I have had problems with setting up my scanner in Linux Mint 8 in 7 it was relatively easy to fix but since it seems that files are replaced or changed in each release it is never sure if it will work.

This time around I have been doing research to see why this keeps happening and why it seems to break after an upgrade.

I found posts in 2004 which seemed to be dealing with the same thing at first I thought it was an xsane problem but the deeper I searched I came to the conclusion that it was a scanner permission problem and it may only affect printer /scanners combos especially the ones that have media card readers built in.  But I’m not totally certain of this.

apparently scanners are not being placed in scanner groups. I was able to access the scanner with multiple programs using root. I haven’t been able to figure out how to set up group named scanner.

The resulting images where locked and needed root access to open and edit.

A work around

until I figure out how to fix it as I am in need of something scanned ASAP.

Open xsane with root:

in terminal type:

sudo xsane

when prompted type in your password ( you will not see any characters ) click enter

scan your image

The problem that I had after the scan was that the resulting images also had to be accessed by root (they had a lock and an x)

I placed the images in the pictures folder

I right clicked the pictures folder and chose ‘open as root’

then I was able to edit them in gimp I saved the files

the resulting files that where created still had a lock on them but I was able to view and edit them

I was able to take the lock off by right clicking in image view and saving the image again ( I saved in a different location)

well I hope this helps someone else and I hope someone figures out an easy fix for this problem that has apparently existed for a while. The solutions that I found either haven’t helped or are too complicated.