Technote LNX001sane

Issue Date:  20 June 2009

Issued For:  Integration Windows XP + Debian Etch, Other releases untested


Procedure for Windows XP TWAIN scanning from remote Linux SANE network server


You cannot share a scanner over SMB/SAMBA
Download the scanimage.exe Windows Client front-end: http://sanetwain.ozuzo.net/

Source: http://journal.newtoncomputing.co.uk/2008/07/network-sane-scanner-and-udev-permissions/

To get my scanner working over the network using SANE, I installed the sane-utils Debian package, which adds saned. This then needs permission for the network by adding the IPs that are allowed to connect to /etc/sane.d/saned.conf, and then adding

sane-port stream tcp nowait saned.saned /usr/sbin/saned saned
to /etc/inetd.conf.

Then to fix udev. There seem to be two rules that should do this for me, but they don’t work. The first is in /etc/udev/libsane.rules, which reads

SYSFS{idVendor}=="06bd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="2061", \
  MODE="664", GROUP="scanner"
This matches the USB device information for my scanner. The other rule is in udev.rules and reads

SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", \
  PROGRAM="/bin/sh -c 'K=%k; K=$${K#usbdev}; \
    printf bus/usb/%%03i/%%03i $${K%%%%.*} $${K#*.}'", \
  ACTION=="add", \
  NAME="%c"
and is something to do with creating the right device node under /dev/bus/usb. Combining them into a new rule in /etc/udev/LOCAL.rules gives:

SUBSYSTEM=="usb_device", \
  SYSFS{idVendor}=="06bd", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0001", \
  PROGRAM="/bin/sh -c 'K=%k; K=$${K#usbdev}; \
    printf bus/usb/%%03i/%%03i $${K%%%%.*} $${K#*.}'", \
  ACTION=="add", \
  MODE="664", GROUP="scanner", \
  NAME="%c"
which finally does what I want, setting the group to scanner. Only that Debian doesn’t by default add the saned user into the scanner group…

adduser saned scanner
On the client, I then just added the name of the server in to /etc/sane.d/net.conf, and then scanimage -L shows up the remote scanner. A quick test in the GIMP shows that I can now preview and scan images.


Source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=706845
Generelly:
- Use inetd instead of xinetd.
- Don't forget to add the saned to the group scanner with 

Code:
sudo adduser saned scanner- Don't change any settings on on permissions of devices or the saned binary at all
- If you are running a firewall, the SANE port 6566 has to be open
- You can try to enable the /etc/sane.d/net.conf for localhost on the scanserver for testing purpose (if the net backend is working in general)
- You have to explicitly give permission for each client that wants to have access to the server - /etc/sane.d/saned.conf