How to get Epson 3490 Scanner working under Hardy H ?

**cloud3737** · September 12th, 2008

Hi again kaibob,

The command

find /usr/share/sane/snapscan/esfw52.bin

spits back

/usr/share/sane/snapscan/esfw52.bin

I take this to mean that the bin file is in the right place.

Thanks so much for your help. Can I ask you something else? Suppose I want to dump this scanner (it's a bit old anyway) and get a new one. Can you offer any recommendations on makes/models/types of scanners that won't entail these sorts of problems? Are these problems resulting from the fact that the scanner is a few years old, or that it's an Epson product, or that it's a USB scanner, or maybe something else? Any idea? Do you think I should start a new "absolute beginner" thread with that question?

**kaibob** · September 13th, 2008

Sorry to hear that nothing has helped. The 3490 is actually a good basic scanner.

I don't keep up on scanners and can't recommend anything directly. The following page shows supported scanners and is a good starting point:

http://www.sane-project.org/cgi-bin/...&bus=any&v=&p=

HP is often good. When you find a scanner that you might be interested in, it's best to do a search of this forum too see what experience others have had with the scanner. Unless it's a newly introduced scanner, you'll almost always find something.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

**Kellemora** · September 13th, 2008

Hi Cloud

Just copying the mail here since I have a scanner that's totally useless on XP-MCE.........

When you copied your file, where you physically in the Root Directory, NOT in your home directory with Root privileges.

I've found that can make a big difference sometimes.

I had several files that when I tried opening them, they were blank pages, until I physically moved into the root directory.

Ubuntu has a ROOT TERMINAL, makes it easy to be in ROOT!
But STILL you have to cd .. enter, cd .. enter again to insure you are physically in ROOT. If you do that, your files WILL come out in the right place. Hmmmm, better stick my tongue in cheek while saying that, hi hi.........

TTUL
Gary

**webaake** · July 20th, 2009

Fixed it by setting permission 777 to the bin file:

sudo chmod 777 /usr/share/sane/snapscan/Esfw52.bin

Watch out for the capital "E", or not.

**deedeesuzanne** · August 5th, 2009

Hello, where do I find this esfw52.bin file? I can't find it on my Epson CD that came with the scanner.

**webaake** · August 5th, 2009

Here it is.

**eko291** · November 1st, 2009

Awesome instructions and thank you for attaching the bin file!

**kaibob** · November 2nd, 2009

I recently did a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 and had to get my Epson 3490 scanner working again. I copied the firmware file to the Ubuntu partition and edited the snapscan.conf file to show the path to the firmware file. That's all and the scanner works great.

**somger** · April 27th, 2010

Following the instructions, downloading the fw file, I just managed to put to work my Epson perfection 3490 photo on ubuntu 9.10 64-bit version. Great post! thanx!