Get Epson iScan to work in Ubuntu with a networked/wireless scanner

epson-iscan-networked-scanner.md

If you see this error upon starting iScan aka "Image Scan for Linux":

“Could not send command to scanner. Check the scanner’s status.”

It means the iScan couldn't find the scanner. This happens often if it's not connected via USB, but lives in a wireless network for instance.

Do the following:

cd /etc/sane.d/
sudo gedit dll.conf

This will open the main configuration file for the SANE dynamic backend loader.

Ensure these entries are listed and uncommented inside the configuration file:

epkowa net

Take note of any other entries referencing Epson. Having them commented or uncommented can help troubleshooting later if iScan can't still connect.

Ensure that /etc/sane.d/epkowa.conf is properly configured. Normally you could use net autodiscovery value but that might not work:

net autodiscovery

If that doesn't work you need to assign a fixed IP to the scanner unit and add it like so in the epkowa.conf configuration file:

net 192.168.xx.xx

Note that this is obviously an example address. It's normally a local address value.

Save the files and check if now iScan connects. If you still have issues ensure you have downloaded the latest drivers from Epson: http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/.

You can also try commenting/uncommenting other Epson values from the dll.conf file.

thank you for this guide,

in my case, just replace any reference of epkowa with epson2 and then use xsane

Tested on opensuse tumbleweed

For my Epson ET-2750 i used the epsonds backend with fixed IP address.