I am running the Xubuntu flavor of Dapper. Originally when I installed it, xsane had no problem identifying and connecting to my Epson Perfection 1650 scanner.

Now, all of a sudden, it won't work. When the program starts, it says it is scanning for devices, where previously it would come up with two scanner ID's (apparently some older Epson Scanner, and one for my 1650) and allow me to choose one, now the program just terminates.

I tried running it from a console to see if there is an error code generated. Nothing.

I ran the sane-find-scanner utility and it sees the scanner, but xsane does not.

I uninstalled any files having to do with xsane and compiled the latest version from source. Same thing.

Any ideas?

I am wondering if the various hoops I had to jump through to get my wacom tablet to work with pressure sensitivity somehow scrambled things.

Based on what I just went thru/learned while getting my scanner to work today, I'll suggest something, but with no guarantees.
Check the file /etc/sane.d/<drivername.conf> where <drivername> might be 'ep' 'or 'epson' in your case. Make sure the line(s) identifying your scanner, port, driver are/is correct.
If there is a specific port named there, it may help to change the post to * (an asterisk) so the scanner front-end will scan for it and locate it.
I'm using Slackware, but hopefully the filepaths for the SANE files are the same/very similar to mine.
Best of luck