Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 08:35:21 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Dufault <dufault@hda.com> To: rlenk@widget.xmission.com (Ron Lenk) Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: SCSI scanner support? Message-ID: <199510311335.IAA20410@hda.com> In-Reply-To: <199510272056.OAA17043@widget.xmission.com> from "Ron Lenk" at Oct 27, 95 02:56:36 pm
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> Is there any support for SCSI scanners in FreeBSD? > > I noticed that there is a "pt" device listed in the LINT kernel > configuration file. Could this be used to access a SCSI scanner? > Yes, I was just using it to test the interface to the Optronics Color Getter. It worked fine, and it was nice being able to just "dd" to and from the device and write shell scripts for testing. The scanner must come on line as a "processor type" for pt to work. The pt device supports only send and receive. Scanners that hook up this way have proprietary (and frequently undocumented) commands embedded in the data stream. This includes at least some of the HP scanners. You need the details of what they expect in that data stream. Since many low-end scanners have historically been sold with their own dedicated SCSI host adapters and run with DOS you have to watch out for gross behavior that is not SCSI friendly. I know, for example, that the Microtek ScanMaker-II will not disconnect even while it is moving the scan head, scanning, and sending back the data. Thus your SCSI bus will be hung for seconds. This is not exactly what you want on your BSD system. There is HP support available on the net though you'd have to track it down. -- Peter Dufault Real Time Machine Control and Simulation HD Associates, Inc. Voice: 508 433 6936 dufault@hda.com Fax: 508 433 5267
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