Epson Perfection V30 Scanner with Linux

The Epson line of flat bed scanners has been a favorite of mine for many years. Earlier versions just worked right out of the box with Linux. Newer ones take a bit of work to get going. Here's the quick route to Epson Perfection (yes, a pun!).

• Install the sane and xsane packages for your distribution. I'm using Ubunutu so it's as easy as clicking on System->Administration->Synaptic Package Manager and finding the packages.

  Old info ... read below

• Go to the Avasys site and find the current drivers for Linux and your scanner. You'll need to answer a couple of questions, but you'll get to a download page. You need to get three packages.
  • esci-interpreter-gt-f720_0.1.1-2_i386.deb
  • iscan_2.26.3-1.ltdl7_i386.deb
  • iscan-data_1.8.1-1_all.deb

  The versions may be different, don't worry about that. This was effective as of May/2011. Once you have these on your hard drive, just issue these commands from a terminal:

   sudo dpkg -i esci-interpreter-gt-f720_0.1.1-2_i386.deb
   sudo dpkg -i iscan_2.26.3-1.ltdl7_i386.deb
   sudo dpkg -i iscan-data_1.8.1-1_all.deb
   

The key is that you need all three packages listed above.

Update: The drivers from the Avasys site will not work with Ubuntu 12.04. For Ubuntu 12.04 some changes have been made.

• First, you also need to install the package xsltproc (a command line xslt processor). Nope, I have no idea why it's needed. But from a command line:

    sudo apt-get install xsltproc
  

  Does what is needed.

• Second, the download site is now: http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/search/01/search/?OSC=LX

  Enter your scanner name (ie. V30, etc).

  Now you need to download 2 files and install them in order:

   sudo dpkg -i esci-interpreter-gt-f720_0.1.1-2_i386.deb
   sudo dpkg -i iscan_2.28.1-3.ltdl7_i386.deb
  

Now (for both sets of drivers) reboot the system (or at least log out/in from your current session). If you have a permissions problem, you will need to add youself as a member of the scanner group. Make sure your scanner is turned on and scan away.

I continue to use xsane, but the iscan software seems to be good as well.