Skanpage stopped launching

Help
1

Running ZorinOS Pro 17.3

I have been using Skanpage for a while now. Great little app! Today in an effort to backup some data I accidentally deleted the Desktop folder, noticing that I immediately hit the “Undo” button and it was restored, although it screwed up the icon arrangement. Some of the shortcuts had a grey ‘X’ on them and when launching them a dialog came up instructing me to right click the icon and choose “Allow Launching” in the context menu. Did that and they all work, except Skanpage. I’m unable to launch Skanpage from the application menu either. I’ve uninstalled it and reinstalled it and still not launching. Logged off and back on, restarted the PC. Still no Skanpage. I use this app every day so any help getting it back up and running would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Bryan

2

i think undoing the desktop delete left skanpage with a broken .desktop / xdg path even tho the folder came back.

try doin this:

  1. open a terminal and run skanpage then paste whatever error it prints
  2. xdg-user-dirs-update then log out and back in
  3. wipe its leftover config and retry:
    rm -rf ~/.cache/skanpage ~/.config/skanpagerc
  4. reinstall the stack:
    sudo apt install --reinstall skanpage libksane1

if which skanpage is empty after reinstall, say if you had it from apt or flatpak.

3

I thought I may have made this post moot as I had some other issues with the computer so I just reformatted the system to use it elsewhere and setup a new PC. Now running ZorinOS 18.1 Pro on a brand new PC - Dell Pro Micro Plus QBM1250. However I have the same problem with a new installation of SkanPage.

On the old system in the System logs, I found 2 errors logged each time I attempted to launch SkanPage. I setup the new PC and now have the same errors on the new system.

traps: skanpage[8550] general protection fault ip:703dc842224c sp:7ffe1e992b28 error:0 in libfontconfig.so.1.16.0[c24c,703dc841e000+31000]

Followed by:

[UFW BLOCK] IN=enp128s31f6 OUT= MAC= SRC=fe80:0000:0000:0000:613a:30e0:d7d6:7d59 DST=ff02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 LEN=64 TC=0 HOPLIMIT=1 FLOWLBL=806364 PROTO=UDP SPT=8612 DPT=8610 LEN=24

I’m not fluent with Linux so not sure how to launch SkanPage in the Terminal. Just entering “Scanpage” results in:

Command ‘skanpage’ not found, but can be installed with:
sudo snap install skanpage # version 26.04.3, or
sudo apt install skanpage # version 23.08.5-0ubuntu6
See ‘snap info skanpage’ for additional versions.

I’m installing SkanPage from Flatpak.

Incidentally, installing the SkanLite app works.

Thanks

Bryan

4

that gpf in libfontconfig is the crash. the ufw ipv6 line is noise.

since ur on flatpak skanpage
-flatpak run org.kde.skanpage
-rm -rf ~/.var/app/org.kde.skanpage/cache/fontconfig ~/.cache/fontconfig
-fc-cache -r
-flatpak update org.kde.skanpage

if it still dies check for a bad font package (fonts-katex has been wrecking kde apps on ubuntu-ish lately)
-dpkg -l | rg -i ‘fonts-katex|texlive.*fonts’
-sudo apt purge fonts-katex

skanlite working is a clue its the skanpage/flatpak font path.

5

This worked although the results of the update were “Nothing to do”. I didn’t have to run the font purge.

Thank you for your help!

Bryan

6

The solution doesn’t stick. After some time, most recently just a few hours, it reverts to not launching again. I can re-enter the commands and it works but but only temporarily.

Same error:

traps: skanpage[55100] general protection fault ip:710d23c9924c sp:7fffae807858 error:0 in libfontconfig.so.1.16.0[c24c,710d23c95000+31000]

I tried the font purge as mentioned earlier and it responded that the font is not installed.

Package ‘fonts-katex’ is not installed, so not removed
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
libfwupd2 libwoff1
Use ‘sudo apt autoremove’ to remove them.

Thank you

7

yeah that means something keeps writing a bad fontconfig cache back into the flatpak sandbox.

id try:

-switch to the apt build once and see if it sticks
sudo apt install skanpage
(flatpak can stay, just launch the deb one from the menu)

-or wipe the sandbox cache on every login. ~/.config/autostart entry that runs
rm -rf ~/.var/app/org.kde.skanpage/cache/fontconfig

-also hunt a poison host font
fc-cache -r -v 2>&1 | rg -i ‘error|failed|skip’
fc-list : file | rg -i ‘tex|katex|type1’

for me the flatpak keeps reimporting a busted host font and the gpf comes back till that font is gone.

8

Sorry, I got ahead of myself and had already uninstalled the flatpak version before installing the apt package.

The apt package installed and the app launches now but will have to see if it continues to do so.

Also tried the hunt for the poison font and it errored out on the ‘rg’ command. Couldn’t find it. I’m not sure if I should have pasted the entire line or separated it out to individual commands between the pipe characters.

Command ‘rg’ not found, but can be installed with:
sudo snap install ripgrep # version 12.1.0, or
sudo apt install ripgrep # version 14.0.3-1
See ‘snap info ripgrep’ for additional versions.
failed: command not found
skip’: command not found

I ran the fc cache -r -v 2>&1 by itself and it scanned for fonts, skipped directories with no fonts, the ended up with “Succeeded” at the end.

9

This is not related to the launching problems but something I noticed.

The layout of the interface of the apt version of Skanpage is a bit different and not as polished as the flatpak verison. Elements are not lined up on the right side and it lacks the scan size of “letter”, which I used daily. The flatpak version has a much cleaner interface and includes the “letter” scan size under the ADF Scan source but not the flatbed scan source. It’s been that way since I’ve been using the app. I’ve had to use custom size for flatbed scanning of 8.3 inches (the maximum) x 11.0 inches.

Here’s a screenshot of the Apt and Flatpak apps with the apt version on top of the flatpak one.

image
image1027×898 102 KB

10

rg isnt on zorin by default. use grep:

-fc-cache -r -v 2>&1 | grep -iE ‘error|failed|skip’
-fc-list : file | grep -iE ‘tex|katex|type1’

apt skanpage is an older build so letter + layout lag the flatpak. if u need letter daily, keep the flatpak and wipe its fontconfig cache on login (autostart that runs rm -rf ~/.var/app/org.kde.skanpage/cache/fontconfig). on apt u can still set custom paper 8.5x11 under scan size.