Is there a way to get the MFC7840W scanner to work in Linux?

[Red Squirrel]

I have a MFC7840W multi function printer and while the printer itself works in Linux, I never ocured to try the scanner till now. no go. Is there a way to get it to work? I found a driver online and installed it but it did not do anything. I don't even see any changes done such as a new program in the start menu, and the built in scan utility does not detect it.

I am trying to setup an FTP so I can do scan via FTP but it's a royal pain in the ass having to enter all the information every single time only for it to fail. I also don't really want an FTP server running just for this purpose. Any other solution short of buying a newer scanner in hopes it works?

 

[lxskllr]

I've never scanned in GNU/Linux with any scanner. Did you look through the documentation here?

http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/index.html

It doesn't look like an install and go process. You need to do some work.

 

[yugpatel]

Scanner Driver for your MFC is http://welcome.solutions.brother.com/bsc/public_s/id/linux/en/download_scn.html
Follow the installation instruction and it should work. I have MFC7420 and I have been scanning using Xsane for last 3 years or so.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'll have to look deeper into that then. Figured I could just install the .deb and it should work.

And if I get this right, I need to be a privileged user to scan?! So unless I want to be constantly logging in and out, should I just be running as root then? I wanted to avoid doing that. Is it common for silly little tasks like that to require this?

 

[lxskllr]

I'll have to look deeper into that then. Figured I could just install the .deb and it should work.

And if I get this right, I need to be a privileged user to scan?! So unless I want to be constantly logging in and out, should I just be running as root then? I wanted to avoid doing that. Is it common for silly little tasks like that to require this?

You have to read the documentation. They tell you how to set it up for a normal user. Running as root full time is bad.

 

[weovpac]

And if I get this right, I need to be a privileged user to scan?! So unless I want to be constantly logging in and out, should I just be running as root then? I wanted to avoid doing that. Is it common for silly little tasks like that to require this?

All that should be needed is to add your user to the scanner group. First check if you are in that group:

$ groups

If not add yourself:

# adduser foo scanner

Edit: Do not forget to logout and log back in.