scanner Server Ubuntu 14.04

I recently decided to attach my scanner to my server so all machines could use the scanner without having to fiddle with cables etc. The scanner is a small Canon Lide 35 which is powered by the USB cable. The scanner also works perfectly with Linux.

First install sane-utils and xinetd.

apt-get install sane-utils xinetd

Create the file /etc/xinetd.d/sane-port with the following contents.

# default: off
# description: The sane server accepts requests
# for network access to a local scanner via the
# network.
service sane-port
{
 port        = 6566
 socket_type = stream
 wait        = no
 user        = saned
 group       = scanner
 server      = /usr/sbin/saned
}

Change RUN=no to RUN=yes in /etc/defaults/saned

# Defaults for the saned initscript, from sane-utils

# Set to yes to start saned
RUN=yes

# Set to the user saned should run as
RUN_AS_USER=saned

Edit /etc/sane.d/saned.conf  to allow your local subnet/single host etc to connect to the scanner.

# saned.conf
# Configuration for the saned daemon

## Daemon options
# Port range for the data connection. Choose a range inside [1024 - 65535].
# Avoid specifying too large a range, for performance reasons.
#
# ONLY use this if your saned server is sitting behind a firewall. If your
# firewall is a Linux machine, we strongly recommend using the
# Netfilter nf_conntrack_sane connection tracking module instead.
#
# data_portrange = 10000 - 10100


## Access list
# A list of host names, IP addresses or IP subnets (CIDR notation) that
# are permitted to use local SANE devices. IPv6 addresses must be enclosed
# in brackets, and should always be specified in their compressed form.
#
# The hostname matching is not case-sensitive.

#scan-client.somedomain.firm
#192.168.0.1
#192.168.0.1/29
#[2001:db8:185e::42:12]
#[2001:db8:185e::42:12]/64
172.34.1.0/24
# NOTE: /etc/inetd.conf (or /etc/xinetd.conf) and
# /etc/services must also be properly configured to start
# the saned daemon as documented in saned(8), services(4)
# and inetd.conf(4) (or xinetd.conf(5)).

I added my local subnet at line 27.

Restart both xinetd and saned.

service xinetd restart
service saned restart

I also had to add the saned user to the scanner group ( Thanks to opennomad, See references below)

usermod -a -G scanner saned

Now we need to edit the client (in this case Arch Linux with sane and sane-utils)

Edit this file nano /etc/sane.d/net.conf and the IP of the server to the bottom.

Then run scanimage -L and see if the scanner is detected. Should look something like this.

device `v4l:/dev/video0' is a Noname USB2.0 Camera virtual device
device `net:172.34.1.7:genesys:libusb:001:003' is a Canon LiDE 35/40/50 flatbed scanner

References:

easy steps to get remote scanning working in ubuntu (opennomad.com)

Building a scan server on Ubuntu Server 12.04 (Richard Appleby)