Dear members,
have got the driver on suze but dont know how to install it (does rpm work?)- Yast2 wont do it (parrallel) and Mandrivera seems to be missing ScannerDrake, for old equipment. Hope you can read these hyroglithics. Any ideas, espepcialy on the command line as am not very good on that.
many thanks, Roy

The first step is to make sure your parallel port is activated in your BIOS and that your kernel supports parallel port. Kernel parport support is covered in the link below.
Having established that, you need need the correct SANE backend for your scanner (you don't state make and model). You don't need ScannerDrake to get an old scanner working (they don't come much older than my Epson flatbed). Read this link for detailed info:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Scanner-HOWTO/interfaces.html

Do let us know how that goes. I also have an OLD parallel scanner (Mustek Flatbed 600 III EP Plus) and I got it working just minty and with relatively little difficulty. I was most impressed, because the silly thing doesn't work under Winblows at all.

Look for my post (Search posts by me with keyword 'Mustek') for info on how I did it.
Also, if you've no luck, do post us more info such as make/model of the scanner.

Kernel support (modules or built-in) should include 'parport_serial', 'serio' and another one I can't remember because I finally built them in. But check that you have enabled the options you need in the kernel.