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.

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