sane-project-website/old-archive/1999-04/0051.html

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<!-- name="Nick Lamb" -->
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<title>sane-devel: Re: microtek scanmaker again :-(</title>
<h1>Re: microtek scanmaker again :-(</h1>
<b>Nick Lamb</b> (<a href="mailto:njl98r@ecs.soton.ac.uk"><i>njl98r@ecs.soton.ac.uk</i></a>)<br>
<i>Sun, 4 Apr 1999 09:51:17 +0100 (BST)</i>
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On Sun, 4 Apr 1999, De Clarke wrote:<br>
<p>
<i>&gt; Excuse my Intel hardware idiocy, but, umm, how do you mean "if</i><br>
<i>&gt; the card is actually a PCI device"?  There are two kinds of</i><br>
<i>&gt; slots on my motherboard, PCI and ISA, and they don't look</i><br>
<i>&gt; the same :-)  This card definitely fits in a PCI slot.</i><br>
<p>
Right, OK. It can be difficult to judge your level of expertise, especially<br>
when you follow up with something like...<br>
<p>
<i>&gt;         [root@musashi scsi]# file /proc/pci</i><br>
<i>&gt;         /proc/pci: empty</i><br>
<p>
Try using cat, not file. The /proc interface lies about file sizes to<br>
stay simple, so only tools like "cat" or "less" (not "more") will work<br>
correctly on these types of file. Now there should be a whole lot of<br>
info you never knew that Linux was keeping from you :)<br>
<p>
Unfortunately, now that I know you've got a PCI card, the possibility of<br>
it working is automagically less - because Linux will have seen it at<br>
boot time, and would have tried to configure it, if it knew how. So this<br>
may very well mean that there is no driver for your card :(<br>
<p>
<i>&gt; How I long for the day when we will just be able to plug</i><br>
<i>&gt; peripherals into our linux crates and use them... like the</i><br>
<i>&gt; PCMCIA driver facility for laptops, now that is nice to use... </i><br>
<i>&gt; no configuration, no mystery, no hassles, you plug in the little</i><br>
<i>&gt; cards and they work ...</i><br>
<p>
Heh. PCMCIA isn't a magic bullet. What you seem to have seen is the side of<br>
PCMCIA advertised on TV. You've still got to have the drivers for every<br>
card you might want to plug in. You still get mysterious interactions<br>
between cards (in Linux or Win9x) and under the hood it's a mess.<br>
<p>
The problem isn't Linux, its the PC peripherals market. If I tried to sell<br>
Sun customers a card which was 10% cheaper, but only worked in machines<br>
built on a Tuesday they'd laugh at me. PC customers are on a budget and<br>
they'll buy crazy stuff -- like Parallel-port scanners, or WinModems which<br>
make life hard for Linux driver writers.<br>
<p>
Nick.<br>
<p>
<p>
<pre>
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</pre>
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<ul>
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<li> <b>Next message:</b> <a href="0052.html">Oliver Graf: "Re: Epson GT-5000 (parallel port)"</a>
<li> <b>Previous message:</b> <a href="0050.html">Hugo van der Kooij: "Re: microtek scanmaker again :-("</a>
<li> <b>In reply to:</b> <a href="0049.html">De Clarke: "Re: microtek scanmaker again :-("</a>
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