Tag: desktop

Install Epson Scan 2 on Debian

I use an Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner. It has pretty good Linux support via the SANE standard.

But I could not find a satisfying scanner GUI app within the Debian distribution, and came across Epson’s own “Epson Scan 2”, which has a nice interface, recognized my scanner right away and does everything I need.

Unfortunately, the software does not have an easy-to-find website and documentation. That’s the main reason why I wrote this blog post, to hopefully save others some time.

Download and Installation

For a typical 64bit Intel x86 compatible PC or laptop, the “architecture’ on Linux systems is called “amd64” or “x86_64”. The package files used by Debian have the .deb filename extension.

Once the file is fully downloaded, open a terminal, cd to your Downloads directory and 

# NOTE: adjust "6.7.80.0" to the version you downloaded
tar xvzf epsonscan2-bundle-6.7.80.0.x86_64.deb.tar.gz
cd epsonscan2-bundle-6.7.80.0.x86_64.deb

# NOTE: review the install script, run at your own risk
sudo ./install.sh

# try to start the application
epsonscan2

# if "libQt5Widgets.so.5" is missing, install it
sudo apt install libqt5widgets5

The application should now be installed and usable.

For example, on an XFCE desktop environment, it should show up in the “Graphics” section of the Applications system menu:

Switch Debian 11 desktop-theme

I do not like the default Debian 11 “Homeworld“ desktop theme at all.

Here is how to switch back to “futurePrototype” the default theme of Debian 10, but without displaying “Debian 10” anywhere:

sudo update-alternatives --config desktop-theme

Pick the /usr/share/desktop-base/futureprototype-theme.

Then to ensure we use the “nologo” background for the login manager:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/share/images/desktop-base/login-background.svg desktop-login-background /usr/share/desktop-base/active-theme/login/background-nologo.svg 100

Now you should see background-nologo.svg as the activated option for the desktop-login-background:

sudo update-alternatives --config desktop-login-background

The desktop-theme change also affects the background image of the grub boot loader, so we need to run this:

sudo update-grub

The next time we boot the system we should see background images from the configured theme for

  • Grub boot screen
  • Login manager (for example lightdm)
  • Desktop (for example XFCE)

Using sipgate.de on Linux with Linphone SIP client

Note: This is a follow-up blog entry to yesterday’s post about using the Zoiper SIP client on Linux. Linphone works comparably well so far and if I won’t come across any issues, I will recommend Linphone, since it is fully Open Source, which future-proofs is existence and allows others to contribute and improve the software better than for a closed-source product like Zoiper.

Linphone is a GPL licensed SIP client (“softphone”). It has been around since 2001 and is actively developed by the French company Belledonne Communications.

As the name suggests, the software was first developed for Linux but has gradually become truly cross-platform, now supporting Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone 8 and most recently a web edition. For most operating systems, simply visit linphone.org and follow the download and installation steps indicated there.

Users of GNU/Linux distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, etc, install the distribution package through their favorite package manager. On my Debian stable (“wheezy”) I did this today:

sudo apt-get install linphone

Then I started up Linphone from the XFCE Start menu, where it is listed in the “Internet” submenu. I canceled the account setup wizard because it didn’t seem to work for me, disabled Video in the Options menu because I am not planning to use it yet, then selected Options – Preferences – Manage SIP accounts and configured my sipgate.de account like this:

Your SIP identity: sip:3998984@sipgate.de
SIP Proxy address: sip:sipgate.de

Screenshot

linphone-sipgate-account

Note that “3998984” is my sipgate.de SIP account name, so you have to substitute it with yours, but note that it is usually not the same as your sipgate.de web login username.

After this initial setup, I successfully tested the account and my headset by calling the sipgate.de test number 10005, which works very similarly to the Skype test call feature.

For personalized config information you can log in at sipgate.de and consult the “Konfigurationshilfe“, selecting one of the Linphone entries from the softphone device lists. I have a sipgate.de basic account, so if you are on a different plan, details may vary slightly.

If this blog post was helpful and/or if something seems inaccurate, please leave a comment. Happy telephoning …