Using the Canoscan LiDE 50 with My MacBook Pro
My God, I’ve had some trouble getting my Canoscan LiDE 50 to work my MacBook Pro, running Mac OS 10.4.11 (Tiger). The scanner worked fine with my old Powerbook, but my MacBook refused to recognize it until now.
First, to use the LiDE 50, you have to download and install the Canoscan toolbox software and the Scangear 7.1X driver from the Canon web site. Install the toolbox software *first*, then install the driver. (Basically, the driver needs someplace to go, and it won’t have that place until you install the Canoscan software.)
If your install doesn’t work like mine didn’t work because of insufficient privileges/permissions, then you have to fix the permissions. Fixing permissions under Disk Utility didn’t do it for me, but if you go into the Terminal app and type this:
sudo chown -R [your user name]:admin /Library/CFMSupport
This should allow you to install the software.
Then, you’ll find out that the Canoscan toolbox software doesn’t recognize that you’re scanner is attached. Start pulling out your hair now.
What works is to either (1) download and install the TWAIN-SANE libusb pachage, SANE backends, SANE Preference Pane, and TWAIN-SANE Interface and have them now work by themselves, or (2) get VueScan (which also includes the above TWAIN-SANE packages).
I know, I should have just started this post with: Answer? Get VueScan. But that wouldn’t be fair to the memory of my suffering.