GnuRooting Experiment 2: Success!

Long time ago, I had tried GnuRoot on a ZaReason tablet.  I didn't go very far: I got to boot a Linux environment, but without a graphics session.  Thus, I abandoned GnuRoot.

Debian GNU/Linux running on my tablet!

Today, I found this nice tutorial by Braden Farmer and it motivated me to try once again, this time using a Lenovo tablet.

Apparently, everything went as expected.  I could indeed install Debian with LXDE and it works pretty well (although you do need a keyboard and a mouse, which I don't have right now.)


Well, I'm glad this experiment worked.  I feel happy because I learned something new. 

My Quest for a GNU/Linux Laptop

My embattled Alto 4330, which I bought from ZaReason about 4 years ago, has started to fail.  I have to pledge guilty because I've dropped it twice and the poor machine kept working faithfully.  Thus, while I think of a way to fix it, I started looking for a replacement.

First, I do not want to pay for Windows 10, especially because all I'd do with it would be to wipe it out from the hard drive.  Since I do not want to put up with all the UEFI and restricted boot nonsense, buying from a Linux vendor is my road to take.

Unfortunately, ZaReason was a no-go.  I tried to buy their Strata twice, but my order was rejected.  Upon asking, they told me it was out of stock but they would get new merchandise soon.

I checked again two weeks later and they had the Ultralap.  Nice... I almost bought it, but it does not have an optical drive. Some may think "So... what's the problem?"  I guess the problem is that I do use CDs and DVDs, and having a super portable laptop that needs an external CD/DVD drive, even if it is very slim, is not convenient enough for me.  They may offer other models soon, but I cannot afford waiting.

I took a look at System 76, but their laptops did not fit my needs.

Then, Mechatotoro suggested Think Penguin.  Apparently, their Adelie laptop is the closest to the Strata I wanted... plus it comes with the keyboard in my language.

Thus, I took the plunge and ordered one.  Now their card verification loopholes have started...  although it is highly inconvenient for me as the customer, I understand their fight against fraud.

I hope my order gets processed and shipped without any other problem.  I also hope that the laptop I bought may be a good one.

How I Got My Epson XP-231 to Scan Using Xsane

Mechatotoro gave me a printer Epson XP-231, which also has a scanning function.  After installing the drivers and seeing it print text files and scanned pages, I thought I had it up and running well... until I tried to scan a page to save it as an image:  it would not start the software to scan that came with the drivers.

I tried simplescan and learned that it didn't recognize my scanner.  It saw just the camera.

Then, I tried Xsane.  Same problem.

After a few hours of trying, I stumbled upon VueScan.  I downloaded the trial and BINGO!!!  It worked like a charm.

I was inclined to pay, but realized that the basic version only used the scanner to its minimum.  To get it to work fully, you have to pay a bit more.  Maybe too much for my budget.

Thus, I set forth on a quest to make the scanner work because, unfortunately, Mechatotoro's method did not work in my case: He was using Red Hat based distros and I use Debian based ones.

Thanks to this fine tutorial, I could solve the problem. This is how I got it:



As root, I opened the file:

/etc/sane.d/dll.conf

Depending on the case, you have to uncomment or add : example-backend

I noticed that there was a line reading epson2, and it was uncommented.

Then, I ran on the CLI:

sane-find-scanner

The output looked like this:

# sane-find-scanner will now attempt to detect your scanner. If the
  # result is different from what you expected, first make sure your
  # scanner is powered up and properly connected to your computer.

  # No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure that
  # you have loaded a kernel SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter.

found USB scanner (vendor=0x01aa [EXAMPLE], product=0x0001 [EXAMPLE SCANNER]) at libusb:001:003

  # Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be supported by
  # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage.

  # Not checking for parallel port scanners.

  # Most Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports
  # can't be detected by this program.

The line "Found USB scanner (vendor=0x01aa [EXAMPLE], product=0x0001 [EXAMPLE SCANNER]) at libusb:001:003" is the important one here.  I copied it somewhere else to have it ready.

As root, I opened

/etc/sane.d/epson.conf

and

 /etc/sane.d/epson2.conf

I looked for the line reading "usb" in both files.  I added in both, as root,  the information of the vendor and of the product I got as my output.  Using the example above, it looked like this:

usb 0x01aa 0x0001

After saving those files, all I had to do was starting Xsane.  Now it recognized my scanner!  :D

On commence bien comme ça!

Year 2017 has just started and I'm already experiencing its surprises!  First,  I tried to buy a laptop from ZaReason, but my transaction failed twice.  Upon asking, they told me they are out of stock but will have new computers quite soon.  I checked other vendors, but so far none beats the specs and price of the laptop I intended to buy.

Today, Mechatotoro gave me a nice Epson XP-231 printer as a present.  I did not have much problem to get it up and running (both the printing and the scanning functions) on MX-15. 

However, while I was trying to install the drivers on MX-14, I ran into problems.  BIG problems.  Suddenly, my system decided that every file I selected with the pointer was to be deleted.  Fortunately, it would ask for confirmation and thus I could recover some trivial folders: my documents, my downloads, and my desktop. 

Thinking that maybe my mouse was misbehaving (too bad because it is not even 2 months old), I unplugged it to try the mousepad.  Bad news!  It did not work.

This is quite a way to start the new year!

After that, I thought my MX-14 system was in bad shape and set to reinstalling it from a remastered USB pendrive.  However, the system on the pendrive showed the same behavior.  Not liking the situation very much, I booted MEPIS 12 to see if I had better luck.  No.  The same issues greeted me.

In a desperate move, I opened the laptop, removed the keyboard, the hard drive, and checked the memory.  After being cleaned, they looked better.  Not being able to do anything else, I put the laptop together again and started it fearing the worse...

Well, it is working normally again!  I hope it keeps doing it while I get my new laptop.  The problem is that Linux laptops are not so easy to find here.  Hopefully, I'll find one I like soon.  2017, what a great start!