Setting up USB scanner

[gcrimp@vcn.bc.ca]

Hi,

I'm trying to wade through the process of getting USB working so I can use a
hand me down Epson 1250 Photo USB scanner on woody system, with kernel 2.4.18
that I've configured and compiled myself.

I've been to backports.org for the latest versions of libusb, sane-utils,
and assorted dependences.

I can get sane-find-scanner to find the beast (vendorID 04b8, productID 010f
at /dev/usb/scanner0, or libusb:001:002) but can't get any of xsane,
xscanimage, scanimage, or the gimp (using xsane) to find the scanner.

If I try

	$ xsane

by itself, an info box pops up telling me "scanning for devices".  After a
couple of minutes I get "xsane: no device available"

If I try 

	$ xsane plustek:/dev/usb/scanner0

the error "Failed to open device `plustek:/dev/usb/scanner0': Error during
device I/O" is eventually returned.

Even though this is an Epson scanner, I have been using
/etc/sane.d/plustek.conf to try and configure it.  A couple of web sources
have pointed out that this particular model of Epson requires the plustek
backend to sane, rather than the epson one.  

Any pointers on what I am doing wrong, or thoughts on what I should 
try next ?  

Thanks,

Ger