How to map network scanner

I have just bought a shiny new Canon MG6250 multifunction printer/scanner and connected it via LAN. Installing the printing side of things was a breeze, however, I cannot work out how to set up scanning.

I installed the MG6200 series ScanGear MP driver from Canon's site but when I open GIMP or Simple Scan, they say there is no scanner detected. Using GIMP's 'update scanner list' button to search for the scanner does not find it.

How do I tell Ubuntu, GIMP or Simple Scan to look on the network for the scanner? Is there another utility especially for this?

Solution 1:

Just got this going today. This is how I got it working over wireless network, running Xubuntu 12.10 64-bit. (No Canon drivers were needed).

After installing xsane:

• The sane man pages refer to "backendname" a lot. http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html gives the backend name for the 6250 as "pixma"

• man sane-pixma (seems to be a man entry for each backend) tells you that network scanners should normally be detected, but if not, add them directly to /etc/sane.d/pixma.conf

• Edit that file and add a line of the format:

  bjnp://<ip_address>

• IP address can be retrieved from the printer settings, or from the options in the printer itself.

• After adding an entry for the printer, save pixma.conf

• Now edit /etc/default/saned and set RUN=yes

• Then: service saned start

• Run xsane

Now xsane should discover the scanner, and instead of saying "no devices found" and dying, it should run up (brings up about 4 windows). All the default settings seem to work — just press "Scan".

Solution 2:

I found that adding the subnet IP addresses to this file worked when nothing else did: /etc/sane.d/saned.conf

To get the subnet, look at your output from the ifconfig command. Find a line that looks like this: inet addr:192.168.1.4 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0

From this output, I learned that my wireless router subnet is 192.168.1, and then searched for the printer (wireless router and printer must be powered on and operating) using this command: sudo nmap -sP 192.168.1.0/24

Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.6 Host is up (0.011s latency). MAC Address: XX:Xx:XX:XX:XX:XX (Canon)

From above, 192.168.1.6 is the IP address for my Canon printer/scanner on my LAN.

Therefore, I added this entry to /etc/sane.d/saned.conf: 192.168.1.0/24

xsane could then see my scanner.

Solution 3:

I have an epson printer/scanner and had to add the IP address to /etc/sane.d/epson2.conf like this:

net 10.0.5.125

I also commented out the net autodiscovery line.