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Write a Linux driver for an unsupported scanner by letting Claude watch the Windows driver

A GNOME developer wanted to scan his late mother's film negatives on a Plustek scanner that Linux no longer supported. He had Claude Code set up a Windows virtual machine with the scanner passed through, capture the USB traffic of the vendor driver, and compare it with Linux until scans worked. He then had Claude turn the scripts into a reusable hardware reverse-engineering harness.

$17/moA few daysAdvancedSource linked

Source

ErenayDev on Hacker News · 2026-10-15 · Project link

Written in our own words. Credit to the original author. Link checked 2026-10-18.

What they did

A GNOME developer wanted to scan his late mother's film negatives on a Plustek scanner that Linux no longer supported. He had Claude Code set up a Windows virtual machine with the scanner passed through, capture the USB traffic of the vendor driver, and compare it with Linux until scans worked. He then had Claude turn the scripts into a reusable hardware reverse-engineering harness.

Result (as claimed)

First working scan under Linux within a few hours, plus a negative-scanning app and an open hw-harness for others; 253 points on HN.

Tools they used

Claude CodeWindowsLinux

Cost: Claude Code: from $17/mo.

Set it up

  1. Pick a contained repo or task

    Start on a branch or side project where mistakes are cheap.

  2. Install and configure

    Set up Claude Code, Windows, Linux. Read what it can run on your machine and limit permissions where possible.

  3. Run it on a real task

    Give it a well-scoped issue and let it work. Review the diff like any pull request.

  4. Add guardrails

    Keep tests and CI in the loop, and never let an agent push to main or touch production secrets unattended.

Copy the full setup prompt

Paste into your agent and it will walk you through the setup, asking before anything that sends, posts or spends.

You are helping me set up this AI use case end to end in Claude Code.

Goal: Write a Linux driver for an unsupported scanner by letting Claude watch the Windows driver
What the original author did: A GNOME developer wanted to scan his late mother's film negatives on a Plustek scanner that Linux no longer supported. He had Claude Code set up a Windows virtual machine with the scanner passed through, capture the USB traffic of the vendor driver, and compare it with Linux until scans worked. He then had Claude turn the scripts into a reusable hardware reverse-engineering harness.
Reported result (as claimed by the author): First working scan under Linux within a few hours, plus a negative-scanning app and an open hw-harness for others; 253 points on HN.
Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50104299
Tools they used: Claude Code, Windows, Linux
Category: Dev & ops

Please:
1. Ask me 3 short questions about my situation (accounts I have, budget, what I want the output to look like).
2. Propose a step-by-step plan using these tools or cheaper alternatives, with the time and cost of each step. Use official pricing pages; say "check pricing" if unsure.
3. Then do the setup with me one step at a time, waiting for my OK before anything that sends messages, posts publicly, spends money or deletes data.
4. Finish with a checklist to run it again next time.

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Guides for this use case

How to vibe code an app with Claude Code

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