Brother MFC-6490CW Scanner problems

[Juan R. de Silva]

On Wed, 07 May 2014 17:26:35 -0500, Linda wrote:

> I'm setting up a new machine with 12.04 LTS stable.  I got the Brother
> MFC-6490CW to work as a printer over the network but it will not work as
> a scanner over the network.  I tired all of the possible solutions I
> found on line adding users to groups etc but both Xsane and simple scan
> fail. In frustration I removed the network scanner with brscan3config
> and tried plugging it in with a usb cord. If I do this Xsane gives me a 
> Failed to start scanner:Invalid argument message but if you select the
> scan button again it works. Simple scan gives Failed to scan, unable to
> start scan message. Does anyone have any ideas? I could live with having
> it plugged in as a usb scanner but would like to get it working without
> the error message.
>                                     Thanks
>                                      Linda

I have MFC-7064DN and never had any problems with it. Yours looks quite 
similar.

What drivers did you use? Did you get drivers for your MFC from Brother 
web site? Did you follow Brother installation instructions to the letter?

If you did, you should run the following command in terminal after you 
installed the scanner driver:

brsaneconfigX -a name=[scanner_name (choose some)] model=MFC6490CW ip=
[give_its_ip_addres_here]

I had to use brsaneconfig4, you mentioned brsaneconfig3. You know better 
what is suitable for your scanner.