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Originally I have a Canon Pixma MX892. It prints but does not scan at all. It used to do everything in Windows XP and is fairly new. I don't want to run Windows any more. SANE says the MX890 is complete but maybe the MX892 is a completely different creature.

Finally I decided I will go out and buy a scanner that has a "complete" rating from SANE with the exact same model number. At Office Depot there was a Canoscan Lide 210 so I bought it because it has the "complete" rating On Simple Scan it scans but I just get a light gray blank image. I installed Xsane using the package manager and it does the same thing. I'd be willing to take it back and get an HP or a Epson if I knew it would plug and play and was locally available at Office Max, Office Depot,Best Buy etc.. But not all of HP or Epson get a complete rating from SANE. Therefore I'm afraid I'll be in the same situation.

I'm new to Ubuntu. I have it on 2 computers. I've managed to run Netflix and enable the cube. I've done a little in the terminal but this scanner thing and back ends etc has me lost at the moment. Canon does not have a driver. I'm running Ubuntu 14.04. If I have to do something in terminal it will have to be step by step and hopefully not too complicated. I guess that's all for now. Hopefully someone can shed some light on this and offer a simple solution.

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  • good job! :) congrats!
    – thatmaheshrs
    Jul 14, 2014 at 21:58

4 Answers 4

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I just found the answer to my own question. I did an internet search on the Canon Lide 210 and blank gray image and I found this. Someone stated that on the underside of the machine is on the outside is a simple mechanical lock. Just slide it to unlock and it will stop putting out blank gray scans and start scanning. Now for how well it scans I'm not sure I just got it working. What a relief. Oh well at least it is solved. I've had time to try it out and it works great. Problem solved.

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I had the same thing happen to me; I was getting black pages when I scanned. However, the scanner had worked before. I checked, and the lock switch was not "off." It also scanned the same way (black pages) through Adobe Acrobat ("Scan Document" function) as well as with the Canon software. My colleague has the exact same scanner and when I plugged hers in, same result (BLACK PAGES).

I was also getting an intermittent error message requesting that I turn off the lock button, unplug the USB, and plug it back in. Even when I switched it off & on, and unplugged / re-plugged, it still gave the error message a few times, then scanned black pages.

I had our IT guy take a look at it, and what it ended up being was, the scanner was plugged in through a USB hub, and somehow that was what was preventing it from working right. I plugged it into an empty USB slot on the back of my computer, and it worked just fine again. The IT guy suggested since the unit is USB-powered that it was losing just enough power through the cables and the USB hub, that it was unable to power the light.

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I don't have the Canoscan Lide 210. I have (sitting right next to this laptop on which I am typing this answer) a Canon MG-2570 (scanner + printer). Why am I telling you that? Because I had to install special drivers to get the Canon MG-2570 to work on my Xubuntu 14.04.

I checked the Canon site and your Canoscan Lide 210 does not have any Linux drivers for it. It is supported "out-of-the-box" by Linux, as you already know.

You should look at this thread on Ubuntu Forums: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2015354

I will summarize it for you: install xsane (sudo apt-get install xsane)

That will help you scan whatever it is you are trying to scan. Ppl have reported that they got "black" scans initially, but things "settled down" after some time and they got scans that they liked/desired.

At the same time, there seem to be bugs with the drivers. Essentially, only the following resolution/colour depth settings seem working: - 600 dpi 8 bit colour - 1200 dpi 8 bit colour - 1200 dpi 16 bit colour

More information about that here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/sane-backends/+bug/996741?

If any of that helps, let us know.

Enjoy your new scanner.

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  • Changing the photo resolution to 600 dpi solved the issue for me.
    – Dragan Bozanovic
    Jul 30, 2017 at 23:14
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I had the same problem with Canon LiDE 120. Unlocking the switch underside of the scanner alone didn't work. But worked when connected the USB cable to a slot at the back of the UPS.

So, the solution for CanoScan LiDE 120 is:

a) Unlock the lock at the underside of the scanner
b) Connect the USB cable to a more powerful slot (at the backside of the UPS)

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