sane-coolscan(5)

🌸 sane-coolscan(5) — the SANE Scanner Access Now Easy girlies' guide to the Nikon film-scanner backend 🌸

okay so bestie, buckle up — this is sane-coolscan(5), and it's giving "vintage film scanner energy" in the most chaotic-but-iconic way. It's part of the SANE Scanner Access Now Easy universe, and it's here to explain the coolscan backend. Let's get into it 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

sane-coolscan — the SANE backend for Nikon film-scanners 🎞️🦋

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🎀 ABOUT THIS FILE 🎀

fr fr this file is just a short lil description of the coolscan backend for SANE. That's it, that's the whole vibe. No cap.

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

The sane-coolscan library implements a SANE backend that gives you the interface to these Nikon Coolscan Film scanners, and yes, here's the full lineup so nobody gets left out:

• Nikon LS20
• LS30
• LS1000
• LS2000

Now, the tea ☕ — even though this backend has genuinely worked for a number of people, there are still some problems, especially when it's combined with certain SCSI card/drivers (AHA-1505/aha152x.o) and with the autofocus command. So like… you should consider this backend 'alpha' and be careful when you use it for the first time, okay? Protect your peace (and your scan) 🙈

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🛠️ CONFIGURATION 🛠️

The configuration file for this backend lives at /etc/sane.d/coolscan.conf.

Its content is a list of device names that correspond to Nikon Coolscan scanners. Empty lines and lines starting with a hash mark (#) are ignored, so go ahead and leave lil comments everywhere, we love that for you 💜 A sample configuration file is shown below:

#scsi Vendor Model Type
scsi Nikon * Scanner
/dev/scanner

The special device name must be a generic SCSI device or a symlink to such a device. To find out to which device your scanner is assigned and how you can set the permissions of that device, have a look at sane-scsi(5) — it's the plug, bestie 🔌

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🔥 SCSI ADAPTER TIPS 🔥

Some SCSI-adapters and low-level SCSI drivers do not work correctly with this backend and the Coolscan scanners. Like, these systems hang when the autofocus command is send to the Scanner — and yeah, "send", that's what the original says, we don't edit the source material, that's not the vibe 💀

To see a list of which card/driver combinations work or don't work, have a look at: http://andreas.rick.free.fr/sane/autofocus.html

⚠️ Heads up: this is the actual main-character-danger zone of the page. If your combo is on the naughty list, it hangs. Periodt.

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📁 FILES 📁

• The backend configuration file:
  • /etc/sane.d/coolscan.conf
• The static library implementing this backend:
  • /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-coolscan.a
• The shared library implementing this backend:
  • /usr/lib64/sane/libsane-coolscan.so (present on systems that support dynamic loading)

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🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

SANE_DEBUG_COOLSCAN

If the library was compiled with debug support enabled, this environment variable controls the debug level for this backend. E.g., a value of 128 requests all debug output to be printed. Smaller levels reduce verbosity — so like, dial it down if you don't want your terminal to be screaming at you, iykyk 😭

Examples:

On bash:

export SANE_DEBUG_COOLSCAN=8

On csh:

setenv SANE_DEBUG_COOLSCAN 8

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💀 BUGS 💀

Not gonna sugarcoat it, here's the list:

• The autofocus command does not work with some SCSI card/driver combinations.
• The gamma table is not implemented for the LS1000 yet.
• The dust-removal is not working yet.

The way these are all just sitting here unfixed… it's giving "work in progress" and honestly? We respect the honesty 🫶

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• sane(7), sane-scsi(5)
• http://andreas.rick.free.fr/sane/
  • The homepage of this backend.
• http://www.sema.be/coolscan/
  • The original version of the coolscan backend by Didier.

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👑 THANKS TO 👑

• Didier Carlier — For writing the original Coolscan backend (without it I would not have started this).
• Oliver Rauch — For adapting xsane so quickly to the infrared stuff.
• All the other people working on SANE.

Shoutout to the icons who built this before us, genuinely obsessed 🎀✨

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🦋 AUTHOR 🦋

Andreas Rick

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💌 EMAIL-CONTACT 💌

andreas.rick@free.fr

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okay that's the whole page, bestie! And before you go — this little masterpiece has been sitting here since 13 Jul 2008, hand-delivered to you as part of sane-coolscan(5). Go scan something iconic 💅📸