a view from afar

I just bought a CanoScan LiDE 25. Apparently I'm not the only person that thinks Canon's scanner software is a crime against humanity. I now use Yep for scanning, so I just need the TWAIN driver provided by the Canon installer. But the closest I got to making it work was seeing it install the files, then delete them immediately after. Yes, that's right. I WATCHED THE FILES DISAPPEAR from /Library.

I think Bart Simpson has the best phrase to describe this software - it sucks and blows at the same time.

My installation guide follows...

Basically the trick I used is to extract the file hierarchy manually from the installer. Download the package from the CanonScan page. Make a folder canon somewhere in your home folder (I did it on the Desktop). Drop the installer file in, then run these commands:

    $ cd ~/Desktop/canon
    $ cp ScanGear\ CS\ 11.0\ Eng_Installer.pkg/Contents/Archive.pax.gz .
    $ gunzip Archive.pax.gz
    $ cd /
    $ sudo pax -r -p e -f ~/Desktop/canon/Archive.pax ./Library ./Users

For those unfamiliar with pax, it's very similar to tar. The options are: -r to put it into read mode (to restore from an archive); -p e to preserve every attribute on the original file; -f to specify the archive filename; and finally, the list of patterns (paths) to extract from the archive.

If you extract everything, you'll end up installing a file called CNQL1213_ClassicNotSeize.kext in /System/Extensions. This makes me go pale with fear - the thought of a company that releases software that doesn't let you save scanned images until you quit installing kernel extensions on my machine just makes me shudder. It isn't needed to use the TWAIN driver, so I make sure it never goes near my OS.

If you follow all the instructions above, you should be able to use the CanoScan directly from Yep. It still launches the Canon interface, but at least you get to save the pages as you scan them.