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.