If you have only one scanner but many computers, what is the easiest way to share it? Connect it to one computer and set that computer to be a server, then control the scanner over the network.
<—– Server Side —–>
First, make sure your scanner is working on the server computer. If you are using a USB scanner like me, just connect and preform a scan on the server to make sure it is working. In Ubuntu, Simple Scan is the default program, and it is the best scanning software I think.
Install the required software on the server:
sudo apt-get install sane-utils
Edit /etc/default/saned, to set sane to run as server:
# Set to yes to start saned RUN=yes
Edit /etc/sane.d/saned.conf, add the following line to set which subnet you would like to share to:
192.168.1.0/24
Add the saned user to the lp group so it can access the scanner:
sudo adduser saned lp
Restart the saned daemon:
sudo service saned restart
Run the following command and make sure your scanner is installed:
$ scanimage -L
<—– Client Side —–>
Install the required software on the client:
sudo apt-get install sane-utils
Edit /etc/sane.d/net.conf, tell the client where the server is
## saned hosts # Each line names a host to attach to. # If you list "localhost" then your backends can be accessed either # directly or through the net backend. Going through the net backend # may be necessary to access devices that need special privileges. # localhost 192.168.1.1
Confirm settings:
$ scanimage -L
Open Simple Scan and test scan.
References:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ScanningHowTo
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1519201