SANE and Darwin (Mac OS X)
--------------------------

Building:
---------
You may get the message: "gcc: Internal compiler error: program cc1obj got
fatal signal 11". That's not a bug in SANE. Probably a compiler or hardware
problem.  The error usually occurs in canon.c because that's the most complex
backend (at least concerning compilation). If you can't update your compiler,
try to reduce optimization (e.g. CFLAGS="-O1" ./configure). Another
work-around: Disable the canon backend in backend/Makefile.in (look at
PRELOADABLE_BACKENDS) and rerun configure.

General:
--------
If scanimage -L (or any other frontend) stops with a segmentation fault in the
sm3600 backend, disable sm3600 in dll.conf if you don't need it.

Backends that use the function "fork" may not work at least with USB scanners.
That's a limitation of MacOS X (doesn't use file descriptors for USB access).
Most backends have been modified to use threads on MacOS X and should
work. Others don't use fork at all. Both types of backends should work with
MacOS X. Changing the backends to use threads is an ongoing effort.

SCSI-scanners and Firewire scanners:
------------------------------------
There is support for SCSI and Firewire scanners but hasn't had much
testing. Please send failure and success reports to the sane-devel mailing
list. At least the Epson Perfection 1640SU and the CANON IX-06015C (CanoScan
600) are reported to work.

USB-scanners:
-------------
Work with libusb. Try "sane-find-scanner -v -v" and report success or
failure to the SANE mailing list. At least the following scanners are
known to work: UMAX Astra 1220U and 2000U, Epson Perfection 1640SU and
2450 Photo.

Use libusb version 0.1.11 or later (or a cvs checkout from 2005-09-01
or later). If you use earlier versions the libusb code needs to be
patched.

Parport-scanners:
-----------------
I don't have any information about these. Please contact me or the SANE mailing
list if you succeeded in using one of these.

2003-12-26 Henning Meier-Geinitz <henning@meier-geinitz.de>
2005-05-07 Mattias Ellert <mattias.ellert@tsl.uu.se>