The reason I am asking here first is because I believe to have installed all of the libsanes that I could find:
$ sudo apt search libsane
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
libreoffice/noble-updates,noble-security,now 4:24.2.3-0ubuntu0.24.04.2 amd64 [installed]
office productivity suite (metapackage)
libsane-common/noble,noble,now 1.2.1-7build4 all [installed]
API library for scanners -- documentation and support files
libsane-dev/noble,now 1.2.1-7build4 amd64 [installed]
API development library for scanners [development files]
libsane-hpaio/noble,now 3.23.12+dfsg0-0ubuntu5 amd64 [installed,automatic]
HP SANE backend for multi-function peripherals
libsane1/noble,now 1.2.1-7build4 amd64 [installed,automatic]
API library for scanners
$
I have the same scanner, and after installing 24.04 from scratch on a new ssd, I also had the same problem. I got it working after finding this:
which tells you (In addition to installing libsane1) to install a version of libsane from a different ubuntu release:
***quote
It appears that in 2017, someone decided to rename libsane to libsane1. Currently, libsane is just used for backwards compatibility purposes. It has no files itself. It does nothing else but depend on libsane1. However, the libsane package is not available in Ubuntu 23.10 and there is high probability, we wouldn't see it it future releases.
For your driver to work, first you will have to install the libsane1 package. And the workaround for libsane is to download and install the package from another Ubuntu release. In the example below, I am using libsane from Ubuntu 23.04 (Lunar Lobster) for amd64 architecture and it works. You can download and install it with:
It is incredible to think that we are still using this trust worthy device after so long and it feels so good that it is still doing the job great. Also, I would had never knew, in 2024, that there would be another person with the same (dated) setup as mine.
Thank you very much, this indeed solved my problem and the ol' faithful is back in action!
Hi Doug,
I've run into exactly the same problem. First the missing reference to libsane, solved by the help of this thread. Even though the driver installed succesfully the scanner would not be found. I have the same Epson Perfection V500 so the same result (fresh install of Kubuntu 24).
Since my only goal was to upgrade an old pc which only got used for scanning and printing it was easy to try another route, and that was installing the latest fedora distro. On Fedora the installation went without hickup and the scanner was found. Didn't even had to install libsane.
So maybe this helps for the ubuntu community to fix the V500 not working, and otherwise it's good to know that using Fedora could be another solution. Not trying to switch people over, ubuntu is still my favorite distro. But if the difference is a working situation or a non working situation i'm happy accepting switching as well.
I would be very interested if someone got the V500 working on ubuntu 24 though!!
(fresh install of Kubuntu 24).