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Problem:
It looks like there is no tool in "System Settings" to manage installed scanner devices (at least in Kubuntu till 12.10). So the problem is, that even a simple uninstallation has to be done from a command line, which is not "user friendly" at all and consumes a lot of time (and especially nerves for unexperienced users) There is even a manager for digital cameras ("System Settings" / "Digital Camera"), but nothing like this for scanners, however the letter (scanners) are in a daily usage for many users. I think that scanner is a often-usable device, which must find its place in hardware settings.

Idea:
To add a tool in "System Settings/Hardware" for managing scanner devices or combine it with the tool "System Settings / Hardware / Printers" (In this case it could be smth. like "Printers and Scanners").

Thanks!

YAST has module for scanners and it works nice, but it works only for openSUSE users. So, I think it is a good idea to add native KDE Scanners tool.

It really is odd that we don't have a such scanner configuration tool for basic use.
But I have used "skanlite" application for scanners as it is simple and gives direct controls if needed to make quickly all modifications for scan process. Allows nicely as well to scan multiple parts of document as separated files, automatic filenaming, saving locations etc. So if scanning multiple files you only need to place paper to scanner and press scan, swap document and press scan so your workflow is speed up.

What I meant was a tool to configure e.g. IP-adress of my scanner (as my scanner works through wi-fi and sometimes (very seldom), it somehow automatically changes). For printers it's very easy to change the address (in System Setting), but for my scanner I waste an hour through command line.

Certainly a centralized scanner management does make sense.
However I disagree that this is something that should be coded for KDE. KDE is a desktop environment. Using that as a base for general computation just adds to the gaps we already see between different environments. That is not a good thing.
The yast based solution makes more sense: once configured such devices can be used by applications, be it kde, gnome, a simple standalong gui or a cli client. That makes sense in my eyes. I know yast is only used inside openSUSE based systems (though I never understood why). I think that mainly has psychological reasons (Geeks!!). But the approach certainly makes more sense than a KDE based island solution.

@arkascha

The solutions with a universal scanner manager would be just perfect! but where to push this idea?

arkascha wrote:Certainly a centralized scanner management does make sense.
However I disagree that this is something that should be coded for KDE. KDE is a desktop environment. Using that as a base for general computation just adds to the gaps we already see between different environments. That is not a good thing.

We need SANE front end as KCM so we can get easily managed scanners. That doesn't require that is wasted as all other systems can offer own front-ends to SANE as they please.
To get a single universal front-end means it is not integrated well to used desktop environment. Example "simple scan" and "skanlite" are great applications for front-ends for user. But we need GUI for SANE so user does not require know how to edit config files or use xsane.

For some settings like example network scanners we can not do anything as it is about network administrator task to manage from network device itself what lease the IP for device. So if user has a scanner on WiFi network or connected via cable, then user needs to go to that router settings and configure it to give permanent IP for that specific device MAC address. That is one problem with all network printers that they get different IP after lease has gone and the connection order among all other devices has changed.

We simply need a KCM what allows user to see what scanners has been attached and even load firmware for them by some way. Or manually as well type IP address of such device. GNOME community can do own for that as well, it isn't KDE community propblem as long everyone follows system config files.

I think, the best solution is to use YUI (Yast UI; a library like wxWidgets, to write configuration tools that using native widgets of current Desktop Environment) to create configuration tool. We cannot port whole Yast, but Yast (as I remember) can use Gtk+ backend, Qt backend, ncurses backend, etc. We need only take care YUI load backend based on one environment variable.

I also created similar to wxWidget/YUI library, called libgreattao. Libgreattao allows to define UI in xml-like files, so KDE UI can be a little different than GNOME, but if KDE team doesn't define custom UI file, libgreattao will use generic.